Cheshire East seeks views on development blueprint

Cheshire East Council has launched a consultation on the second part of its blueprint for development in the borough.

The authority’s Local Plan Strategy sets out the strategic framework for development and has been broadly backed by a planning inspector, subject to some necessary changes.

Now the council is seeking views on its ‘daughter document’ – the Site Allocations and Development Policies (SADP) – which provides much of the detail.

The new planning document will give the borough a much finer detail of planning guidance and will also allocate some smaller sites for development within town centres, the larger villages and rural areas.

Cllr Ainsley Arnold, Cheshire East cabinet member for housing and planning, said: “Now that the Local Plan Strategy is nearing completion we want to press on and complete the second, more detailed stage of the plan. This will provide our towns and villages with a greater depth of policies and proposals.

“At this point, it’s very much ‘early days’ in this particular process and so we are encouraging all who have an interest in development and who care about the future of our borough to get involved in the consultation.

“The Local Plan is the council’s most important tool for shaping development in Cheshire East to 2030, so I would encourage people to take the time to share their views.”

The Site Allocations and Development Policies’ ‘issues document’ is subject to a six-week consultation from Monday, February 21 until April 10 (2017). Following this, an initial draft plan will be prepared and further consultation will follow.

In the meantime, the document launch is accompanied by a ‘call for sites’ so the council can gain an up-to-date picture of what land is potentially available for future development.

Landowners and developers with suitable sites are being asked to put them forward during the consultation process.

This call for sites will replace previous versions – and particular encouragement is given to smaller sites at this stage of plan preparation.