IMPORTANT - developing a new Local Plan for Cheshire West and Chester - this may sound like a 'dry' subject, but it is potentially significant for all the parishes and villages within the Saughall and Mollington Ward.
Cllr Simon Eardley is in the process of sending the following note to parish councils across the ward in order to raise awareness of the process CWaC are underway with to redraft the important development policy document, the 'Local Plan.'
"At its meeting on 11 June 2025, the CWaC Cabinet approved an eight-week public consultation of the Local Plan ‘Issues and Options’.
Local Plans are key documents that ensure development takes place using a planned approach across the borough, through allocating sites for different types of development, taking into account the needs of local people in terms of housing, employment and infrastructure.
The first formal stage in preparing a Local Plan is consultation on the ‘Issues and Options’, which notifies people of the intention to produce a new Local Plan and invites views on what it ought to contain, whether the right issues have been identified and which options are the best for addressing them.
The new plan will create a single local plan document that updates and replaces all policies in the current Local Plan (Part One) and Local Plan (Part Two) and will set out how much development is required in the borough.
The consultation sets out three spatial options for meeting future development needs, which based on a 15-year plan period, would be around 29,000 new homes and 150 hectares of employment land. The options are accompanied by a series of maps identifying potential areas for growth around settlements in the borough.
The options consider both accommodating development without Green Belt release and where Green Belt release should be considered as a reasonable alternative option. The consultation also seeks views on how policies in the existing Local Plan could be amended and updated to take them forward as part of the new Local Plan.
Comments can be made via the Council’s online consultation platform (and can also be submitted by email or by post). People will be able to comment on as many of the topics in the consultation Local Plan that they are interested in.
A number of face-to-face drop-in sessions and online virtual information events will be held during the consultation period, where officers will be available to answer questions and help people to respond to the consultation. Details can be found via the link to the consultation page.
The consultation began on Friday 4 July and will run until Friday 29 August via the Council’s website, which will allow consultees to submit their comments online, and also by email or by post. The Council will consider and analyse all responses received to inform the next stage of the plan in 2026.
Please consider engaging in this consultation by visiting: https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/localplan
Residents may be concerned to see potential growth areas identified on a map and assume these areas are coming forward imminently for future development through a planning application or will be allocated in new local plan. It will be important to help residents to understand that the identification of an area and its inclusion in the consultation document does NOT mean that the Council supports the area for allocation in the new Local Plan or will approve future development proposals through a planning application.
Decisions on the level and location of future development have not been made, and it is the responses received from this consultation that will inform discussions on future options for meeting development needs in line with national planning guidance."
