Local plan scoping consultation

Solutions to the housing crisis are a huge priority for me. I share the concerns of the
many people, particularly young people, in Macclesfield and surrounding
communities, who feel that the area is unaffordable to them, and that buying a home
in the community they grew up in is an impossible dream.
Yet building those homes should not come at the expense of our wildlife and natural
habitats. In my view, we can build genuinely affordable homes at a sustained pace,
focused primarily on brownfield land and town-centre regeneration, while protecting
our countryside, and the character of the villages and towns that give our
communities their identity. I also believe we need a Local Plan that backs active
travel, low-carbon energy and biodiversity, so that new development strengthens
rather than erodes the places we live in.
I recognise and support the Government's ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes,
particularly where these are genuinely affordable and well-connected. Building more
homes is the only long-term solution to the housing crisis, and gives people the
chance to live in the community they call home. This must include decent homes for
social rent wherever possible. I take "genuinely affordable" housing to mean homes
affordable to residents on low and medium incomes, whether for rent or sale.
Cheshire East has a proud record of delivery and innovation in planning for housing
growth, with an adopted Local Plan in place and a refresh already underway. Our
communities want to play their part in meeting housing needs, and since 2021
Cheshire East has been producing an average of over 2,300 dwellings a year,
extremely close to the new target of 2,530 homes. This shows that Cheshire East is
likely to deliver very close to, if not at, the scale of building the Government is looking
for. Maintaining this pace is critical to the dream of home ownership, and
demonstrates that Cheshire East can meet its housing targets while supporting
affordable housing, protecting the environment and green belt, and following a
brownfield-first approach. These principles should underpin the new Local Plan, with
particular focus on encouraging affordable housing provision from developers.
Developers must be held to their obligations once permissions are granted, and
spurious viability arguments should not be used to reduce them.
The Council should also explore the potential for small-scale "pocket" housing
developments across our area, with priority access given to local first-time buyers,
helping people put down roots in the villages and towns where they grew up. This
must be done sensitively, with the buy in of local communities.
Brownfield sites and urban regeneration
From my conversations with residents, there is strong support for increasing town
centre living and urban regeneration. More people living in or near town centres
helps them thrive, and is more environmentally friendly, reducing pressure on
important sites of biodiversity and making use of existing structures, such as
redundant retail units, for homes. This should be a priority for the new Local Plan.
Town centres often have excellent transport links, local amenities and a social scene
that make them attractive for development and regeneration. Good links to public
transport also allow people to live a car-free lifestyle if they choose, reducing
environmental impact and the need for car parking, though parking provision should
always be carefully considered, particularly on terraced streets.
Macclesfield in particular has a high need for regeneration and in-fill on brownfield
land. Areas around the town centre (including underused car parks, former industrial
sites and empty retail units) offer excellent opportunities for housing. This also aligns
with the Government's intention to simplify planning near well-connected train
stations, and would help boost Macclesfield High Street.
While greater town-centre living should be encouraged, the Council should take a
strategic approach to diversifying town-centre uses, using its planning powers where
necessary to protect important community and leisure venues, such as pubs, cafés
and similar uses that contribute to a vibrant high street, so that residential conversion
does not gradually erode what makes town centres attractive.
Retail development should be directed to established town centres wherever suitable
sites exist, with out-of-centre development strongly discouraged. Proposals outside
town centres should first pass a robust sequential test demonstrating that no suitable
town-centre site is available, before well-connected edge-of-centre locations are
considered, including sites within roughly 300 metres of the primary shopping area.
Out-of-centre sites should only be permitted in exceptional circumstances, where the
sequential test is fully satisfied and the site has strong, convenient and sustainable
connections to the existing town centre.
The Local Plan should also recognise the damage that prolonged vacant retail units
do to the appearance, vitality and confidence of town centres. The Council should
support appropriate reuse of vacant premises where this maintains or enhances
town-centre vitality, while guarding against the loss of too much retail and active
frontage. A flexible approach to alternative uses should be encouraged, but the
Council should retain enough planning control to prevent the cumulative loss of
shops and other town-centre uses from undermining the character and viability of the
high street.
Cheshire East Council should adopt policies that maximise the use of town centres
and brownfield sites before consideration is given to green belt land. The Council
should maintain an accurate and comprehensive Brownfield Sites Register to
support a brownfield-first approach, and it is encouraging that the current site
submissions process already includes a number of brownfield sites for consideration.
