NO work is expected to take place on Middlewich’s neighbourhood plan while the Government considers dramatic reforms to the planning process.

Middlewich became the first town in England to reject a neighbourhood plan at referendum last March, following a ‘vote no’ campaign led by the Labour group while in opposition.

Since taking control of the council last May, a second go at the neighbourhood plan has been on the town council’s to-do list.

But Cllr Mike Hunter, chairman of Middlewich Town Council, told Monday night’s meeting that the work on the plan is now at a ‘hiatus’ due to the changes currently being proposed nationwide.

“There is no point in progressing it at the moment,” he said.

“With the way that the white paper is going to deal with such things, neighbourhood plans will be a waste of time.”

“We need to make sure that we are going to make the right ground.”

One of the ideas the Government is putting forward in its review of planning is to keep neighbourhood plans ‘as an important means of community input’ – but they could ‘become more focused’ to reflect the Government’s other proposals.

These include dividing up land into three categories – ‘growth’ areas for substantial development with automatic permission for outline planning applications, ‘renewal’ areas that would be considered for some development, and ‘protect’ areas with tougher controls.

“This white paper that Boris Johnson is putting forward is disastrous,” Cllr Hunter added.

“It’s disastrous for us in Middlewich, because it just going to mean absolutely loads and loads of houses.”

Middlewich MP Fiona Bruce has previously urged residents to take part in the consultation, with the area having already ‘seen a lot of development in recent years’.

But Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick says his reforms would lead to a ‘significantly simpler, faster and more predictable system’ and are about ‘cutting red tape, but not standards’.

See gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future