Parish calls in experts to help fight Gladman proposals

Audlem Parish Council is to hire its own planning consultants to help fight plans by Gladman Developments for permission to build 120 homes in the village.

A Planning Working Group set up by the Parish Council last month has met four times to discuss how best to prevent Gladman gaining planning consent to build a new housing estate at Little Heath.

Councillor Geoff Seddon told a Parish Council meeting they had gone through every line of every document that Gladman has submitted to Cheshire East Council as part of its proposals.

He told the meeting: "We have drawn up a list of 21 items that we think are significant enough for us to go forward with objections. But we decided we needed some sort of professional support and have asked a consultant to consider the best of these objections to put forward."

He warned councillors that big-name building companies were currently lining up to take advantage of any outline planning consent for new housing, not only in Audlem but in other areas too.

Councillor Heather Jones told the meeting professional advice was needed because of the complexity of planning procedures, concern over problems with the Local Plan and the added problems of changes in planning law.

"There are a number of things that may act in our favour. They have come up with a lot of good points," she added.

Audlem Parish Council has also contacted neighbouring organisations to discuss the possibility of setting up a Neighbourhood Plan that might help fight this and any future large scale planning proposals in the area.

"We need to look at how we can work together on a united front," council chairman Philip Johnson told the meeting.

But Councillor Dave Siddorns was skeptical of the idea. "The time frame means that we cannot get a Neighbourhood Plan in place until the Gladman plans are decided. It's like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted and could be a waste of time and effort," he warned.

Chairman Phillip Johnson said the council will continue to work on fighting the Gladman scheme. He told councillors: "We are opposed to this development in total."

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