A council boss has explained why a final report on the £300m Northgate Development will no longer go before elected members prior to the planning application being submitted.

Last month Labour backbencher Cllr Marie Nelson, Tory Lord Mayor of Chester Cllr Hugo Deynem and Andrew Needham, chairman of the Cheshire Campaign to Protect Rural England, raised concerns the long-awaited regeneration scheme was being ‘rushed’ at the final hour.

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This was because strategic director Charlie Seward had been given the green light to lodge the planning application and strike deals with potential tenants before the public consultation had even ended.

It also emerged members of Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) had voted that a ‘further report will be presented to full council in advance of the submission of a hybrid planning application for the finalised scheme’ – but this will no longer happen.

And The Chronicle understands there are growing concerns among some members of the Chester Civic Trust that proposed buildings alongside the ring road look like ‘a sheer wall of development’ with the tone set by a six storey student accommodation scheme in Hunter Street rejected by elected members but supported by the planning department.

There are some concerns in Chester Civic Trust that the interface between the Northgate Development and the St Martin's Way ring road creates 'a sheer wall of development'.

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CWaC strategic director Charlie Seward confirmed that a further Northgate report won’t now go to a full meeting of councillors before he submits the scheme – expected to happen on April 26. He regards such a report as unnecessary because an anticipated need for extra council funds had not materialised.

The Chronicle has asked the council where this caveat appears as it is not in the minutes of the original decision taken last September.

CWaC strategic director Charlie Seward

He said in a statement: “The report to the March cabinet meeting clearly and fully states the reason why there is no longer a requirement for a report to be presented to full council prior to planning submission.

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“In line with the council’s commitment to openness and transparency, this information can be found in section 4.2 of the public report that has been available on the council website since early March.

“It explains that the requirement for a report to go to full council was based on the expectation that an additional financial commitment would be required prior to planning submission.

“Changes to the Northgate programme mean that no additional financial commitment is now required until September 2016 at the earliest. This is the stage when a report will go to full council.”

Blacon Labour councillor Marie Nelson

Labour councillor Cllr Nelson, who is appalled at the quality of some of the developments given planning permission in Chester over the past few years, told The Chronicle previously: “We have waited for this for so long, why don’t we get it right?”

She feels if there are valid reasons for ‘rushing’ then there needed to be openness about what those reasons are and fears pushing projects through too quickly could be counter-productive and actually lead to slower progress.

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“You create problems for yourself. You don’t want to alienate people before you’ve even started and that’s what’s happening and I find that bizarre,” she added. “It could be officers doing whatever they want to do and political inexperience, but I don’t know what’s gone on behind-the-scenes."