Purpose

Cheshire East Council has a legal duty to provide advice and assistance on neighbourhood plans, to hold an independent examination on neighbourhood plans submitted to the Council, and to arrange for a referendum following a favourable examiner’s report.

Subject to the modifications set out in the examiner’s report, the Weston and Crewe Green Neighbourhood Plan is considered to meet the statutory tests held in the ‘Basic Conditions’, and procedural requirements set out in paragraph 8 of Schedule 10 to the Localism Act 2011. As such the plan can now proceed to referendum.

Holding a referendum on the Weston and Crewe Green Neighbourhood Plan will enable the local community to vote on whether the plan should be used to determine planning applications in the neighbourhood area and bring the plan into statutory effect. The Weston and Crewe Green Neighbourhood Plan, as amended, will contribute to the strategic aims set out in the CELPS and upon the outcome of a successful referendum result will form part of the Development Plan for Cheshire East. Following the referendum, the Council is required to ‘make’ the neighbourhood plan, confirming its status as part of the Development Plan for the specified area.

Decision

Accept the examiner’s recommendations to make modifications to the Weston and Crewe Green Neighbourhood Plan (Appendix 3) as set out in Weston and Crewe Green Neighbourhood Plan examiner’s report (Appendix 1); and confirm that it is the Council’s intent to hold a referendum on the Weston and Crewe Green Neighbourhood Plan (as amended), within the Weston and Crewe Green neighbourhood area (Appendix 2), at the earliest possible opportunity.