UKIP councillors divulge escalating cost of criticised Local Plan

Two UKIP Cheshire East councillors have divulged the authority has so far spent £3.7m on its future development strategy, known as a local plan, which has been heavily criticised by a planning inspector.

Under the plan Cheshire East aims to deliver 27,000 homes and 20,000 extra jobs by 2030. Some 42 sites have been earmarked for some form of development.

But in an interim report issued earlier this month, the inspector said: “There is a serious mismatch between the economic strategy and the housing strategy of the submitted plan”. An alternative estimate is that the district requires 40,000 homes. The report added that there were shortcomings in the council’s objective assessment of housing needs.

Cllr Brian Silvester and his colleague Cllr Andy Barratt have received details of council spending on the plan in each year from 2010. The most expensive year was 2-13-14 when the authority spent £1m developing the proposals.

Mr Silvester said: “The local plan was supported by Conservative and Labour councillors when it was adopted by the council. It has taken over five years to have a plan but now it has been comprehensively rubbished by the planning inspector. It is not a rewrite that is required, it will virtually mean starting again. This is incompetence on a massive scale and all those councillors who supported the local plan should be thrown out next May to allow for a fresh start. Local residents will be appalled that CEC has spent five years and £3.7m of council taxpayers money on a local plan that is totally inadequate and left our precious green open spaces to the mercy of the developers.”

Yesterday the council said Cllr David Brown, the deputy leader who has overseen the plan since 2010, has stepped down from this role. A new Task Force, led by Cllr Peter Raynes, has been set up to coordinate the work to address the inspector’s concerns.

Council Leader Michael Jones said: “Peter will be ably assisted by former cabinet member councillor Jamie Macrae, who has a fantastic background within planning and economic development. We will also continue to listen to residents and involve external partners. It is important for everybody to be reassured we have listened and will continue to listen to people to make sure we get the local plan right as soon as possible.”