| From 1 April 2009, Cheshire West and Chester Council is the new Council replacing Chester City Council, Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council, Vale Royal Borough Council and the western part of Cheshire County Council. The pages and documents through this website may contain branding and information relevant to the old councils, but are being made available because they are still relevant to our customers. We are continuing to update all materials on the Cheshire West and Chester website and aim to remove all references to the old Councils by the end of the year (2009). |
Local Plan
What is the Local Plan?
In England and Wales, the town and country planning system largely provides the framework for land use. Its purpose is to regulate the development and use of land in the public interest and contribute to the objective of ensuring that development and growth are sustainable. District Councils set out more detailed planning policies in their Local Plans, which guide development in their areas including proposals for specific sites.
It is a legal requirement that all Local Authorities prepare a Local Plan to provide complete and comprehensive coverage of its area. It is also vital that Local Plans are kept up-to-date and regularly reviewed to take account of changing circumstances.
Since the adoption of the Vale Royal Borough Local Plan First Review in June 2001, there have been significant changes in the Government's planning policies and changes were therefore needed to the First Review to keep it in line with this new advice.
The Council decided to undertake an Alteration to the Plan rather than a full review. This means there are changes to key areas of the Plan where policies needed to be brought up-to-date such as the housing policies.
As part of the Alteration the time period covered by the Plan has been extended to 2016 and will therefore cover the same time span as the Cheshire 2016 Structure Plan Alteration prepared by Cheshire County Council.
The Council received a wide range of views, through public consultation, and these were taken into account in drawing up revisions to policies. The Local Plan First Review Alteration: Redeposit was subject to a public inquiry between 13 September 2005 and 1 December 2005. Following the Inquiry the Council received the binding Inspector's Report in April 2006, which contained the Inspector's recommendations for amendments to the Plan as a result of the Inquiry.
The Council made the amendments to the Plan that are set out in the Inspectors Report and the Vale Royal Borough Local Plan First Review Alteration was adopted on 16 June 2006. The text of the Adopted Local Plan is available to download using the links.
We are currently preparing the first of our Local Development Framework documents, for more information follow the link form this page.
