Congleton Neighbourhood Plan Update

The Draft Congleton Neighbourhood Plan is now at the Public Examination
Stage (Regulation 17). An independently appointed Planning Inspector has been
assessing the plan to make sure that it adheres to National and Local Planning
policies and has been properly made.

The Inspector has raised a series of questions relating mainly to the housing numbers and Congleton Neighbourhood Plan’s proposed green space policies. The questions raised can be seen at www.mycongleton.org

The examiner’s company has considered more than 100
Neighbourhood Plans, and has commented that Congleton’s Plan is in the top 7 or
8 most complex plans that his company has seen.

A big part of the complication for the Congleton
Neighbourhood Plan is the housing allocation. The housing figures referred to
in the Cheshire East Council Local Plan refers to the Congleton Key Service
Centre which covers not only Congleton but all the land to the north of the
town up to the new Link Road. The majority of the land allocated for ‘Congleton’s’
new housing in the Local Plan is outside the Congleton Neighbourhood Plan area,
on the land between the town boundary and the link road. The only housing
figure available from Cheshire East relates to the larger Key Service Centre
Area and so the Neighbourhood Plan team is currently calculating an up-to-date (31^st
December 2018) housing assessment for the Neighbourhood Plan area covering
houses built and land where there is planning permission in place to build.

In relation to the Green Space policies, Congleton’s Neighbourhood
Plan is seeking to safeguard some areas from future development. The Inspector
has asked the team to clarify the descriptions of the various areas of Green
Space and provide plans to illustrate the various areas involved.

The Neighbourhood Plan team is currently working its way
through all of the Examiner’s questions and should be in a position to respond
with the written elements next week (w/c 21^st Jan). The team is
reliant on the assistant from Cheshire East Council with some of the mapping
work and so this element may need some more time.

It is important that the responses are robust and accurate.
The team has been warned that it is likely that the examiner could come back
with follow-up questions. As a result, it is unlikely that the Congleton
Neighbourhood Plan will go to referendum ahead of the May elections. Referendums
are organised by Cheshire East Democratic Services and will not be held during
the six week ‘purdah period’ ahead of an election.