Call for Sites 2026
The 'Call for Sites' will be open between Wednesday 14 October and Friday 6 November 2026. This is an opportunity to tell us about any land/site for potential development that has not been submitted to us previously.
Site selection Stage 1: Identifying sites
Finding potential sites
The Council's Land Availability Assessment (Stage One) 2026 (LAA 2026) provides the baseline information for this stage (Stage 1) of the site selection process, under the new plan making system. It includes a wide range of size, type, proposed use and location of sites across the borough, and includes both previously developed land (brownfield), greenfield sites, and land in the Green Belt.
A significant amount of information on potential development sites has been collated through the previous consultations, call for sites, and the preparation of the LAA 2026. This information has been reviewed, and updated where applicable, following completion of the 2025-2026 annual housing and employment land monitoring.
Site criteria
Spatial geography: the site identification is borough-wide and includes the city of Chester; mains towns of Ellesmere Port, Northwich, and Winsford; market towns of Neston, Frodsham and Helsby; and the borough's key villages, smaller settlements and the wider countryside.
Based on the size of the borough, and the need to identify a broad range of sites of various sizes, the following site thresholds have been applied:
- Housing sites: a capacity of five or more dwellings, or a net size of 0.2ha
- Employment sites: over 0.25ha, or in town centres 500sqm floorspace.
- Mixed use sites: applying housing and employment site thresholds as listed above, and applying a 50:50 (or even) split of uses that can be adjusted to take account of local circumstances where further information is available.
- Other uses: Alternative uses may be identified (for example, retail, leisure, minerals extraction, green space etc).