The Green Belt should not be touched
That’s the message from the draft local plan which has been unveiled for the Cheshire West area.
And the over-riding theme of the proposed blueprint is that the North Cheshire Green Belt should remain untouched.
This could be bad news for the controversial student village development, which is planned for green belt land in Mollington although the plan will not have been formally adopted before that scheme goes before the strategic planning committee on August 15.
The only exception to this is a suggestion that 65 hectares of green belt land off Wrexham Road should go for housing.
Details of the proposed plan
The draft Local Plan (dLP) – which went before Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Local Development Framework Panel on Monday – envisages that 1,300 new homes – providing a range of types, including one-third affordable housing – together with community infrastructure, including a school – should be built on the site bordering the Park and Ride site.
However, the proposal involves just 0.17% of the total green belt land in the borough. The remainder throughout Cheshire West and Chester would retain its present protected status.
The report from Jeremy Owens, strategic manager, spatial planning, maintains that the Wrexham Road proposal represents 'a logical extension to the city with good access to public transport and major employment areas’.
“It meets the need for housing that could not come forward on previously developed land.”
Borough-wide the draft Local Plan advocates that 1,100 homes should be built each year to 2030 – a 15% drop on the target set by the Regional Spatial Strategy – and an additional 75 hectares of land set aside for employment development.
The draft plan proposes to allocate 300 hectares of land for employment purposes and envisages that there will be 14,000 more jobs in the borough by 2030.
It is suggested that 5,200 new homes should be created in Chester over the plan period; 4,800 in Ellesmere Port; 4,300 in Northwich; 3,500 in Winsford and 4,200 in rural areas.
The focus for new development in the rural area over the next 17 years will be within or directly adjoining the ten key services centres of Cuddington and Sandiway, Farndon, Kelsall, Malpas, Neston, (including Parkgate) and Tarvin, all 200 additional homes, Frodsham and Tattenhall, 250, and Helsby and Tarporley 300.
“These levels reflect the role and functions of the settlement as well as the constraints and should be treated as a maximum figure unless additional development is brought forward through a neighbourhood plan,” said Mr Owens.
And he stressed: “Development should be appropriate in scale and design to conserve each settlement’s character and setting.”
In the rural area ten hectares of additional land will be set aside for business and industrial development to enable small scale expansion of existing sites and creation of new sites on the edge of key service centres outside Green Belt locations.
The purpose of the Local Plan is to provide the overall vision, spatial strategy and strategic objectives and planning policies to guide the borough’s development up to the year 2030.
CWaC’s first development document, it covers crucial issues ranging from housing, employment , environment and the Green Belt to the economy, transport, heritage , landscape and health and wellbeing.
Cllr Margaret Parker, chairman of the LDF Panel, said: “When finally approved the plan will be the most important piece of planning guidance this authority will possess.
“There will be a legal requirement for decisions to be made in accordance with the Local Plan, except when there are very special reasons to overrule its policy requirements.”
The panel’s recommendations will be considered by the August meeting of the Executive after which there will be an eight week period for public comments before the final proposals, together with public comments, are sent to an independent planning inspector for consideration.
