Lord Jim O’Neill, vice-chairman of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, has called on Government to conclude a devolution deal for Cheshire and Warrington this year, a move welcomed by local business leaders.
Cheshire East Council has approved a new housing strategy that sets out a requirement of 355 affordable homes each year until 2023.
The Northern Powerhouse Partnership has called on Government to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail by 2032/33, providing high-speed links between regional cities at the same time as HS2 reaches the north.
A High Court judge has dismissed a legal challenge to Cheshire East's Local Plan by Muller Strategic Projects, which was arguing that irregularities with the council's air quality data affected the selection of sites and distribution of development in the plan.
Warrington Council’s executive board will next week be asked to give the go-ahead to Omega Local Highways Phase 3, a series of improvements to the road network around the Omega site, now firmly established as a logistics hotspot and moving into a phase of residential development.
Chancellor Philip Hammond and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid have confirmed the first round of allocations from the £5bn Housing Infrastructure Fund, backing 18 projects across the region with awards of between £300,000 and £12m.
Bill Norman, the local authority’s director of legal services and its monitoring officer, had been one of three senior officials suspended from duty over the course of this year.
A third senior member of staff has been suspended by Cheshire East Council, with chief operating officer Peter Bates the latest employee to be removed from duty.
Arriva bus drivers have voted to reject the latest pay offer in their stand-off with the transport operator, making it more likely the nine strike days announced for December, plus Monday 27 November, will go ahead.
“If we are truly to build an economy that is fit for the future, then we have to get all parts of the UK firing on all cylinders,” Hammond said, allocating £377m from a £1.7bn pot aimed at supporting intra-city transport objectives, which local developers have criticised as "a drop in the ocean".
