Local plan scoping consultation

Comment

Representation ID: 3673

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

Alsager Town Council (ATC) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Cheshire East Local Plan consultation on behalf of the wider community of the Town's residents. The Town Council designated a working group of Town Councillors to formulate and submit this response to the Local Plan Scoping Consultation.
The issues involved in the preparation of the Local Plan are complex and so we have tried to represent our community fairly and robustly.
As Chair of the group, I am submitting this response. I have also been a member of the Neighbourhood Plan update working group which has included community members.

Comment

Representation ID: 3679

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

The vision should be informed by the strategic priorities in making Cheshire east a good place to live and work.
As Alsager's Neighbourhood Plan (N3) indicates, the top strategic priority for our community is to ensure that infrastructure investment accompanies housing development. Additionally, the environment, ecology and biodiversity should not be treated as afterthoughts. There is now a body of clinical and scientific evidence that community health and wellbeing are profoundly integral to the provision of open and green spaces. Climate change, transport and pollution are now clearly also top priorities.

Comment

Representation ID: 3681

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

Alsager Town Council notes the Scoping Process involved.

Comment

Representation ID: 3685

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

Alsager Town Council concluded that the period allowed for the consultation has been unhelpful, given that late July and August is an established holiday period, especially for families with schoolchildren. This has made widespread community consultation difficult and even led to a local rushed community miscommunication that the Town Council has sought to rectify.

Comment

Representation ID: 3691

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

Alsager Town Council recognises the requirements of the NPPF (2026)and welcomes the reference to Neighbourhood Plans which ought to have significant influence in decision-making implementation. Policies on the matters listed are to be welcomed but policies that are never implemented in practice occupy shelves. For instance, Strategic Priority 2 of the current Local Plan 'providing the infrastructure required by the community' has clearly not kept pace with housing development in Alsager (Neighbourhood Plan,TTS6). That situation, if anything, has worsened since the Neighbourhood Plan was approved.

Comment

Representation ID: 3713

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

Alsager Town Council recognises the rationale for developing a new Local Plan. It is to be hoped that a new Local Plan will actually deliver the three objectives listed in 2.4 as the current Local Plan certainly has not. Consultation between the Town Council and the community does not suggest widespread confidence that development 'of the right kind' has been located in the right places.
This is not just a matter of opinion: we would cite, for instance the location of five empty warehouses on previous grassland designated as an employment site but now unoccupied for over three years.

Comment

Representation ID: 3724

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

ATC notes that there has been a call for sites to assess their viability in relation to the stated core objectives of the NPPF and the requirements for a new Local Plan. This response is informed by an evidence base of two commissioned independent reports (unfortunately not available today electronically). These are: CCA: 'Alsager Parish Council Housing Needs Report': CWT: 'Protecting and Enhancing Alsager's Natural Environment'.
ATC commends these reports to Cheshire East Council, alongside the Neighbourhood Plan, as relevant to any further process during the Local Plan preparations regarding the future development of the community and environment.

Comment

Representation ID: 3726

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

Alsager Town Council is fully aware of national policy and, specifically, of the requirements of the NPPF.

Comment

Representation ID: 3738

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

ATC cites the 'Housing Needs Analysis' that applied the standard method and concluded that the planning permissions pipeline for the community exceeds any target, including the new Standard Method, given subsequent approvals for both White Moss and Manor Farm.
The analysis also reveals a mismatch between supply and demand. To date, housing development has been largely driven by Developer profit-margins in the over-provision of four-bedroom executive homes, predominantly in the West Ward.
The 'presumption' in favour of development over the three 'interdependent objectives of sustainable development (NPPF) potentially would render the social and environmental CORE objectives meaningless in practice.

Comment

Representation ID: 3753

Received: 31/08/2026

Respondent: Alsager Town Council

Alsager Town Council acknowledges the changes to national policy. Gypsy and Traveller families have integrated successfully into our community, and this seems to have benefits for children.
Alsager generally is a welcoming and caring community with a higher than the CE average of residents over 65 (c.26%) many of whom provide a small army of volunteers to support others. The community would wish to pursue a policy of integration rather than segregation into sites.