Councillor deplores lack of Local Plan

Cheshire East Council does not have a local plan in place because it has not put enough resources into it, a councillor has claimed. It is the lack of a plan that has contributed to so many speculative planning applications in Cheshire East.

Cllr David Brickhill (Independent) has attacked the council's cabinet for not coming up with a plan to protect local people from unscrupulous developers.

"One person has been responsible for this plan since 2008 and that person has probably received a special responsibility allowance of over £70,000 to bring this plan to fruition and we all know it has not come to fruition," Cllr Brickhill told members of the full council at its last meeting.

"One of the chief reasons for this is the lack of resources that has been put behind it. Insufficient resources have been devoted to it."

The Shavington councillor said he understood it was because developers were taking planning staff away from councils and it was difficult to recruit.

He said the three previous councils – Crewe and Nantwich, Congleton and Macclesfield boroughs – had all been well advanced with their local plans and Cheshire East had inherited those staff and got rid of them.

"We're told this is a cabinet responsibility and I believe the cabinet should take responsibility for owning up to the problems they have created," said Cllr Brickhill, who had proposed a motion that 'the council deplores the fact that an adopted local plan is not yet in place'.

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