Have a say in protecting your environment

Two new planning guides have been published by Cheshire East Council.

The guides give residents and developers an opportunity to voice their views on how best to protect the environment and explain how the council secures funding for infrastructure projects – from new schools to green spaces, delivering key infrastructure is an essential part of the council’s responsibilities to residents.

To ensure schemes do not have a harmful impact on communities, planning permission for major developments often requires a developer to make payments towards a range of additional services.These can include a new school, highways infrastructure or health centre, depending on the scale of the development. 

The council’s Local Plan sets out how developers should do this and how the borough’s infrastructure should be paid for. Occasionally, the council will fund and build infrastructure first, for example a road scheme, to open up employment or housing sites, with the intention of recovering its investment from the developers who then build on these sites.

‘Recovery of Forward Funded Infrastructure Costs’ is a new supplementary planning document (SPD) explaining how the council seeks to recover its investment in new infrastructure projects. The guide sets out those schemes the council expects to recover costs from, the overall amount and how the developer’s contribution is calculated.

The council has also prepared an environmental protection SPD. This will assist council decision making, while providing guidance to developers. It sets out the type of information the council will require in a planning application, how it applies existing policies and the measures it expects to see to minimise any environmental impact, such as air quality, noise pollution, dust, smells and other pollution. 

The council seeks to minimise the potential impact of development on local communities and the environment, while recognising that the right infrastructure supports all our communities to thrive.

Councillor Mick Warren, Cheshire East Council chair of environment and communities, said: “While an SPD is not part of a statutory development plan, it is an important tool and these two documents set out how developers should expect to contribute to infrastructure that they rely on, and how they should manage and mitigate environmental issues related to their sites.

“This should help developers come up with better designs, make sure their costing is accurate and ensure the council receives the contributions it needs to make growth work for the borough.”

All comments should be received by the council by 29 November by accessing the council’s consultation portal.

Comments can also be posted to: Strategic Planning (Westfields), c/o Municipal Buildings, Earle Street, Crewe CW1 2BJ.