Cheshire East to update its strategic plan

Cheshire East Council is to update its longer-term planning strategy for the borough into the 2040s.

By law, all councils must review their Local Plans within five years of their adoption and decide whether the policies within them need to be updated.

A meeting of the council’s environment and communities committee, on 1 July, decided to give the go-ahead to update the borough’s local plan strategy (LPS).

This key document sets planning policies and allocates sites for development and is used to inform decisions on planning applications. 

Councillor Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East Council’s environment and communities committee, said: “This is a sensible decision by members as aspects of the local plan strategy, adopted by the council in July 2017, have been overtaken by changes in national planning policy and that other changes to local policies are needed. 

“The report highlighted the need to respond to investment opportunities the arrival of HS2 at Crewe will bring. There is also a real need to reflect the priorities of the council’s new corporate plan, which includes the requirement for much stronger action to help tackle the climate emergency and achieve our ambition for the borough to be carbon neutral by 2045.”

The policies and proposals in the adopted local plan strategy will remain in force until they are replaced in the new plan. This includes the requirement to build a minimum of 36,000 homes in the borough by 2030, equating to an average of 1,800 new homes a year.  

The council’s current LPS – which was adopted in July 2017 following more than three years of public comments and submissions on the proposals and 13 rounds of public consultations – is the strategic blueprint for housing, infrastructure and employment across the borough to 2030. 

Cllr Warren added: “The preparation of a new LPS will be a significant and time-consuming undertaking, involving extensive public consultation. It will also need to take account of the government’s proposed planning reforms, expected to come into effect in 2024. The committee looks forward to a further report coming back to us, setting out the timetable for the update.”

For further information about the Local Plan and links to key documents, visit:

local plan webpage.