Strategic planning update

Last year the council decided to prepare a new local plan for the borough, providing a longer-term planning framework into the 2040s. When adopted, it will replace the Local Plan Strategy, adopted in 2017, and the Site Allocations and Development Policies Document, adopted in 2022. The new local plan will take several years to complete.

In November the council’s Environment and Communities Committee decided that a ‘new-style’ local plan should be prepared under the government’s reforms to the planning system. Significant changes are being made to the way that local plans are prepared. In future, the government expects that local plans will be shorter, more locally focussed, quicker to prepare and updated more frequently. The changes are being brought about by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act, which became law at the end of October. However, the detail of how the new plan-making requirements will work are still awaited. It is expected that they will emerge over the next nine months or so, through legal regulations and revised national planning policy.

Councils preparing this new style of plan should be able to make a formal start on them from late 2024. Because the detail of how the new system will operate is missing, it isn’t possible at the moment to set out a timetable for the new local plan. Once more is known about the new arrangements, a programme will be published on the council’s web site and updated regularly. Ahead of the formal commencement of the new local plan the committee decided that it would be helpful to invite feedback from residents, local councils and other organisations about the issues that it should address. This is expected to take place in the spring once the committee has agreed the issues paper for publication. Alongside the issues paper it was also agreed that the council should seek feedback on several other draft documents that will eventually inform the new plan. These are:

• A draft land availability assessment methodology. This will identify what land may be available to help meet the future development needs of the borough. The assessment will establish a pool of sites to inform decisions about which sites should be allocated for development in the new local plan. At this early stage, feedback would be invited on how the assessment of sites should be carried out. A ‘call for sites’ would also take place, enabling landowners, developers and others to submit sites for consideration once the methodology has been finalised.
• A draft sustainability appraisal scoping report. All local plans must be informed by a sustainability appraisal through which emerging policies and proposals are assessed against a list environmental, social and economic considerations. The appraisal will help to shape how policies are written and how development proposals should come forward. This initial stage would set the scope of the assessment and the aim of inviting feedback would be to make sure it captured all the relevant considerations.
• A draft settlement hierarchy review methodology. The Local Plan Strategy sets out the current settlement hierarchy. There are four levels in the current hierarchy – 'principal towns', 'key service centres', 'local service centres' and 'other settlements and rural areas'. The establishment of a clear settlement hierarchy helps to inform, alongside other information, how future development needs will be met. Feedback would be invited on the approach that should be taken to update the hierarchy, to inform the new local plan.

At the ‘issues paper’ stage there are no draft policies or proposals to comment on – they will come later and there will be further opportunities to provide feedback on these before they are finalised. What isn’t changing is the need for the new local plan to consider the borough’s future development needs and how they should be met, alongside how other priorities should be addressed such as tackling the climate crisis, enhancing nature and supporting active lifestyles and good health. A lot of additional reports and studies will be required to make sure that the policies and proposals in the plan are justified. If you want to find out more about the new local plan, you can read the recent report to the Environment and Communities Committee and there is more information about how the new plan-making system is intended to operate on the government website.

A total of 2,345 new homes were built in Cheshire East between April 2022 and March 2023. This is 545 homes more than the council’s annual requirement of 1,800 homes set out in the local plan. In fact, the delivery of new homes has exceeded the plan requirement for the past 6 years. However, this is now balancing out the shortfall in housing delivery between 2010 and 2017, during the first seven years of the local plan period. At 31 March 2023 there was a very modest shortfall of 217 homes compared to the number that should have been completed by that date i.e. between 2010 and 2023. More information about the level of new housing completions, including a more detailed breakdown of where these have taken place, is available on our housing land supply page.

During 2021/2022, a number of first draft SPDs, described below, were prepared and consulted on. Their purpose is to assist in the delivery of policies contained in the SADPD, providing further advice, guidance and detail on a range of matters. Now that the SADPD has been completed and adopted by the council, these draft SPDs can be published again in 2022/2023 for a final round of consultation. In preparing the final draft versions, account has been taken of the feedback already received about them.

