What is the Local Plan?
The Local Plan is the key land use planning document for Cheshire West and Chester. It will help decide things like the most sustainable places for new homes and workplaces to be built, and how to protect the natural and historic environment.
The new plan will be a single Local Plan document that will update and replace the policies in the current Local Plan (Part One) and Local Plan (Part Two), and will set out how much development is needed in the borough and allocate land if needed.
Changes to the planning system
The Council has decided to move to the Government’s new plan-making system for preparing the Local Plan.
This replaces the previous work carried out under the legacy plan-making system, up to and including the Issues and Option Regulation 18 consultation 2025.
Notice of intention to commence Local Plan preparation and timetable
The first step in the new system is to publish our Notice of Intention to Commence Local Plan Preparation and a timetable for preparation of the Local Plan. These provide communities and other stakeholders with advance notice of plan‑making so they understand when and how they can get involved in preparing the new Local Plan.
Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a systematic process that must be carried out during the preparation of Local Plans. SEA aims to identify significant environmental effects and mitigate negative effects. The first stage is to undertake SEA screening to establish whether SEA is required.
The Council has prepared a SEA Screening Opinion, which concludes that the Local Plan is likely to have significant environmental effects and will require a SEA.
The statutory environmental consultees (Natural England, Environment Agency and Historic England) have been consulted to check whether they agree with the screening opinion. If so, a screening determination will be prepared.
SEA is normally incorporated into the Sustainability Appraisal (SA) process. SA identifies environmental effects (as covered by SEA) and also assesses social and economic effects. It provides an opportunity to assess alternatives and identify mitigation measures. The first stage in the SA process is to prepare a scoping report identifying the topics to be covered and the appraisal framework, including objectives and indicators.