A controversial plan for development in Cheshire East has been passed by council cabinet and will go out for public consultation, writes Ethan Davies.
The approval of a revised form of the Site Allocations and Development Policies Document (SADPD), which forms the second part of the council’s ‘local plan’ — the blueprint for development in the borough — is the latest chapter in the saga.
It has been three years since the first part of the local plan was adopted, and together the documents form the council’s “vision and overall spatial strategy for the borough to 2030”.
Criticism was levelled at the SADPD at the cabinet meeting.
Conservative Cllr Paul Findlow asked: “Have other options even been considered?
“Your council recently claimed it was a listening, learning, and responding authority.
“This is your opportunity to do so.”
Much of the debate surrounding the SADPD was a repeat of comments made at last week’s five-and-a-half-hour strategic planning meeting.
There were disagreements ranging from the erosion of greenbelt in the north of the borough to emissions in some villages.
Cllr Brendan Murphy said: “I am a bit dismayed about what I am hearing. It is almost as if ‘don’t waste your time the decision has been made for you’.
“I would like to hear a response to the Disley issue and the A555’s impact on [the village].
“There is more to come but with Covid, the traffic has subsided but it is going to come back and have an awful impact on Disley.”
In defending the revised document, deputy leader Cllr Craig Browne said: “We have had local plans thrown back to us as has happened before under another regime.
“This [proposed change] could take away control from elected [council] members.
“That is why I support the plan going forward in its current form.”
The SADPD now will enter into a period of a six-week public consultation, with any feedback will be incorporated into the final draft, which officials are hopeful will go before council cabinet in the spring.
If successful there, then the SADPD will come into effect around the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022.
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