• Biodiversity Net Gain: Provides advice that will apply across the borough and sets how developers should demonstrate that they have considered habitats and biodiversity in their applications – for example how assets have been retained and improved on site and how offsite financial contributions will be calculated and used. Biodiversity net gain becomes mandatory for most developments from January 2024 and the government have recently published new guidance and regulations to support this. The final draft SPD provides local advice on requirements in Cheshire East and is being consulted on until 22nd December 2023. The document will be updated to take account of feedback and to align to the most recent government advice ahead of considering whether to adopt it in 2024.
• Sustainable Drainage Systems: Provides a guide and toolkit on how surface water should be dealt with in new development to slow down run-off, reduce flooding and integrate improved green design in development. Consultation on the final draft SuDS guide took place between 4th September and 2nd October 2023. The feedback is currently being considered and the document will be proposed for adoption in early 2024.
• Environmental Protection: Provides guidance on a range of environmental issues including pollution, air quality, noise and odour. The SPD sets out the types of information and assessments that applicants will need to provide in planning applications where environmental issues may arise. The SPD was consulted on between 17th November and 15th December 2023. The feedback is currently being considered and the document will be proposed for adoption in early 2024.
• Jodrell Bank: Provides guidance on heritage and landscape matters affecting the observatory and how the electrical interference from new development should be addressed, including the type of information that applicants are required to submit to support their proposals. Work will continue on this SPD during 2024.
• Developer Contributions: Provides advice and guidance to landowners and applicants on the type of contributions they may be required to make to address the impacts of new development - through ‘Section 106’ and ‘Section 278’ agreements. The SPD was consulted on between 17th November and 15th December 2023. The feedback is currently being considered and the document will be proposed for adoption in early 2024.

The Little Bollington Neighbourhood Plan was formally made on 31st August, following a successful local referendum.

Over Alderley, Nether Alderley, High Legh, Ollerton with Marthall, and Bunbury are making great progress towards preparing draft plans or modification plans, and have completed the Regulation 14 stage, whilst Weston and Basford have completed their modification plan and submitted it for examination.

There continues to be much neighbourhood plan activity across the borough with many groups now reviewing and updating plans. The current support package from government includes up to £10,000 of financial assistance and technical support to prepare a variety of assessments including housing needs reports, site allocations assessments and design codes. For more information, or to find out what type of support Cheshire East can provide for your neighbourhood plan please get in touch with the team. Contact details and further information are available via our Neighbourhood Planning page.

The council has published its latest annual infrastructure funding statement. This is the fourth IFS the council has published since the Community Infrastructure Levy became operational in Cheshire East on 1st March 2019. The IFS reports on CIL income/spending and the S106/S278 highways legal agreements reached in the previous financial year.

The latest IFS reports that the council collected some £1.46m CIL receipts and transferred some £0.284m CIL receipts to town and parish councils in 2022/23. This meant that some £3.2m of CIL receipts was available to spend on infrastructure projects on 31 March 2023. The council has agreed to spend the first £2.6m of these CIL receipts on a contribution to the Middlewich Eastern Bypass in its current medium term financial strategy 2023-27. The remaining money has yet to be allocated to an infrastructure project(s). The IFS identifies broad categories of infrastructure types that could possibly be funded by CIL monies including affordable housing, education, health, highways, transport and travel, open space and leisure, social and community facilities, cultural facilities, digital infrastructure, green infrastructure, flood and water management, economic development, energy, waste management, and public realm. CIL spending decisions are made through the MTFS process with the submitted business case needing to show how it will support the growth identified in the council’s local plan and meet the infrastructure priorities shown in its accompanying infrastructure delivery plan.

The latest IFS also reports that the total amount of money secured through S106 agreements in 2022/23 was some £3.22m and that some £38.22m of S106 receipts were collected before the 2022/23 reporting year but have yet to be committed to specific projects by the relevant services in accordance with the terms of the legal agreements. £9.4m of S106 money was spent in 2022/23 on various identified projects to mitigate the impact of development. A total of 15 S278 highway agreements were also signed in the reporting year.

In future years for increased transparency on CIL and S106 matters this information will be reported to Environment and Communities Committee, as well as enabling a member discussion on future priorities for CIL spending. In addition, a members working group has recently been established looking at S106 process and governance – these members will also help to inform how information about S106 can be made more accessible to ward members.