Three years after consultation began on their Local Plan, Cheshire East Council has published their Local Plan Strategy document today - which will be the blueprint for development in Cheshire East to the year 2030.
Cheshire East has received over 36,000 responses from members of the public about their draft proposals and over the last three years they have evaluated over 100 strategic sites to take into consideration sustainability, including access to public services, open spaces and transport, impact on heritage and health.
Contained in this document is the final list of 37 proposed sites and nine strategic locations that the Council wants to adopt.
The strategic sites located in Wilmslow included in the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy -Submission Version are:
• Land to the north of Adlington Road where 200 new dwellings could be built. 135 homes expected during the early part of the plan period (2015-2020) and 65 homes expected during the middle part of the plan period (2020-2025).
• The Royal London site, which is situated in the Cheshire Green Belt has been identified for mixed use development, delivering 75 dwellings, 17,000 - 24,000 square metres of B1 employment space and a hotel.
• Green Belt land between the West Coast Main Line and the A34 Wilmslow bypass has been identified for a new Wilmslow Business Park, which will provide around 25,000 square meters of employment space.
In addition a new village called The North Cheshire Growth Village on the eastern edge of Handforth. The site, which is located within the Green belt on land off the A34 Wilmslow-Handforth Bypass will provide 1,650 new homes and 12 hectares of employment land. The site would also deliver medical facilities to include a doctor's surgery and pharmacy, public house or restaurant, sports and leisure facilities, community centre, children's day nursery, hotel and new schools.
Safeguarded land, that may be required to meet longer-term development needs stretching well beyond the period of the Local Plan, includes 19.8 hectares of land adjacent to the North Cheshire Growth Village in Handforth East, 14.5 hectares off Prestbury Road and 7.4 hectares west of Upcast Lane, which would also require an adjustment to the Green Belt boundary.
Previous documents proposed to remove land to the west of Royal London from the Green Belt and designate it as safeguarded land, that may be required to serve development needs in the longer term, however this has now been marked as protected open space.
Cllr Michael Jones said "What you have not got is sites all over Wilmslow. Only because Handforth East is delivering, the actual target for Wilmslow would be, we think, certainly over 1,500 houses and for Handforth you could argue up to another 800."
Councillor David Brown, Strategic Communities Portfolio Holder and Deputy Leader of the Council, said "The Local Plan is a keystone for the future of the area and supports our number one priority – Jobs Led Growth. The plan has been developed to support the generation of jobs focused around the M6 corridor, for which we have received £800 million of central Government funding, but also ensures that the beauty and character of Cheshire East is retained.
"This plan is about developing Cheshire East to maintain its reputation as the best place to live in the north west, whilst providing for our younger generation so they can live and work in the area they were born. It is about the future, job availability, excellent educational standards and a great quality of life. This plan, coupled with our five year housing supply, is also about protecting the residents of Cheshire East against unwanted, unsustainable and unplanned development."
Cllr Brown added "In arriving at these sites we have considered comments from the residents of Cheshire East, from Town & Parish Councils and from developers. Added to this our plan has also been reviewed by central Government inspectors to ensure that it is robust and meets all statutory guidelines.
"I believe it must be one of the most comprehensive and consulted Local Plans to have been produced in England. I would like to thank everybody who has contributed to this process and would especially like to thank the large number of people who have responded in support of our plans. Some people will be pleased with the result and others will be unhappy, this plan has taken all views into consideration and I believe meets the requirements of Cheshire East residents both now and through to 2030.
"This document is a key milestone in the process and any further representations/comments will be collated and forwarded to the Government Planning Inspector for his consideration."
The Strategic Planning Board will comment on the document when they meet on Wednesday, 26th February, Full Council will then take a vote and once published the Council will formal representations. These comments will then be submitted along with the Core Strategy to the Secretary of State who will ask that the document is examined by the Planning Inspectorate.
Finally I asked Michael Jones about the likelihood of any changes being made to the document being it is submitted to the Secretary of State.
He replied "I am not in charge of the Local Plan, that is Councillor Brown's job, but there has been such a level of communication and consultation and such depth of learning already - both from developers and residents - that I find it very difficult to believe that anything could come up that ought to be changed but anything that needs to be changed needs to go through a sustainability review and that would inevitably delay the plan and that would be for me difficult but can't say no as that would be very wrong."
Following on from the submission of the Local Plan to the inspectorate the Council's next task is to make site allocations for the small towns and villages, including Alderley Edge.
Cllr David Brown added "This will take the form of consultation with local Town & Parish Councils and voluntary organisations to ensure that we meet employment and housing requirements to meet local needs."
Alderley Edge is a local service centre, of which there are 14 in Cheshire East.
A total of 2500 new dwellings have been allocated to these, 151 of which are already completed and 983 committed so the Council has to find another 1366. If we divide by 14 that would mean roughly 100 new dwellings for each place but some, like Holmes Chapel, have bigger developments so
"Cllr Michael Jones expects the number required for Alderley Edge will end up between 50 and 80."
This will be covered in the site allocations process which will start immediately after the core strategy has been finalised.
I also asked for clarification on the Council's position regarding other sites which are not included in the Core Strategy, such as land between the Alderley Edge bypass and Wilmslow Road (opposite Horseshoe Farm & Ryleys Playing Field) which was included in the SHLAA as a site for 103 dwellings; Green Belt land to the north of Beech Road which was included in the 'Possible Additional Sites' consultation in May 2013 for the development of 200 to 250 dwellings and land at Ryleys Farm which is included in the SHLAA as a potential site for 1,460 homes.
He told me "We do not support that. The whole point of having a local plan that is strategic and logical is not to have pepper potting. We do not need greater numbers as we have already got the largest numbers of any of the authorities surrounding us, not Manchester Metropolitan obviously but of our size. We will defend our local service centres and listen to our parish councils."
Click here to view the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy documents.
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