The Big Planning Test

With notices advertising the proposed major development of 87 houses now on lampposts in the Moorsfied and Tollgate areas of the village, the first big test of Audlem's Neighbourhood Plan is coming up.

Fortunately, Cheshire East are taking Neighbourhood Plans extremely seriously. Councillor Ainsley Arnold, Cheshire East's Cabinet member for housing and planning said this week on AudlemOnline when announcing the result of the Referenda in Audlem and Sandbach:

"It is very encouraging to see that so many Cheshire East residents have taken advantage of this opportunity and clearly wish to engage in the planning process by having some influence over future decisions that can affect the place where they live.

"We are a 'residents first' authority and by promoting the idea of neighbourhood plan consultation and referendum, we are giving our residents a unique opportunity to be a part of a democratic process and have a say in how their town or village could develop."

Access?

The plans submitted by the applicant's agents for the latest major development are curious, particularly when they discuss the critical issue of access to the site.

Barton Fillmore, the agents, in their detailed application, state that primary access to the proposed site will be via Moorsfield with a secondary access via Tollgate. Curiously, their Masterplan submitted at the same time shows that the Moorsfield entrance (red circle towards the bottom in the diagram shown here) only gives access to a small part of the development while Tollgate (the red circle half way up on the right) gives access to the major part.

The plan shows only a footpath connects the two sections of the development so it is not possible to drive from one to the other. It is clear that Moorsfield only gives access to a minute part of the site – just five properties – whereas Tollgate gives the only access to the vast bulk, eighty two properties.

Incompetence, or what?

So, is this an innocent mistake, incompetence or a deliberate attempt to confuse or mislead both local residents and planning officials?

Those that have met the landowner will know she is not the type to appoint an agent likely to make an innocent mistake, and probably a fatal one, in the planning application when so much money is at stake. Suitable access is possibly the most vital aspect of a planning application.

Similarly, judging by Barton Filmore's own publicity material, they are a well established and experienced agent used to submitting planning applications for major developments. Surely, with that background, incompetence has to be ruled out.

So, unless anyone can think of another reason, a deliberate attempt to confuse or mislead local residents and the planners seems the most likely reason.

One glance at the relative strengths of Moorsfield and Tollgate as access to a development of 87 homes with perhaps as many as 150 cars provides the answer.

Moorsfield is shorter, straighter and with fewer side roads than Tollgate. Indeed, if cars are parked on the street in the latter – not that we would suggest something so irresponsible as this – it would be a very difficult, if not impossible road, for so much additional traffic to use. And, as we stress above, by their own Masterplan, it's Tollgate that will be the only access point for 82 of the 87 properties.

We may, of course, have completely misunderstood the access issue, in which case we apologise unreservedly to the landowner and Barton Filmore. Silly us, for even pointing it out!

Contrary to Neighbourhood Plan

The proposal is also completely contrary to the democratically approved Audlem Neighbourhood Plan which is against developments outside the Settlement Boundary and above ten properties in size. Hopefully, given Cheshire East's strong support of Neighbourhood Plans, as endorsed by Councillor Ainsley Arnold, who is critically the Cabinet member responible for housing and planning, Audlem's plan will be a significant factor when the council considers the application.

As a community, however, we have to be careful not to rely purely on the Neighbourhood Plan as a defence against large scale development. It is still important for everyone to take notice of, and respond to planning applications in the village, particularly the larger scale speculative ones.

The more the public shows its lack of support for such developments, the more Cheshire East Council will know they have to fight for the Neighbourhood Plan, even up to and including an Appeal. This is particularly so when the number of houses already approved in Audlem is way above the number likely to be stipulated over the next twenty years in the Local Plan which is now out to what all will hope is its final consultation.

How to respond

You can respond to this latest application by clicking here and then going to Available Actions on the right of the page.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.