CHESHIRE East's revised blueprint for development has come under fire from Alsager Town councillors at the council's strategic planning meeting.

The Site Allocations and Development Policies Document (SADPD) lays out the second phase of the authority's local plan for the borough, and includes much of the detail on where development is aimed for.

At today's (Friday) strategic planning board meeting, complaints from the public ranged from cutting the greenbelt to extra emissions created by new residents.

The SADPD does aim to reduce pollution — by requiring all new major residential development to provide for at least 10 percent of its energy needs from on-site renewable or low carbon energy generation — but visiting speakers said the extra emissions created by new residents would outweigh this benefit.

Alsager Town Cllr Derek Hough believed the proposals removed too many protections on public spaces: "We are convinced that high streets and town centres will survive to 2030 only if they adapt and become activity-based gathering spaces where retail is a smaller part of a wider range of uses.

"We believe that Cheshire East has not considered these more up-to-date comments."

Cllr Hough told the meeting that compared to the existing Alsager town centre map, which is based on the Congleton Borough, Cheshire East has removed the Wesley Place Church, United Reformed Church, both of which are meeting places as well as churches in the latest documents.

Alsager Fire Station, which also provides meeting space, has also been removed in the SADPD as has Milton Park.

advertisement

Alsager Town Council has commissioned a public realm project, which costs £30,000 and has been delayed. The town council has also put in a bid for a town centre manager.

Cllr Hough added: "We need the town centre to remain as it is for us to go forward as a growing town."

Alsager Town Cllr Sue Helliwell, who spoke at the meeting as a resident, said: "I am objecting to this document for the following reasons: Cheshire East Council is assuming that future windfall commitments will help to facilitate the overall indicative level of housing development.

"There is no guarantee that this will happen, we do not know the level of housing numbers due to the uncertainty of Covid-19 and Brexit.

"Taking land out near the green belt is not protecting the green belt, it is making it easier to build on the green belt.

"Previously in November 2018, Cheshire East could show that there was a 7.2-year housing supply and that placed the council comfortably above the five-year threshold."

Mrs Helliwell highlighted that a planning appeal had recently been overturned in Nantwich and in the planning inspector's decision it was stated that Cheshire East now had a 6.6-year housing supply.

The inspector deducted 301 dwellings from the supply of housing figures from the appeal as they were deemed not deliverable, which Mrs Helliwell believed showed that the green belt was not "safe" under the new proposals.

Alsager has had a 350-house outline planning application on White Moss Quarry revoked due to the reserved matters application not going before planning committee again after previous refusal.

However, White Moss Quarry is earmarked for development in Cheshire East's Local Plan and Mrs Helliwell queried where the windfall for that site in Alsager was going to go and hoped it would not be greenbelt land.

Mrs Helliwell wanted Cheshire East to provide "realistic figures" on how many houses Cheshire East counts as windfall and how many would be required in each town.

The meeting asked strategic planning board members to recommend the document's approval to Cheshire East's full cabinet meeting on Tuesday (6 October).