Protection of the environment
Cheshire East has excellent wildlife, biodiversity, green spaces and natural habitats.
Danes Moss in particular must be protected, with extremely careful consideration
given to any development proposed nearby to ensure diligent nature protection.
Environmental protection needs to be built into every part of the Local Plan, from
both a climate adaptation and resilience perspective and a net-zero perspective.
Peatland, irreplaceable habitats and important wildlife sites should remain outside
the scope of development wherever possible, and a strong Local Nature Recovery
Strategy should sit at the heart of the Local Plan.
The Local Plan should also reinforce national policy on the green belt. Under the
current National Planning Policy Framework, the green belt exists to:
a.
b.
Check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas; and
Prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another.
Areas including Poynton, Adlington and Macclesfield rely on the green belt to
prevent an unbroken urban corridor forming between Macclesfield and Manchester.
This green belt is essential and must be protected within the Local Plan. Where
development is proposed on the green belt, it must not threaten the separation of
any of the villages or towns that remain distinct parts of Cheshire East. I am
particularly concerned that the green space alongside the A555 to Poynton's north,
and the A523 to Poynton's west, already barely separates Poynton from Stockport.
Poynton has already lost green belt land under the Cheshire East Council 2010
2030 Local Plan, around Chester Road, Hazelbadge Road, Woodford Aerodrome
and the Adlington Business Park Extension; it should not lose more. The previous
justification for release at Chester Road and Hazelbadge Road stated that "boundary
treatments should be reinforced so as to ensure a strong long-term perimeter to the
Green Belt." Any further erosion of the Green Belt adjacent to these sites would
fundamentally undermine public trust that further removal will not follow in
subsequent local plans.
The Local Plan should also learn the lessons of the significant planning disputes at
Danes Moss and Adlington; it would be a serious mistake to reopen old wounds.
Small, suitable developments in the surrounding area may be appropriate, subject to
proper consultation, site survey and mitigation, but I am already concerned that there
are fourteen site submissions around Adlington, some of which would effectively
merge Adlington and Poynton into one continuous urban corridor.
Active travel
The new Local Plan should give greater priority to walking and cycling, and support
delivery of the Council's Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs).
Our communities carry a historic planning legacy that has often prioritised car access
and movement, resulting in fragmented walking and cycling networks. New
development should instead provide safe, direct and accessible connections to
existing routes, town centres, schools, employment areas and public transport,
contributing to off-site improvements where necessary to complete the wider
network. The Plan should also support better walking and cycling connectivity
between Cheshire East communities and neighbouring areas, including Greater
Manchester and the Peak District, and protect opportunities for future strategic
routes.
Climate, green energy and biodiversity
The new Local Plan should support the transition to low-carbon energy by requiring
new developments to maximise energy efficiency and opportunities for renewable
generation, particularly rooftop solar on homes, commercial buildings and car parks.
The Plan should also support heat pumps, battery storage and community energy
schemes, while ensuring larger renewable projects are appropriately located and
take account of landscape, biodiversity and local amenity. Priority should be given to
making better use of existing and previously developed land for renewable
generation, before valuable agricultural or undeveloped land is considered.
The Plan should also strengthen biodiversity requirements for new development,
including integrated swift bricks or other bird-nesting features in suitable buildings,
alongside native planting, hedgerows, trees and wildlife-friendly landscaping. These
measures should be built into the design of developments from the outset, rather
than treated as optional additions.
Infrastructure
Housing growth must be matched with the infrastructure needed to support it,
including roads, public transport, schools, health care, drainage, parks, leisure,
walking and cycling and community facilities. There should be detailed plans for
funding and delivery of this infrastructure against reasonable time frames to prevent
years of delay to promised infrastructure.
Ideally, primary health care (GPs), hospitals, education and community services and
facilities will be provided concurrently with the provision of new housing
developments. In large developments, provision of quality public open space,
sporting and leisure facilities, as well as a range of retail outlets to serve residents
needs within walking distance, together with sustainable and affordable public
transport, linking into the wider network is vital. Drainage and flood protection must
reflect the current and expected future environmental experience.
Thank you for taking my views into consideration, and I look forward to seeing the
results of the next stage of the Local Plan, and adding my thoughts then. I thank you
in advance for your diligent consideration of all comments made by residents, local
organisations and other stakeholders.

