The Parish Council took a decision to create a Neighbourhood Plan for the community of Nether Alderley.

Some of you may remember we produced a Parish Plan in 2014, but since then a more powerful Neighbourhood Plan scheme has been introduced across the UK. Neighbourhood planning gives communities direct power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and shape the development and growth of their local area.

A Neighbourhood Plan, it will enable us to play a much stronger role in shaping the area in which we live and work, because a neighbourhood plan forms part of the local development plan, and works alongside the Local Plan.

So decisions on planning applications will be made using both the Local Plan and the Neighbourhood Plan.

About our Neighbourhood Plan

The process was started by Nether Alderley Parish Council after consulting with the community and appointing a steering group to take the process forward. The steering group consisted of Parish Council members and local residents.

The process was designed to identify the needs of the community and with that in mind residents were consulted at each stage of the process. The first step was a questionnaire to find out the issues that concerned local people, followed by meetings to discuss these issues.

From this a set of objectives and policies were written and again meetings were held where residents were invited to examine these  draft objectives in an informal session.

This has now culminated in the production of the consultation version of the Neighbourhood Plan. This was launched on Friday and Saturday 17th & 18th March 2023 with a two-day drop in session at the Parish Hall advertised by a leaflet to all  residents in Nether Alderley including and other stakeholders and businesses.

The drop in session included display boards of all the policies and were people on hand to explain them and take feedback.  The drop in sessions were also the start of the 6-weeks formal so called section 14 consultation which ended on 29th May 2023. It involved consultation with local residents and stakeholders including businesses, schools, Alderley Park, neighbouring parishes neighbouring principal councils and agencies.    

These responses are now being considered and will be reflected in the final version of the Plan together with design guides specific to the Parish. The Plan will then be submitted to a planning inspector for approval. This will be followed by Cheshire East Council holding a local referendum for the Plan’s adoption. It will then become a statutory adjunct to the Local Plan for developers and planning officers to have regard to and to guide planning applications and decisions.

We will keep you informed of progress and will publish here the inspector version of the plan with its design guides when available