Cheshire East Update: Fighting the good fight

"Whilst it is important that we do deliver on housing, it is also crucial that we continue to fight developers who put profit ahead of people, and development ahead of our countryside." So said, Michael Jones of Cheshire East in his Leader's Speech a couple of weeks ago.

The council certainly is fighting against the schemes that it considers will deliver the wrong kind of housing. It was confirmed yesterday that it will be challenging the Elworth Hall Farm, Sandbach appeal decision, another where a planning inspector has found that a five year supply of deliverable housing land cannot be demonstrated.

There is at least a consistency to this approach, but coincidentally I understand that at the same time as the Council was confirming this challenge a judge at the Administrative Court in Manchester was dismissing the challenge it made in December to the Congleton Road, Sandbach appeal decision, which also found that there was not a demonstrable five year supply.

Mr Jones is clearly so confident of the soundness of the Submission Draft - Local Plan Strategy that proposals that do not accord out with it but could otherwise be said to be sustainable are being dismissed as "unwanted", and at some point the Council will have a five year supply of deliverable housing land (the council has resolved to approve 3,800 units since October 2013).

If that supply cannot though be demonstrated prior to the examination of the Submission Draft - Local Plan Strategy, which Mr Jones expects to take place this summer, there has to be a more than distinct possibility that the examination inspector will recommend that the Local Plan Strategy document will be, at best, delayed and, at worst, withdrawn. In that scenario the council will rightly have to be asked whether it fought the right fight.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Winston Churchill

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Winston Churchill

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu135256.html#etlyKXLpWrKqv1jj.99

Comments

Life on the Front Line

I like it when people get in touch with me to suggest topics for 50 Shades of Planning Podcast episodes because, firstly, it means that people are listening to it and also, and most importantly, it means I do not have to come up with ideas myself. I found this message from a team leader at a local authority striking and sobering though. In a subsequent conversation the person that sent this confided in me that their team is virtually in crisis mode. It is probably fair to say that the planning system is in crisis, but then it is also probably fair to say that the planning system is always in crisis… There is, of course, the issue of resources. Whilst according to a Planning magazine survey slightly more LPAs are predicting growth in planning department budgets (25%) rather than a contraction (22%), this has to be seen in the context of a 38% real-terms fall in net current expenditure on planning functions between 2010–11 and 2017–18. Beyond resources though the current crisis feels m...

50 Shades of Planning T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. I said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt so I have made a few and it does! They are available in black or white (in S, M and L sizes) and are £15 if there is a chance that I'll be able to deliver one to you or £20 if you will need it posting. Please email samstafford@hotmail.com if you would like one. Planning might not be black and white, but the 50 Shades t-shirts are...

On modernising planning committees

If you are involved they are terrible, but if you are just observing they are terrific. That is how, way back in the day..., I introduced Episode 7 of 50 Shades of Planning. If you are reading a town planning-based blog then the chances are that you will have participated in a planning committee previously, will know immediately what I mean, and will have your own tales to tell. If you are not a planner though or have not been subject to this unique ‘cauldron of human emotion’ (which is what I called Episode 7) then you should watch Wokingham ’s planning committee take over an hour to debate the merits of a proposed communications kiosk in Woodley recently (I only knew about this because I saw somebody last week who had to sit through this discussion whilst waiting for the next application, but you could probably pick any planning committee at any council on any day of the year and see something similar). Yes, of course, not all planning committees are akin to putting the fate of a tr...

The 50 Shades of Planning Blog

Search This Blog