Cheshire East triggers local plan prep phase
Along with setting in motion a document to guide development for a decade, the council’s cabinet will also be asked to sign off land agreements to enable work at Handforth Garden Village.
Cabinet approval is sought to publish CEC’s Gateway 1 self-assessment, and formally begin the 30-month local plan preparation process. Self-assessment is the first of three separate gateways to be passed before the plan is submitted to government.
As things stand, CEC hopes for the plan to be adopted from early 2029 as it puts together a document in line with the requirements set out by the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework.
Work to date includes:
- Establishing a project management approach, governance, and resources, including £450,000 of government grant funding.
- Procuring an enhanced digital planning engagement platform.
- Undertaking two call for sites exercises in 2024 and 2026, which returned 597 sites that have all been reviewed, digitally mapped and published in the interactive map.
- Procuring consultancy support for minerals and waste evidence throughout the process.
CEC said that a “very significant amount of evidence is either now being produced or is in procurement”.
Engagement has seen a public event held, along with a scoping consultation that has seen 4,700 representations received from around 1,000 participants as officers and advisors progress towards a plan that will, ultimately allocate sites for housing and employment land for a 10-year period from adoption.
Constant themes, according to the officer report for the cabinet, have been “the need to protect the Green Belt, countryside, agricultural land and biodiversity, particularly in relation to concerns about urban sprawl, settlement coalescence and the potential implications of Grey Belt policy changes”.
As to next steps, officers are now busy with plan preparation, with an immediate focus on detailed assessment of the 597 submitted sites, whilst moving toward “establishing a strategic vision, measurable outcomes and spatial options through further engagement with stakeholders”.
In a further agenda item, sign-off is sought for the appropriation of council-owned land for planning purposes, at the strategic housing growth area Handforth Garden Village.
Initial works started in August on infrastructure at the project, one of the original garden village developments announced by the Conservative government in January 2017. Planning permission was given in 2023.
CEC owns around 70% of the land at HGV. The land is held for agricultural and recreational use, and appropriating it for planning purposes will essentially give the council the freedom to override potential stumbling blocks to delivery of the garden village, which is inked in to add 1,500 homes to the council’s housing supply.
The council has already gone through this process once, in summer 2020, but given the passage of time has been advised to seek a fresh authority.
CEC’s cabinet meets on 8 April. Full papers can be viewed on the council website.