Solutions to the housing crisis are a huge priority for me. I share the concerns of the
many people, particularly young people, in Macclesfield and surrounding
communities, who feel that the area is unaffordable to them, and that buying a home
in the community they grew up in is an impossible dream.
Yet building those homes should not come at the expense of our wildlife and natural
habitats. In my view, we can build genuinely affordable homes at a sustained pace,
focused primarily on brownfield land and town-centre regeneration, while protecting
our countryside, and the character of the villages and towns that give our
communities their identity. I also believe we need a Local Plan that backs active
travel, low-carbon energy and biodiversity, so that new development strengthens
rather than erodes the places we live in.
I recognise and support the Government's ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes,
particularly where these are genuinely affordable and well-connected. Building more
homes is the only long-term solution to the housing crisis, and gives people the
chance to live in the community they call home. This must include decent homes for
social rent wherever possible. I take "genuinely affordable" housing to mean homes
affordable to residents on low and medium incomes, whether for rent or sale.
Cheshire East has a proud record of delivery and innovation in planning for housing
growth, with an adopted Local Plan in place and a refresh already underway. Our
communities want to play their part in meeting housing needs, and since 2021
Cheshire East has been producing an average of over 2,300 dwellings a year,
extremely close to the new target of 2,530 homes. This shows that Cheshire East is
likely to deliver very close to, if not at, the scale of building the Government is looking
for. Maintaining this pace is critical to the dream of home ownership, and
demonstrates that Cheshire East can meet its housing targets while supporting
affordable housing, protecting the environment and green belt, and following a
brownfield-first approach. These principles should underpin the new Local Plan, with
particular focus on encouraging affordable housing provision from developers.
Developers must be held to their obligations once permissions are granted, and
spurious viability arguments should not be used to reduce them.
The Council should also explore the potential for small-scale "pocket" housing
developments across our area, with priority access given to local first-time buyers,
helping people put down roots in the villages and towns where they grew up. This
must be done sensitively, with the buy in of local communities.
Brownfield sites and urban regeneration
From my conversations with residents, there is strong support for increasing town
centre living and urban regeneration. More people living in or near town centres
helps them thrive, and is more environmentally friendly, reducing pressure on
important sites of biodiversity and making use of existing structures, such as
redundant retail units, for homes. This should be a priority for the new Local Plan.
Town centres often have excellent transport links, local amenities and a social scene
that make them attractive for development and regeneration. Good links to public
transport also allow people to live a car-free lifestyle if they choose, reducing
environmental impact and the need for car parking, though parking provision should
always be carefully considered, particularly on terraced streets.
Macclesfield in particular has a high need for regeneration and in-fill on brownfield
land. Areas around the town centre (including underused car parks, former industrial
sites and empty retail units) offer excellent opportunities for housing. This also aligns
with the Government's intention to simplify planning near well-connected train
stations, and would help boost Macclesfield High Street.
While greater town-centre living should be encouraged, the Council should take a
strategic approach to diversifying town-centre uses, using its planning powers where
necessary to protect important community and leisure venues, such as pubs, cafés
and similar uses that contribute to a vibrant high street, so that residential conversion
does not gradually erode what makes town centres attractive.
Retail development should be directed to established town centres wherever suitable
sites exist, with out-of-centre development strongly discouraged. Proposals outside
town centres should first pass a robust sequential test demonstrating that no suitable
town-centre site is available, before well-connected edge-of-centre locations are
considered, including sites within roughly 300 metres of the primary shopping area.
Out-of-centre sites should only be permitted in exceptional circumstances, where the
sequential test is fully satisfied and the site has strong, convenient and sustainable
connections to the existing town centre.
The Local Plan should also recognise the damage that prolonged vacant retail units
do to the appearance, vitality and confidence of town centres. The Council should
support appropriate reuse of vacant premises where this maintains or enhances
town-centre vitality, while guarding against the loss of too much retail and active
frontage. A flexible approach to alternative uses should be encouraged, but the
Council should retain enough planning control to prevent the cumulative loss of
shops and other town-centre uses from undermining the character and viability of the
high street.
Cheshire East Council should adopt policies that maximise the use of town centres
and brownfield sites before consideration is given to green belt land. The Council
should maintain an accurate and comprehensive Brownfield Sites Register to
support a brownfield-first approach, and it is encouraging that the current site
submissions process already includes a number of brownfield sites for consideration.
