Nantwich residents can interrogate Cheshire East Council bosses on how robust they feel the new Local Plan is.
The Local Plan document sets out the council’s case for sustainable economic growth over the next 15 years.
It is the strategy the council wants to adopt and includes proposed new housing, highways and industrial development in and around Nantwich.
But it comes at a time when Cheshire East has come under fire from planning inspectors over its supposed five-year housing land supply.
This is one of the major reasons why Cheshire East has lost a number of planning appeals over the last 12 months.
The Local Plan Strategy and all associated documents, including comments received during the representation period, were submitted to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on May 20 for independent examination.
It will now be subject to an independent examination by the Planning Inspectorate at Macclesfield Town Hall in September.
More than 40,000 responses from residents and organisations were collated, assessed and fed-in to the ‘submission version’ of the Local Plan.
It has undergone nine rounds of public consultation since 2010.
The final six-week consultation, when even more comments were received over March and April this year, attracted 3,458 responses alone from 657 individuals and organisations.
Cllr David Brown, Deputy Leader of Cheshire East Council, claims Cheshire East has one of the best and most-consulted-upon Local Plans in the country.
He said: “What we have now is a highly-consulted-upon strategic document that will map housing, jobs and infrastructure for the next 15 years.
“This has been a huge undertaking and an incredible journey – but a vital one for the people of Cheshire East if we are to have planned and sustainable housing, jobs and economic growth while protecting our precious countryside and green spaces.
“This plan is about ensuring Cheshire East will continue to maintain its reputation as the best place to live in the North West, while providing for our younger generation so they can live, work and truly prosper in the communities where they were born.
“It is about putting a bright future for our residents first – with high-quality jobs, top educational standards and training opportunities and a great quality of life for everyone.
“This plan, coupled with our five-year housing land supply, is also about protecting the residents of Cheshire East from unwanted, unsustainable and unplanned development.”
Insp Stephen Pratt has been appointed to conduct the examination to determine whether the Local Plan Strategy is sound.
The examination is a continuous process, which runs from submission through to the receipt of the Inspector’s report.
Part of the process will involve hearing sessions, where those invited to attend will have the opportunity to respond to matters raised by the Inspector.
Only those parties who made representations on the “submission version” of the plan during the prescribed period, and who were seeking some change to the plan, are entitled to speak.
However, the hearing sessions will be open to anyone who wishes to attend.
The public hearings into the Local Plan Strategy Submission Version will start on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, from 10am, at Macclesfield Town Hall.
For details visit http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/localplan or contact the spatial planning team [email protected] or call 01270 685893.
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