Key background to the Wilmslow Vision process

This is quite a long post, but it's definitely worth a read if you want to understand the full picture behind how Wilmslow fits into the wider plans for growth in Cheshire East, what the real requirements for growth in Wilmslow are (not the ones in the Wilmslow Vision document!), and therefore what our realistic options are based on Government Policy.


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Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment

A number of potential development sites in and around Wilmslow are mapped out and assessed for suitability in Cheshire East's Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment ("SHLAA"), updated February 2012.  This shows the areas proposed in the Wilmslow Vision much more accurately.  It also contains important information about the planning constraints on each site, eg lack of sustainability, access, flood risk, etc, which should be contained in the missing Sustainability Report (which we understand is at least a month from being available).  You can find the Cheshire East SHLAA here

From this page you can download the "Handforth and Wilmslow Area Plan" which gives an overview of sites which Cheshire East have identified as having potential for housing.

For a map of each site, download the relevant documents:


Area Ba - Site 3277
Area Bb - Sites 3532, 3358, 3479Area Bc - Site 3150Area Ha - Site 3292Area Hb - Site 3529


I believe the other sites in the Wilmslow Vision will also be contained in here, although we are not as familiar with these areas so couldn't state exactly what reference numbers they have.




Core Strategy Issues and Options Paper (2010)

This document has been put together by Cheshire East's planning team, and considers the various options for accommodating growth across the county as a whole.  It considers two key questions:

(a) what level of growth should be targeted for Cheshire East (low, medium or high), and

(b) what should the spatial distribution of new houses be across Cheshire East?

Low = 23,000 new houses, Medium = 26,950, and High = 32,000.  The document favours a High growth strategy, although this was up for consultation and I don't think this has been decided upon / announced for sure.

Four spatial distribution options are considered, which were put out to public consultation and the document doesn't favour any particular option over the others.  They are:

Option 1: Growth in Crewe and Key Service Centres outside of Green Belt (this option results in 2% of the total new houses in Cheshire East being built in Wilmslow, ie 460, 539, or 640 new houses, depending on whether a low, medium or high growth strategy is selected for Cheshire East as a whole)

Option 2: Growth in Crewe and Macclesfield and Key Service Centres outside of the Green Belt (again, 2% for Wilmslow, so between 460 and 640 new houses)

Option 3: Growth in Crewe and Macclesfield and Accessible Towns (including destruction of Green Belt) (7% for Wilmslow - ie 1,610, 1,886, or 2,200 new houses depending on a low, medium, or high growth strategy)

Option 4: Rural Dispersion (like options 1 and 2, 2% for Wilmslow, so between 460 and 640 houses)

From this, it can be seen that even if a High growth strategy is adopted, there is only one Spatial Option that could result in Wilmslow needing more than 640 houses.  This is Spatial Option 3.  However, this option requires the widespread destruction of Green Belt across the county.  Given the very strong re-endorsement of the importance of Green Belt in the recent National Planning Policy Framework (see below), then we believe very strongly that Option 3 is not compatible with Planning Policy and therefore cannot be used.

In fact, it is not just Friends of Dean Row that believes that option 3 is not possible: Broadway Malyan (the planning consultancy which has drafted the Wilmslow Vision) has also stated that Option 1 is the only possible option for achieving high growth! In a document produced on behalf of Muller Property Group, Broadway Malyan states:

"Option 1 is the only strategy which would be able to deliver the level of growth which Cheshire East have signed up to and are seeking to achieve."

"The release of Green Belt Land should be the last resort and only be considered as a viable proposal where there are no other viable alternative options available. In this case the release of Green Belt land is unjustified given that there are other more sustainable alternatives.

“The release of Green Belt Land around the smaller towns and villages and key service centres in the north of the borough is likely to have an adverse impact on the established character of these more rural parts of the borough."

It is clear, therefore, that the 1,500 houses proposed by the Wilmslow Vision document is utter fantasy.