Rachel Bailey takes over Local Plan

Audlem councillor Rachel Bailey will be taking over responsibility for Cheshire East's Local Plan from next week, it was announced this afternoon.

The Audlem ward councillor was praised by council leader Michael Jones at Cheshire East's Sandbach HQ. He said that while not involved in the Local Plan's development in recent years, Rachel Bailey had extensive experience of planning while a councillor for the borough.

She takes over from Peter Raynes who was at today's press conference with Michael Jones.

Cllr Michael Jones also confirmed to AudlemOnline that Cheshire East would fight any planning application that "was not plan led" when asked what would happen to proposed developments in places like Audlem where approvals for new houses are already way above that envisaged in the Local Plan.

He also said that Neighbourhood Plans were an important part of the process too and was well aware of the progress of Audlem's Neighbourhood Plan.

Cheshire East, it was announced today, is set for a massive boost in jobs and homes over the next fifteen years. The average jobs growth rate is forecast to be 0.7% ( up from 0.4% forecast in 2009) which should see a net gain of over 31,000 jobs in the borough by 2030.

This will lead to a need for 36,000 new homes in the same period – 7,000 more than were identified in the submitted Local Plan which the council is now revising before its re-submission to the Planning Inspectorate, probably in July.

In her new role heading up the Local Plan's progression, Rachel Bailey will be looking at site allocations across the whole borough but, with sites for 33,000 homes already approved or identified, that work is well underway.

22,000 new homes have been approved in the last five years and many more will be in the next few months. Michael Jones confirmed that priority would be given to building on brownfield sites and to protecting Greenbelt.

Many of the new jobs in the south of the borough will be in manufacturing while in the north they are likely to be technology led.

Michael Jones said he understood that new housing can be be painful for many who see developments affecting them and he recognises you can never please everyone but the strong growth in jobs in Cheshire East means a strong growth for new houses too.

More tomorrow on the Local Plan.

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