WITH only a week to go before votes are cast in the Winsford Neighbourhood Plan referendum on October 23, campaigners on both sides of the debate have been having their say.

The ‘Yes’ Campaign held a question and answer session at the Dingle Centre on Thursday, October 9.

The meeting sought to dispel some misconceptions about the plan – chiefly, that voting ‘no’ would protect Winsford from housing development.

Chairman of the meeting, Robin Wood, warned that developers would ‘run amok’ in Winsford without a Neighbourhood Plan, and that trying to fend off speculative developments without one would be akin to ‘King Canute trying to hold the tide back’.

“If we have a Neighbourhood Plan then the developers can only build in the areas that are allocated in that Neighbourhood Plan,” he said.

“Anyone who votes ‘no’ is actually helping the developers.”

He added that it was ‘no coincidence’ that developers have fought against Neighbourhood Plans in every part of the country where they have been introduced.

‘Yes’ campaigner, John Malam collated statements from areas where NPs were already enforceable.

A spokesman for Tattenhall said they ‘had been successful in using the NP to hold the developers at bay’ – comments echoed by a spokesman for Thame in Oxfordshire.

Town Clerk, Alan Warburton, responded to questions from resident, Lilian Perriman, who was worried about development of the Flashes.

Mr Warburton pointed out that the Flashes were already under attack from developers – illustrated by the current Bellway Homes proposal – and that the NP introduced protection for 54 acres of Flashes shoreline.

“If you don’t have a Neighbourhood Plan, do people really think they’re not going to build 3,500 houses in Winsford? What we have now is the choice to decide where they’re built,” he said.

Furthermore, he added that Winsford Town Council weren’t mandatorily obliged to set housing land allocations for the NP.

“We could have had a document without allocating housing sites. The NP would have been motherhood and apple pie and we’d have had a 95 per cent Yes vote,” he said.

“But the people of Winsford deserve more than that. They have a right to know where these houses might go.”

What is the Neighbourhood Plan?

The Neighbourhood Plan is a document that sets out where 3,500 new houses and 35 hectares of employment land will be created within Winsford over the next 18 years.

Those new homes and employment land will be created regardless of whether Winsford has an adopted Neighbourhood Plan or not.

What the NP provides is an opportunity to decide where the houses are placed, and what mitigation developers must provide for building new homes – such as creating new cycle paths, leisure areas and civic amenities.

Winsford will bear 3,500 of the 22,000 homes to be built under Cheshire West’s Local Plan – less than Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich will be expected to build.

Of the 3,500 homes, 1,259 are already built or approved to be built in Winsford.

 

THE Save Rilshaw Campaign Group is opposed to the Neighbourhood Plan in its current form.

They say there was a lack of consultation on the plan and are angry about the housing allocation sites.

Winsford resident, Simon Boone, is calling for a postponement of the Neighbourhood Plan.

He spent 24 years in local government, working as a senior development control officer at four separate authorities across Cheshire.

He believes that a Neighbourhood Plan should only have been formulated when Cheshire West’s emerging Local Plan was finalised.

Of the NP he said: “There is no robust evidence or policies to suggest that the impact of development will be satisfactorily and fully mitigated by the developers.”

He wanted stronger agreements built into the plan to prevent developers being able to challenge planning refusal and said people should vote ‘no’.

There has also been anger among the ‘No’ campaigners about ‘Yes’ campaign leaflets distributed throughout Winsford.

The ‘No’ lobby is concerned that the ‘Yes’ campaign is motivated by Darnhall residents wanting to protect themselves from unwanted development – particularly the Darnhall Estates proposal – by campaigning for a document that places ring fenced housing land in neighbouring Winsford.

Responding to the allegations, ‘Yes’ campaigner, Robin Wood, said: “The Darnhall Estates plan for development will not be affected by the referendum.

“The Secretary of State has stated that his decision on the Darnhall Appeal will be issued ‘on or before the October 21’ – two days before the referendum.

“The ‘Yes’ campaign was developed by a Winsford resident from Wharton.

“I believe passionately in the Plan as a near resident and as someone who started a business in Winsford and then, as it became successful, had to move, very reluctantly, to Gadbrook Park in Northwich, because of lack of suitable offices in Winsford.

“That was 20 years ago but there are still no suitable offices in Winsford. The Neighbourhood Plan provides the opportunity to change that.”