18 Visitor economy

National policy

18.1 The NPPF identifies culture and tourism developments as main town centre uses (including theatres, museums, galleries and concert halls, hotels and conference facilities).

18.2 Planning policies and decisions should also enable sustainable rural tourism and leisure developments which respect the character of the countryside (NPPF, para 88c). They should support the development and diversification of agricultural and other land-based rural businesses (NPPF, paragraph 88b).

18.3 Planning policies should set out a clear economic vision and strategy which encourages sustainable economic growth, having regard to the national industrial strategy and any relevant Local Industrial Strategies and other local policies for economic development and regeneration (NPPF, paragraph 86a)

Evidence base

Key issues

A high proportion of jobs are linked to the tourism sector, 7.8% of total employment in the borough is supported by visitors. In 2023, the CW&C visitor economy was valued at £2.26bn with 29.2 million visitors to the area in the year. However, despite annual increases in visitor numbers since the pandemic, visitor numbers and visitor economic impact remain lower than pre-2020 levels. A key issue will be maintaining, and enhancing the strength of the visitor economy and the cultural offer of the borough.
The borough has some significant tourism attractions with the most visited attractions surveyed include Chester Zoo, Chester Cathedral, Delamere Forest, Cheshire Ice Cream Farm, BeWilderWood, Grosvenor Museum and Beeston Castle. In Ellesmere Port the National Waterways Museum, and in Northwich the Salt Museum are also important attractions.
The borough has a wide range of natural assets such as the Sandstone Trail, canals, public rights of way and cycle ways that provide excellent leisure and recreational opportunities.
Major sporting events in the borough, including Chester Racecourse and Oulton Park, attract a wide range of visitors, participants and spectators.
Local Plan policies support the provision of all types of visitor accommodation in appropriate locations, in line with the settlement strategy and retail hierarchy. In rural areas, the development of caravan and camping sites has the potential to impact on the character of the countryside and landscape.

Current adopted policy

Local Plan	Policy reference	Policy summary
Local Plan (Part One)	ECON 3 Visitor economy	Support for the expansion of existing and the creation of new tourism opportunities and be of a suitable scale and type for its location. Major leisure, tourism, cultural attractions and visitor accommodation, should be located within or accessible to town centres. Camping and caravan sites will be supported where there is an unmet need.
Local Plan (Part Two)	DM 7 Rural diversification of land based businesses	Sets criteria to support rural diversification of agricultural or land based business.
Local Plan (Part Two)	DM 9 visitor accommodation	Sets criteria for the development of visitor accommodation of all types. Directs hotels, guest houses, holiday lets, bed and breakfast accommodation to main town centres and key service centres. Links to countryside and green belt policy for other types of visitor accommodation.
Local Plan (Part Two)	DM 10 Caravan and camping sites	The policy relates to touring caravan and camping sites, static caravans, chalets (or other forms of static accommodation such as pods, yurts and tepees) for tourism use. It provides criteria for new developments.

Suggested policy approach

18.4 The policy approach will follow the hierarchical town centre first approach to all main town centre uses, directing visitor attractions and visitor accommodation (hotels, guest houses, holiday lets, bed and breakfast accommodation) to town centres to support the vibrancy of these centres. This could mean updating Local Plan (Part One) policy ECON 3 and Local Plan (Part Two) policy DM 9 to avoid repetition with other town centre policies of the Local Plan. The policy approach for town centres could recognise the value of the visitor economy and tourism developments.

18.5 Visitor accommodation in the countryside and Green Belt should be a suitable scale, type and protect the character of the countryside and minimise landscape harm. Camping and caravan sites are considered as tourism development not outdoor recreation. Static caravans and chalets have the potential for significant landscape harm, so it is intended to continue with a criteria based policy for visitor accommodation in the countryside, merging relevant aspects of Local Plan (Part One) policy ECON 3 and Local Plan (Part Two) policy DM 10.

18.6 There is not a single policy for visitor attractions, as this covers a wide range of tourism and leisure uses across the borough. It is anticipated that the development of new attractions, or extensions to existing facilities would continue to be assessed by other relevant policies of the plan (such as transport, biodiversity, landscape, amenity, noise, heritage etc). Site specific policies would only be required to support significant schemes; the content of policies for Chester Zoo (Local Plan (Part Two) policies GBC 1 and GBC 1.A) and Oulton Park (Local Plan (Part Two) policy DM 13) should be retained. The criteria in Ellesmere Port Historic Canal Port Local Plan (Part Two) policy EP 7 would mostly be covered by the historic environment policies of the new Local Plan within section 26 ‘Historic environment’.

18.7 National policy supports rural diversification. Where this includes tourism or leisure use, the policy approach below would incorporate the content of current Local Plan (Part Two) policy DM 7. The section of DM 7 on farm shops and retail sales would be covered within section 17 ‘Town centres’.

VE 1

Visitor economy

The expansion of existing tourism assets or the creation of new tourism opportunities will be supported where this would enhance the existing tourism offer, benefit the local economy and be of a suitable design, scale and type for its location.

Major leisure, tourism, cultural attractions and visitor accommodation, which will attract a significant number of visitors, should be located within or accessible to Chester, Northwich, Ellesmere Port and Winsford town centres to support the vitality of these centres.

Elsewhere in the borough, proposals for visitor attractions or visitor accommodation will be supported in line with other relevant policies of the plan and with regard to NPPF paragraph 88.

Caravan and Camping sites

Camping and caravan sites are forms of tourism development, which will be supported where there is an unmet need. In addition to the above, proposals should also:

be small in scale to limit impact on neighbouring amenity
utilise or be well related to existing buildings
incorporate existing landscape features and provide open areas into the layout, provide screening and landscape buffers
be capable of connecting to existing utility services
provide ancillary appropriate facilities (such as toilets, showers, drinking water supply) for users of the site

Visitor Attractions

The following are significant visitor attractions, identified on the policies map. Development proposals will be supported subject to criteria below:

Chester Zoo – zoological purposes

Refer to Green Belt and Chester policies
Proposals should be comprehensively planned in line with an agreed development strategy for the wider site

Ellesmere Port Historic Canal Port – National Waterways Museum

Improve links to and from Ellesmere Port, particularly for pedestrians, cyclists and by public transport
Development proposals should be supported by a heritage impact assessment

Oulton Park – motor sports

New development is ancillary to the use of the site for motor sports
Conditions limiting hours of use, if an increase in the level or duration of noise is likely
Impacts on air quality are assessed and mitigated
New built development must be sited either near to existing buildings on the site or in locations where its impact on biodiversity and residential amenity would be reduced

Question VE 1

Do you agree with the suggested policy approach towards the visitor economy, as set out in VE 1 ‘Visitor economy’ above? If not please suggest how it could be amended?

Question VE 2

Do you agree with aligning the policy approach for the visitor economy, tourism and leisure with the suggested policy approach for town centres in TC 1 ‘Town centres’?

Question VE 3

Do you agree with the suggested policy approach towards rural tourism and leisure, including visitor accommodation policies (caravan and camping sites) in the countryside?

Question VE 4

Should a site specific policy be considered for any other significant visitor attractions? Please provide your reasons.

Question VE 5

Does the suggested policy approach support a prosperous rural economy, whilst maintaining the character of the countryside?

Site under construction

18 Visitor economy