WARRINGTON Borough Council’s Inpdependent Group leader Cllr Stuart Mann is asking the valid question – “Is Warrington’s Adopted Local Plan in Tatters?”
When Warrington’s Local Plan was finally adopted in December 2023, residents were told it would provide certainty.
Years of consultation, countless public meetings, independent examination and difficult political decisions culminated in a document that was supposed to establish where development would take place across the borough until 2038. Residents were asked to accept difficult compromises, including significant Green Belt release, because they were assured those sacrifices would provide a clear, long-term strategy for Warrington’s future.
Today, less than three years later, communities across Warrington are once again facing a fresh wave of major housing proposals, many on Green Belt land.
For many residents, one simple question is now being asked. What was the point of the Local Plan?
Thousands of homes… and more still to come
Across Burtonwood, Winwick, Croft and Culcheth, more than 2,000 homes have already been approved or are under construction through the adopted Local Plan.
These include:
• Around 500 homes at Omega West, Burtonwood
• Approximately 1,200 homes at Peel Hall
• 154 homes on Golborne Road, Winwick
• Around 100 homes at Deacon’s Close, Croft
• Around 200 homes off Holcroft Lane, Culcheth.
Residents accepted many of these developments despite strong local opposition because they believed the Local Plan represented Warrington’s settled strategy for growth.
Yet before many of those developments have even been completed, another wave of proposals is already gathering pace.
These include:
• Up to 500 homes at Clay Lane, Burtonwood
• Around 220 homes east of Golborne Road, Winwick
• 200 homes at Turret Hall Farm, Croft
• More than 300 homes off Hob Hey Lane, Culcheth.
Viewed individually, each proposal will be judged on its own planning merits.
Viewed together, they raise a much more uncomfortable question.
Has Warrington’s adopted Local Plan already lost the certainty it promised?
A Promise That Appears to Be Unravelling
The Council’s Preferred Development Option in 2017 carefully assessed different housing growth scenarios before identifying what it believed was the appropriate level of development for Warrington.
That work ultimately led to the adopted Local Plan following years of consultation, revisions, infrastructure assessments and independent examination.
The Plan itself states that its purpose is to provide certainty for residents, developers and service providers about where development will take place during the plan period.
That certainty is now being seriously questioned.
Not because one planning application has appeared.
But because proposal after proposal is now emerging across North Warrington before many of the original Local Plan allocations have even been completed.
Residents are entitled to ask whether the plan they were asked to accept is still the plan Warrington Borough Council is prepared to defend.
Has Labour failed to defend its own plan?
It was Warrington’s Labour administration that promoted the Local Plan as the borough’s blueprint for future growth.
Residents were repeatedly told that difficult decisions had to be made, that Green Belt release was necessary, and that once adopted the Local Plan would provide certainty for communities.
Today that certainty appears to be evaporating.
National planning policy has undoubtedly changed. The Labour Government has increased housing targets and introduced reforms intended to accelerate housebuilding, while concepts such as “Grey Belt” are now being cited by developers promoting further Green Belt schemes.
But changing national policy does not remove the responsibility on Warrington Borough Council to stand by the strategy it asked residents to accept.
If communities were asked to swallow difficult decisions in return for certainty, then surely they have a right to expect that certainty to be defended.
Cllr Stuart Mann, Warrington Borough Councillor for Burtonwood and Winwick, believes confidence in the planning system is now being seriously eroded.
“Residents kept their side of the bargain. They accepted developments they fundamentally disagreed with because they were repeatedly told that once the Local Plan was adopted, Warrington would finally have certainty.
They were told these were the difficult decisions that had to be made. Less than three years later we’re back where we started.
More Green Belt proposals, more uncertainty, more pressure on communities.
It’s little wonder residents are asking whether the Local Plan has already failed.”
He continued: “Nobody disputes that new homes are needed. “The real question is whether Labour now has any strategy left for managing growth.
If proposal after proposal can simply come forward outside the adopted strategy before many allocated developments have even been built, what confidence can residents have that the Local Plan means anything at all?
Roads, schools, GP surgeries, dentists, drainage, utilities and public transport are not optional extras.
They are the foundations of sustainable communities, yet they continue to lag behind housing growth.”
The Local Plan itself acknowledged that Warrington already faced challenges including traffic congestion, ageing infrastructure and pressure on local services. It also recorded that residents’ biggest concerns centred on the scale of development, Green Belt release and infrastructure capacity.
Those concerns have not gone away.
If anything, they have intensified.
Across North and South Warrington, residents are increasingly asking:
• How many more homes?
• How many more Green Belt proposals?
• When will infrastructure finally catch up?
• At what point does cumulative impact become too much?
These are questions that cannot be answered by considering each planning application in isolation.
A spokesperson for Winwick Parish Council said:“After already accepting around 1,400 new homes through the Local Plan, with no new roads, no new school, no new GP surgery, no NHS dentist and only one village shop, our residents are now being asked to contemplate another 200 homes.
“t is becoming increasingly difficult for people to understand how this can still be described as plan-led development.”
Croft Parish Council added: “Our residents now face the real prospect of around 1,000 additional homes within a three-mile radius of the parish, yet meaningful local infrastructure remains conspicuous by its absence.
Communities deserve confidence that cumulative impact is genuinely influencing planning decisions, not simply being acknowledged before the next application arrives.”
The adopted Local Plan was supposed to answer one fundamental question. Where should Warrington grow?
Today, communities across North and South Warrington are asking another.
If Labour’s Local Plan cannot provide the certainty residents were promised less than three years after it was adopted, what was the point of asking communities to accept it in the first place?
