BACKGROUND AND AIMS
The Town Council started work on a Neighbourhood Plan for Winsford (WNP) in early 2012.
The primary aim of the WNP was to set out a vision for the future of the town.
To support this primary aim, a number of policies were to be a part of the WNP including: –
The vision developed as a result of this process was “To Make Winsford a Better Place to Live, Work and Visit”.
Documents relating to the development of the Plan can be found here.
CONSULTATION AND EXAMINATION
Many local people were involved in producing the Plan and provided the Town Council with great ideas and useful comments as part of a formal consultation period which ran from 26th November 2012 to 21st January 2013 (extended to 4th February 2013).
A full draft Neighbourhood Plan was then produced which was considered by Winsford Town Council on 15th April 2013.
The Town Council agreed that the Plan be submitted to Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) on 15th July 2013 for CWAC to check that it met certain conditions and conformed to relevant Strategic Planning Documents including the emerging Local Plan. The Plan was duly submitted to CWAC on this date.
The next stage of the process was the Publication Stage which was conducted by CWAC and ran from 15th July 2013 until 5pm on Monday 16th September 2013. At its meeting on 21st October 2013 the Town Council considered representations received during the Publication Stage and agreed to allow the Plan to go forward to Independent Examination.
The Independent Examiner’s report is available to download here
PUBLIC REFERENDUM
On 3rd September 2014 the Examiner’s report was considered at a meeting of the Cheshire West and Chester Council Executive, where it was decided that minor modifications should be made to the Winsford Neighbourhood Plan, as set out in the examiner’s report, and that the plan proceed to a public referendum.
The WNP referendum was on Thursday 23 October 2014. The result of the referendum was 69% in favour and 31% against, based on the question: –
“Do you want Cheshire West and Chester Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for the Winsford area to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?”
Further information about the referendum is provided in the information statement and referendum notice.
The referendum’s ‘yes’ vote means the Winsford Neighbourhood Plan – formally ‘made’ by Cheshire West and Chester Council on 19th November 2014 – has to be taken into account in local planning decisions.
WINSFORD NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
The final Neighbourhood Plan document is available from the Important Documents section of this website.
Copies are also available for inspection at the Town Council Offices in Wyvern House and at both Winsford Libraries.
Also available is a Decision Statement, setting out the nature of the changes made to the Neighborhood Plan and the following specified documents including:
For further information on the neighborhood plan please contact Winsford Town Council mail@winsford.gov.uk, tel 01606 593582 or Cheshire West and Chester Council, telephone 01244 973201.
OTHER LINKS
The Council is grateful to have received a grant from the Community Development Foundation under its Supporting Communities in Neighborhood Planning Programme.