Another view on Local Plan

Cheshire East Council have said: "The council has decided to take six months to work on the Local Plan".

My advice is to have more realistic targets for economic growth.

Three strategic growth initiatives are at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse:

• Atlantic Gateway, the country's leading location for logistics, business and innovation
• Cheshire Science Corridor- a string of interconnected centres of excellence contributing significantly to the national science agenda
• Crewe High Growth City, placing Crewe at the heart of HS2 as a superhub central to the country's major infrastructure network.

The Atlantic Gateway has been described by Tory peer Lord Hestletine as the most significant current growth opportunity in the UK to attract investment. It aims to create 250,000 new jobs in the Atlantic Gateway area.

As the Macclesfield Express reports, Cheshire East planners are going back to the drawing board after a government inspector identified serious failings in the council's future housing plan.

Planning inspector Stephen Pratt has issued a report which says Cheshire East's Local Plan – which guides where homes, businesses and roads will be built until 2030 – does not include enough houses to meet need.

Mr Pratt has warned if nothing is done to 'change' the plan, he's likely to conclude it's unsound and it would fail.

In Mr Pratt's statement on Wednesday, November 12th he said there are "serious shortcomings with the Council's assessment of housing need". He said: "The proposed level of future housing provision seems inadequate to ensure the success of the overall economic, employment and housing strategy."

Councillor Michael Jones, Cheshire East leader, said: "Clearly our officers have not been working as well as they could. It's regrettable and I'm talking with the chief executive about what's been going on. The inspector has questioned the methodology we've used in our housing targets and now we must provide more evidence.''

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