Plan opens way for green belt homes
THE PLAN which allows hundreds of homes on Macclesfield green belt has been adopted by the council.
It’s taken seven years, 11 rounds of consultation and two rounds of scrutiny by a government planning inspector but Cheshire East has voted to adopt the Local Plan.
It states what homes and infrastructure can be built in Macclesfield and the borough until 2030.
Its adoption means development can go ahead on sites allocated in the plan, with more than 4,000 homes earmarked for Macclesfield.
This includes 100 hectares of green belt in south west Macclesfield as well green space elsewhere in the town, including at the Kings School site on Fence Avenue and Gaw End Lane in Lyme Green.
Green belt campaigners have objected throughout the consultation process. Now the plan is adopted, residents have concerns over what planning applications will be submitted. There are already plans by Robinsons brewery for 150 homes on farmland off Chelford Road.
Councillors voted to adopt the plan at a meeting of full council on Thursday.
Coun Nick Mannion, who represents Macclesfield West and Ivy, said in his speech: “What we are being presented with today is little more than a developer’s charter which will surrender over 100 hectares of Macclesfield’s precious green belt to housing developers who will want to built four and five- bedroom executive homes rather than affordable homes.
“The plan offers scant protection for residents already suffering pollution levels that exceed the legal maximum around Broken Cross.”
The final vote was 49 councillors in favour with 20 against. 12 councillors were absent.
Coun Ainsley Arnold, cabinet member for housing and planning and Tytherington councillor, welcomed the move. He said: “Our Local Plan is comprehensive and robust and will give the people of Cheshire East its best protection against unplanned and unsustainable development. It also gives shape to where future growth in housing, employment and infrastructure will be accommodated within our borough.”
The plan was voted through despite calls from the Labour group for a new plan in light of a recent report which showed serious errors in the council’s air quality data used to draw up the plan. It said errors came ‘as a result of deliberate and systematic manipulation of data’.
Labour group leader, Coun Sam Corcoran, said: “Work should immediately start on a new Local Plan that takes the recently announced proposals on the route of HS2 through Cheshire East into account and the correct air quality