Audlem featured in TV planning debate

Audlem representatives made their promised appearance on the Weekly Politics show on BBC1 yesterday morning in what was a short but very effective report on the current planning controversies.

Audlem Parish Council chairman Phillip Johnson said how the Parish Council was feeling let down but realised that this was a national issue while Steve Amies, representing residents near to the proposed Mill Lane development said local residents were suffering the consequences and that the two developments proposed here would increase the population by 20%.

John Tilling introduced the BBC's viewers to the Mill Lane site while Heather Jones, deputy chair of the Parish Council, and David Latchford, representing the Parish Plan, were on hand.

Cheshire East council leader Michael Jones was interviewed briefly saying that Cheshire East's Local Plan had been for 7,500 new homes but that the government wanted more and they would try to meet that but they also had to protect the countryside. Several times the programme referred to Cheshire East's Plan being dismissed by the national government.

As interesting was the reaction of the two MPs in the studio, Labour MP Julie Hilling (Bolton West) and Conservative MP Mark Menzies (Fylde). They asked why it is that the Planning Inspectorate can dispute local plans that have been drawn up by planners and reflecting local views and conditions.

It appears there was a "robust debate" only last Thursday in Westminster Hall with many MPs making this point to Planning Minister Nick Boles that the Planning Inspectorate cannot, in effect, create local plans rather than elected councils.

This is what has happened in Cheshire East with a planning inspector not accepting the council's 7,500 homes target and therefore not giving the Local Plan much weight in determining three appeals by developers against the council's refusal to agree to their proposed developments. In two cases the developers won their appeal while in the third, in Alsager, the appeal was dismissed because of damage to the open countryside and, like the other appeals, the council's housing land supply strategy came in for sharp criticism.

Julie Hilling made the point that in Wigan the council's plan was to build new homes primarily on brownfield sites. This plan was called in by national government and Wigan was told that houses had to be built elsewhere, another example showing that the Planning Inspectorate should not be able to dictate local policy.

Mark Menzies added that developers wanted greenfield sites because it was easier to build there and therefore more profitable.

Doubtless, many of the points raised in the programme will come up again at this Friday's meeting in the Public Hall when local MP Stephen O'Brien and Cheshire East councillor Rachel Bailey will answer questions put by local residents. The meeting starts at 2.00pm and all are welcome.

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