Protection of the environment
Cheshire East has excellent wildlife, biodiversity, green spaces and natural habitats.
Danes Moss in particular must be protected, with extremely careful consideration
given to any development proposed nearby to ensure diligent nature protection.
Environmental protection needs to be built into every part of the Local Plan, from
both a climate adaptation and resilience perspective and a net-zero perspective.
Peatland, irreplaceable habitats and important wildlife sites should remain outside
the scope of development wherever possible, and a strong Local Nature Recovery
Strategy should sit at the heart of the Local Plan.
The Local Plan should also reinforce national policy on the green belt. Under the
current National Planning Policy Framework, the green belt exists to:
a.
b.
Check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas; and
Prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another.
Areas including Poynton, Adlington and Macclesfield rely on the green belt to
prevent an unbroken urban corridor forming between Macclesfield and Manchester.
This green belt is essential and must be protected within the Local Plan. Where
development is proposed on the green belt, it must not threaten the separation of
any of the villages or towns that remain distinct parts of Cheshire East. I am
particularly concerned that the green space alongside the A555 to Poynton's north,
and the A523 to Poynton's west, already barely separates Poynton from Stockport.
Poynton has already lost green belt land under the Cheshire East Council 2010
2030 Local Plan, around Chester Road, Hazelbadge Road, Woodford Aerodrome
and the Adlington Business Park Extension; it should not lose more. The previous
justification for release at Chester Road and Hazelbadge Road stated that "boundary
treatments should be reinforced so as to ensure a strong long-term perimeter to the
Green Belt." Any further erosion of the Green Belt adjacent to these sites would
fundamentally undermine public trust that further removal will not follow in
subsequent local plans.
The Local Plan should also learn the lessons of the significant planning disputes at
Danes Moss and Adlington; it would be a serious mistake to reopen old wounds.
Small, suitable developments in the surrounding area may be appropriate, subject to
proper consultation, site survey and mitigation, but I am already concerned that there
are fourteen site submissions around Adlington, some of which would effectively
merge Adlington and Poynton into one continuous urban corridor.
Active travel
The new Local Plan should give greater priority to walking and cycling, and support
delivery of the Council's Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs).
Our communities carry a historic planning legacy that has often prioritised car access
and movement, resulting in fragmented walking and cycling networks. New
development should instead provide safe, direct and accessible connections to
existing routes, town centres, schools, employment areas and public transport,
contributing to off-site improvements where necessary to complete the wider
network. The Plan should also support better walking and cycling connectivity
between Cheshire East communities and neighbouring areas, including Greater
Manchester and the Peak District, and protect opportunities for future strategic
routes.
Climate, green energy and biodiversity
The new Local Plan should support the transition to low-carbon energy by requiring
new developments to maximise energy efficiency and opportunities for renewable
generation, particularly rooftop solar on homes, commercial buildings and car parks.
The Plan should also support heat pumps, battery storage and community energy
schemes, while ensuring larger renewable projects are appropriately located and
take account of landscape, biodiversity and local amenity. Priority should be given to
making better use of existing and previously developed land for renewable
generation, before valuable agricultural or undeveloped land is considered.
The Plan should also strengthen biodiversity requirements for new development,
including integrated swift bricks or other bird-nesting features in suitable buildings,
alongside native planting, hedgerows, trees and wildlife-friendly landscaping. These
measures should be built into the design of developments from the outset, rather
than treated as optional additions.
Infrastructure
Housing growth must be matched with the infrastructure needed to support it,
including roads, public transport, schools, health care, drainage, parks, leisure,
walking and cycling and community facilities. There should be detailed plans for
funding and delivery of this infrastructure against reasonable time frames to prevent
years of delay to promised infrastructure.
Ideally, primary health care (GPs), hospitals, education and community services and
facilities will be provided concurrently with the provision of new housing
developments. In large developments, provision of quality public open space,
sporting and leisure facilities, as well as a range of retail outlets to serve residents
needs within walking distance, together with sustainable and affordable public
transport, linking into the wider network is vital. Drainage and flood protection must
reflect the current and expected future environmental experience.
Thank you for taking my views into consideration, and I look forward to seeing the
results of the next stage of the Local Plan, and adding my thoughts then. I thank you
in advance for your diligent consideration of all comments made by residents, local
organisations and other stakeholders.