Villages may join forces to fight developers

Audlem is to hold talks with neighbouring parishes over hammering out a 'neighbourhood plan' to head off speculative housing developers.

The move comes as an official planning application from Gladman Developments is expected to be registered with Cheshire East Council at any time.

The application will seek planning consent to build up to 95 homes on 5.5 acres of greenfield land at Little Heath on the edge of the village.

Audlem Parish Council chairman Phillip Johnson warned that creating a neighbourhood plan could take years and cost several thousands of pounds.

"It is to our advantage to get a thorough grounding in what is involved before we commit ourselves," he told Audlem Parish Council meeting last night. "But the neighbourhood plan would be not just for Audlem but for the villages around us and give us much greater strength to our arguments against speculative developers."

Representatives from several neighbouring villages were at the meeting as observers but readily agreed to join exploratory talks.

Hankelow councillor Tony Lee said: "We would be happy to join exploratory meeting to discuss the feasibility of this. It would be better if several villages were included as it would give us all much more clout."

Meetings are to be arranged with Cheshire East planning officials with special expertise in this area.

The Localism Act of 2011 introduced new rights and powers to allow local communities to shape new development by preparing neighbourhood plans.

Under the scheme parish councils can use new powers to establish general planning policies for the development of land in a neighbourhood which can cover several parishes.

In an important change to the planning system communities can use neighbourhood planning laws to permit the development they want to see – in full or in outline – without the need for planning applications.

But neighbourhood development plans do not take effect without a referendum of the neighbourhood and they must comply with Local Plan policies of councils such as Cheshire East.

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