Local plan scoping consultation

Dear Strategic Planning Team,

I am writing in response to the current consultation on the scope of the new Cheshire East Local Plan, closing 1st September 2026. I understand this stage is about what the new plan should cover, rather than comments on specific sites, and my comments below are directed at that.

I would ask that the new Local Plan build in clear, robust Green Belt policy content from the outset, rather than leaving Green Belt protection to be resolved only when individual sites are assessed later in the process:

- The plan should require that brownfield and non-Green Belt greenfield sites are fully considered and demonstrably exhausted before any Green Belt land is brought forward for development.
- The plan should require a landscape and visual impact assessment as a mandatory part of considering any Green Belt site, rather than treating Green Belt release as a like-for-like substitute for other land.
- The plan should explicitly reaffirm the recognised purposes of Green Belt policy - checking unrestricted sprawl, preventing settlements merging into one another, safeguarding the countryside from encroachment, preserving the setting and special character of historic towns, and assisting urban regeneration through the re-use of brownfield land - and require that any proposed release is tested against all five before being progressed.
- The plan should recognise that topographically elevated Green Belt land carries greater landscape sensitivity than flatter or less visible sites, since development on higher ground is more visible from the settlement below and has a disproportionate effect on the town's setting and openness. This should be set out as an explicit assessment criterion, not left to case-by-case judgement.
- The plan should require that any landscape assessment consider a site's contribution to the wider elevated landscape setting around the town, including its relationship to nearby protected or valued landscape areas, rather than assessing sites in isolation.

I raise this now because Cheshire East's 'call for sites' process has already identified Green Belt land close to my home (off Blakelow Road and Buxton Old Road, Macclesfield, roughly 1km from the boundary of Teggs Nose Country Park) as a potential option for future housing. I understand this carries no planning status at present, and I will comment on the merits of that specific site when the plan reaches the 'Plan, Content & Evidence' stage. My purpose here is to ensure the plan's policy framework is strong enough, before that stage, to properly protect elevated and visually prominent Green Belt land such as this.

I would also be grateful if the Council could confirm:

1. How comments made at this scope stage will be used or weighted when the plan moves to the 'Plan, Content & Evidence' stage.
2. That a site being submitted through the 'call for sites' process carries no presumption in favour of its eventual allocation.
3. When residents will have a further, specific opportunity to comment on individual sites, including this one.

I would be grateful for acknowledgement of this response and confirmation of the next steps in the process.

Yours faithfully,

Martin Stevens OBE