Cheshire East Council is making a call for sites which could potentially be included in the local plan for future development, writes Belinda Ryan.
Several sites were submitted as part of the call for land last year.
Councillors agreed to publicise and undertake a further call for sites at the environment and communities committee.
But it was stressed those submitted as part of the 2024 call and listed in the report to yesterday’s meeting have no additional status for planning purposes.
Macclesfield councillor Mary Brooks (Lab) said: “All this stuff is on social media saying that we’ve been considering proposals for sites, which isn’t the case.
“It’s a call for sites. We’re not considering any sites at this meeting.”
She highlighted a paragraph in the report to the committee which explained: “The inclusion of a site in the housing and economic land sustainability assessment does not confer any planning status on the site.
“It does not imply that it will be allocated, nor the planning permission would be granted, should an application be submitted for consideration.”
Knutsford councillor Tony Dean (Con) asked why the council was making a further call for sites.
Tom Evans, strategic and environmental planning manager, said it was due to the length of time since the last sites were called for and because of changes since then to planning policy.
Cllr Janet Clowes (Wybunbury, Con) said many of the sites on the list had been put forward in 2017 and refused, so she was shocked to see them appear again.
“There are also sites here that have already gone to appeal and been refused, so I can’t quite see why they’re in here again,” she said.
“So, are we actually saying that the bulk of this list is, for one reason or another, inappropriate, and that is why we need to go out for a second call, because we simply haven’t got anything?”
She also asked how much of the green belt the council was prepared to sacrifice in the upcoming review.
“Because if we look at the sites on this list alone, north of Macclesfield that’s over 20 per cent of the green belt, and that’s before we even start thinking about Adlington,” she said.
Cheshire East Council did have a five-year land supply until the government made changes to the national planning policy framework at the end of last year.
Since the goalposts were moved, it now only has a 3.8-year supply.
Phil Cresswell, executive director of place, said: “The green belt review is critical in order for us to maintain and manage and meet our housing land supply.
“The reason why we’ve got so many windfall applications going forward outside a local plan process… is because we cannot meet our five-year land supply.”
He told councillors: “The more land we can get in the local plan, the easier it is for the council to defend and dismiss those windfall applications.
“We can’t do it because we haven’t got enough sites in our local plan – and therefore the call for sites, and therefore the call to revisit a lot of those sites that went in there last time.”
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