Local Plan (Part One) Strategic Policies

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1 Cheshire West and Chester Local Plan

The Cheshire West and Chester Local Plan was adopted on the 29th January 2015 and forms part of the statutory development plan for the borough.  The Local Plan will be developed in two parts, Part One Strategic Policies and Part Two Land Allocations and Detailed Policies.

Local Plan (Part One) Strategic Policies

The Cheshire West and Chester Local Plan (Part One) Strategic Policies is the first local development document to be produced by Cheshire West and Chester Council.  The purpose of this Plan is to provide the overall vision, strategic objectives, spatial strategy and strategic planning policies for the borough to 2030.  The Local Plan (Part One) will be the starting point when considering planning applications and will be supported by the Cheshire West and Chester Local Plan (Part Two) Land Allocations and Detailed Policies Plan in due course.

The Local Plan (Part One) includes policies that have been informed by a suite of evidence base documents prepared to support the Plan to ensure that the policies reflect locally determined priorities for new homes, jobs, the environment and infrastructure development. 

The Local Plan (Part One) includes:

• Overall vision for the borough
• Strategic objectives for new development in the borough
• Spatial strategy for the location of new development including the identification of key sites
• Strategic economic, social and environmental policies to support the spatial strategy
• Schedule of proposed retained policies from the currently adopted Local Plans

The Local Plan (Part One) is supported by a wide range of background documents including:

• Sustainability Appraisal
• Habitats Regulations Assessment Screening Report
• Monitoring, Implementation and Viability
• Key Sites Background Paper
• Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment 2013
• Employment Land Study Update (2013)
• Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA)
• Strategic Housing Market Assessment Viability Study
• Cheshire West and Chester Retail Study Update (Interim) 2013
• Stage Two of the Chester Green Belt Study: Technical Site Assessment
• Strategy and Housing Background Paper
• Key Service Centre Background Paper
• Infrastructure Delivery Plan

Local Plan (Part Two) Land Allocations and Detailed Policies

The Cheshire West and Chester Local Plan (Part Two) Land Allocations and Detailed Policies local development document will provide further detailed policies which will support the strategic objectives and policies set out in the Local Plan (Part One), including a review of a number of allocations in the currently adopted Local Plans.

Other documents

Adopted policies

Whilst the policies within the Local Plan (Part One) will replace some of those contained in the currently adopted development plan for the borough, some extant policies will be retained until such time as they are replaced by policies within the Local Plan (Part Two).  A schedule of policies which the Council proposes to retain is included in Appendix A ‘Retained policies’.  Changes to the adopted policies maps are set out in Appendix B ‘Changes to Policies Map’, which includes new allocations.

The adopted development plan policies for the borough are set out in the following documents:

Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Local Plan was adopted in 2002 and the policies contained within this document (with the exception of Policy H8) were saved in 2007.

Chester District Local Plan was adopted in 2006 and the policies contained within this document (with the exception of policy HO1) were saved in May 2009.

Vale Royal Borough Local Plan was adopted in 2006. The policies within this document (with the exception of policy GS1 and H1) were saved in 2009.

Cheshire Replacement Minerals Local Plan was adopted in 1999.  The policies contained within this document were saved in 2007.

Cheshire Replacement Waste local Plan was adopted in July 2007. The Policies contained within this document were saved in 2010.

Supporting documents

The Local Plan is accompanied by:

• Local Development Scheme (LDS) - which sets out the programme for the preparation of the Local Plan documents and Supplementary Planning Documents, including the Local Plan (Part Two) Land Allocations and Detailed Policies Plan
• Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) - this sets out how the Council will involve the community and stakeholders in the preparation and review of the Local Plan, Supplementary Planning Documents and development management decisions
• Annual Monitoring Report - this will assess the progress of the delivery of the Local Plan and its supporting documents and review policy effectiveness

The Local Plan is also supported by a set of evidence base documents which provide a comprehensive and robust set of background information.  This has been used to inform the preparation of the policies in the Local Plan.  A list of all evidence base documents is provided in Appendix E ‘Evidence base’.

Relationship to Neighbourhood Plans

Neighbourhood plans are community-led frameworks for guiding how future development will take place in an area.  Neighbourhood plans must be in general conformity with the strategic policies in the Local Plan.  There are currently in the order of 20 communities within the borough that are preparing neighbourhood plans and another ten communities considering preparing a neighbourhood plan.  Once the process of preparing a neighbourhood plan is successfully completed for a community, the policies within it will form part of the development plan for that area.

Relationship to other Council plans and strategies

The Local Plan is a key Council document.  It is the spatial expression of the borough's priorities and development needs going forward.  It provides the planning framework to support the priorities identified in other Council plans and programmes including the Council's Corporate Plan (Altogether Better, the Council Plan 2011 - 2015), the Sustainable Community Strategy and other Council strategies covering regeneration, housing, climate change, environment and waste.

The first Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) for Cheshire West and Chester was prepared in 2010 (Together we can aim high, Sustainable Community Strategy 2010-2026) and was refreshed in July 2012 (Altogether Better: An interim partnership plan, July 2012).  The Interim Partnership Plan was prepared jointly by the Local Strategic Partnership (West Cheshire Together) and the Health and Wellbeing Board for Cheshire West and Chester.  The document builds upon the first SCS and sets out how to make a real difference to the well-being of our communities over the period to 2017.

The Council and its partners are also working as one of the Government's pilot areas to deliver a whole place community budget, Altogether Better West Cheshire.  The vision is to deliver the highest quality of life in the UK to West Cheshire residents, creating more outcome focused services for our customers and delivering the right services, in the right place at the right time.

Cheshire West and Chester partnerships framework (View full image)

Duty to Co-operate

Section 33A of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, as inserted by s110 of the Localism Act 2011, has introduced a duty to co-operate in relation to the planning of sustainable development.  This came into effect in November 2011.

This requires the Council to co-operate with other local planning authorities and bodies prescribed in regulation 4(1) of The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 to maximise the effectiveness of the preparation of the Core Strategy and supporting activities so far as it relates to a strategic matter.

The Council and others are required to engage constructively, actively and on an ongoing basis. Regard must also be had, under section 33A(9) and regulation 4(2), to the activities of the Local Enterprise Partnership as they relate to the Local Plan and supporting activities.

The Council has carried out continuous engagement with other local planning authorities and bodies throughout the preparation of the Local Plan. 

Appraisals and assessments

The Local Plan (Part One) Strategic Policies has been subject to assessment under the EU Habitats Directives and a Sustainability Appraisal, which has incorporated the requirements of the EU Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive, rural proofing, health impact assessment and equality analysis.

This has been an iterative process and the assessments have been carried out alongside the preparation of the Local Plan (Part One) and the findings of the assessments fed directly into the development of the policies.

The findings of the Sustainability Appraisal are set out in the Sustainability Appraisal report accompanying the Local Plan (Part One). This sets out the likely significant environmental, social and economic effects of the proposed policies in the Plan and how these can be mitigated and controlled. 

The Habitats Regulation Screening Report sets out the findings of the Habitats Regulation Assessment of the Local Plan (Part One) policies.  This concluded that the Local Plan (Part One) can be screened out as not leading to a likely significant effect on European sites and comprises a sufficient policy framework to enable the subsequent delivery of necessary measures to avoid or mitigate adverse effects on the integrity of European sites.