THE Liberal Democrat Group on Warrington Borough Council has voiced its opposition to the new version of the proposed Local Plan for the Borough with public consultation set to start on April 15.
Lib Dem Members voted against the Plan at the end of a debate in the Town Hall on Monday evening, as seven Liberal Democrat councillors spoke out during the debate.
Cllr Ryan Bate said, “The Liberal Democrats fully recognise the need for Warrington to have a robust Local Plan. We recognise that Warrington cannot stand still. There is an urgent need for housing, especially housing that is truly affordable. There is a need for employment land. There is a great need to address our current infrastructure failings and we also have a moral obligation to redress the social and economic inequalities across our town. Unfortunately, we do not believe that the draft Local Plan we have before us will achieve those things.
“As a country, we are obsessed with economic growth – this plan is obsessed with economic growth – but economic growth is not an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. We know we must find solutions to our problems and that requires some growth, but surely not to the extent that we actually make lives poorer and destroy our environment.
“If we’re sincere about delivering a housing mix and affordability, we need to properly balance the housing mix with the local jobs mix. Otherwise we will just build more commuter estates, adding to the traffic chaos we see everyday. The whole garden suburb and south west extension concepts, their location and scale, are illogical and unwanted. It shows that the Council has not listened at all to the thousands of previous consultation respondents who expressed outrage at those proposals.
“We must reduce the overall housing numbers and protect our Green Belt. We must be ambitious for the future but make it a future that balances our aspirations for tomorrow with the concerns of people today.”
Cllr Brian Axcell expressed his concern about the current congestion in the town especially on the A49 through Stockton Heath and his horror at the idea of thousands of extra cars from the proposed developments.
Cllr Sharon Harris wondered whether funding would be forthcoming for the Western Relief Link. If it wasn’t, what was Plan B? Would we have houses without infrastructure? But if funding was forthcoming, then the much-loved area of Moore Nature Reserve would be blighted.
Cllr Peter Walker was very worried about the effect on air quality in Stockton Heath.
Cllr Judith Wheeler said that it was a developer’s paradise to allocate vast areas of land in South Warrington to build houses that were not affordable to most people, so creating an affluent commuter suburb which is not desirable for the town.
Cllr Ian Marks stated there was widespread agreement that Warrington needed a new hospital but was worried this might be many years away. It was essential that new and improved health facilities were built along with new homes, not afterwards.
Group Leader Cllr Bob Barr added, “This new version of the Plan does not provide a distinctive vision for the future of our town. The phrase Garden Suburb jars with people’s own vision of being village dwellers. This Local Plan is a political failure with a lack of vision, a lack of consultation, a lack of participation and a lack of any serious willingness to compromise. It is a work in progress, not the finished product. Warrington deserves better.”
Meanwhile Warrington’s ‘Proposed Submission Version’, or draft, Local Plan will pave the way to a nine-week period of public consultation, which will begin on Monday 15 April.
The council say the consultation period will give everyone in Warrington the opportunity to have their say on the plan, by completing an online response form, or by attending the public consultation events – details of which will be released in the near future.
Warrington Borough Council Leader, Cllr Russ Bowden, said: “Our Local Plan will be hugely influential in shaping Warrington’s future. Everyone who lives and works here will be affected by the Plan and what it sets out to achieve – which is a more prosperous future for our borough.
Cllr Russ Bowden
“Now Full Council has given the go-ahead to consult on our draft Local Plan, we can begin the next important stage of the process, which is talking and listening to the people of Warrington.
“The consultation period officially begins on 15 April, but we want to provide people with as much information as possible before then. The draft Plan is available to view on the Council’s website, right now. We will also be writing to households in the borough with full details of the consultation and the public events we will be holding.”
Drawn up in accordance with Government planning guidance, and informed by feedback from the public, the draft plan sets out the legal planning framework for the borough’s development over the next two decades.
It aims to deliver 18,900 new homes (or 945 per year), until 2037. It also aims to support Warrington’s ongoing economic growth by making 362 hectares of employment land available.
The minimum number of new homes set by the Government exceeds the amount of urban and brownfield land available in Warrington. The plan, therefore, proposes unlocking some areas of Green Belt land for development to provide more homes and employment land.
Detailed work carried out by the Council has found that it is possible to deliver approximately 14,000 new homes and 111 hectares of employment in existing urban areas. This means that the remainder of land for housing and employment would need to be released from the Green Belt.
The council say the draft Local Plan will ensure that the infrastructure required to support Warrington’s growth will be appropriately phased with new development.
For more information, and to read the draft Local Plan, visit warrington.gov.uk/localplan
Bradley Farm at Grappenhall – one of the Green Belt sites under threat
Council approves Draft Local Plan – see how your councillor voted
