BOROUGH Council officers are making good progress in working through the thousands of public representations received over Warrington’s controversial Local Plan.
The consultation over the Local Plan Preferred Development Option – which ran from July to September last year – received around 4,000 responses. The council needs to take into account of all of them as it prepares the formal draft version of the plan.
The draft Local Plan is programmed to be published in autumn/winter this year. It will then be subject to a further period of public consultation.
The council will confirm a more detailed programme for the preparation of the Local Plan in due course.
Council leader Cllr Terry O’Neill, said: “Our Local Plan will play a central role in our growth and development over the next two decades, and as such will affect everyone who lives and works here. That’s why it’s great news that so many people engaged in the consultation and that their views can help shape the plan.
“We are committed to fully taking on-board every single response, but the many thousands we have received mean it is taking some time. Our officers are working hard to complete this and we will be updating people on the next stages, and timescales, in the near future.”
The Preferred Development Option sets out how Warrington can meet its development needs of approximately 24,000 new homes and 381 hectares of employment land, over the next 20 years.
It identifies four main areas of growth – the town centre, the Waterfront, the Garden Suburband the South West Urban Extension – together with the infrastructure required to ensure
Warrington’s long term growth is sustainable.
Government policy dictates that every local planning authority is expected to deliver sustainable economic growth through up-to-date Local Plans which contain strategies and initiatives to achieve their aims.
If a local plan is not progressed, the council would risk losing control over the location, amount and quality of new development
There is also a risk that if the council did not make sufficient progress in reviewing its Local Plan, the Secretary of State would take over preparing the plan.
Cllr Terry O'Neill
4,000 opinions will help shape Warrington’s local plan
44 Comments
4 Comments
Where have the other 2000 responses gone? Apparently 6000 questionnaires were returned with views on the Local Plan, why are they only processing 4000?
They’ve probably gone to the same place as the planning documents that went missing several years ago.
“…draft plan consultation to begin, with an independent examination planned for mid-2018.
But it has been pushed back as council officers continue to work through the 6,000 responses.
A spokesman said: “The council is still in the process of reviewing the representations received
following the PDO consultation.”
This was part of a report on 12 January 2018, in the Warrington Guardian. Presumably it came
about from a PR briefing from WBC, since this is the accepted manner in which the council’s
activities are made public.
In view of WBC’s past record, commented on by HEXAFLAGON above, why is our local media not
questioning the substance and apparent discrepancies of the latest information put out by the council
against their earlier PR comments on this important matter?
Have the gravest doubts that our views will be fairly represented.