How we got ready to prepare a new local plan
We started preparing a new local plan for Cheshire East Borough on 30 October 2026.
Government policy says we should adopt the new plan within 30 months of this date. This is to help ensure we have an up-to-date local plan that responds to the needs of the area and our communities.
This page explains what we did to get ready to meet the 30-month timeframe. It also has links to further information and where you can get updates.
We published a timetable for preparing the plan
The timetable shows when we expect to carry out the different stages and activities for preparing a plan. It helps us check if and how we can adopt the plan within the 30-month timeframe. We’ll keep this updated as we make more progress. The timetable identifies the key milestones for plan making, including anticipated Gateway points, consultation and engagement periods, examination and adoption dates.
The timetable shows a realistic intention to adopt within 30 months, but the council recognise that over a 30month period unplanned delays are to be expected. Sufficient programme contingency, resources and evidence commissioning arrangements are in place to manage potential slippage via the council’s local plan programme management and governance arrangements.
The timetable is regularly reviewed and updated. Should the council decide to undertake further consultation in addition to those elements identified, the timetable will be updated accordingly.
We established project management and governance arrangements
Preparing a local plan is a complex process. It involves many people across the council and from other organisations. Thinking early about how the work is planned, managed and signed off helps us monitor our progress and keep the work on track. It also helps us anticipate and manage any risks to us adopting the plan within 30 months.
The Cheshire East Local Plan is being managed through a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) hosted within the programme. The PMO provides a structured framework for programme control, including a programme roadmap, project planner, financial management, consultant management, stakeholder and engagement registers, and systems for monitoring risks, issues and change requests. This is intended to provide a single source of information for overseeing delivery of the Local Plan and tracking progress against key gateways and milestones.
Governance arrangements are based around formal programme controls and reporting mechanisms managed via SharePoint dashboards. The site includes management and governance document stores, programme briefings, a business case, risk overview, engagement forward plan and protocol documents. Dedicated risk, issues and change logs support escalation and decision-making, while products are tracked by status, plan-making stage and delivery responsibility to provide transparency and accountability across the programme.
The council's approach also emphasises collaboration and stakeholder management. The governance structure is supported by registers covering consultants, stakeholders and engagement activities, alongside evidence gathering and project delivery workstreams. Updates on community assemblies, publication management and risk reporting demonstrate an active governance process that monitors programme performance, manages external inputs and ensures engagement and evidence activities are coordinated across the plan-making process.
We planned how we’ll consult on the plan
Public consultation is essential for the local plan to represent the needs of our communities. It must be easy for people to have their say in a way that works for them, so they can influence the way the area develops. By planning this early, we can ensure people are aware in advance and can get involved from the start.
We have undertaken a scoping consultation to get people’s views on what the plan could contain and how we propose to consult on the plan at key stages.
During the scoping consultation period, Cheshire East Council has adopted a combination of formal consultation, digital engagement and community-based participation to gather views on the new Local Plan. The council published a statutory scoping consultation inviting comments on what the plan should contain and how future engagement should be undertaken, with representations being accepted between 21 July and 1 September 2026. The consultation focuses on the scope, content and priorities for the new Local Plan and forms part of the preparatory work ahead of Gateway 1.
Engagement has been supported through a dedicated Local Plan website and internal programme SharePoint environment, with consultation materials, background information and programme updates made available digitally. The programme also maintains stakeholder and engagement registers, a forward engagement and communications plan and publication management arrangements to coordinate consultation activity and monitor participation.
The council has also supplemented the formal consultation with the first in a programme of up to 5 Community Assembly events, bringing a wide range of residents together to discuss the key issues, challenges and opportunities facing Cheshire East. The first Community Assembly event was successfully held in August 2026, focusing on discussing matters that should inform the plan and is being used to help develop the emerging plan. Together, the statutory consultation, stakeholder engagement programme and community assemblies demonstrate an approach that combines broad public consultation with more deliberative and qualitative forms of community engagement.
- Proposed local plan engagement strategy (as set out in the scoping consultation)
We began scoping the content of the plan
Scoping includes considering how well the existing plan is working and gathering baseline information about the area. This helps to identify our future needs and ambitions. Starting this early means we can begin preparing the new plan with a clear vision, making it quicker and easier to consult on the plan and make decisions about it. Multiple evidence base work has begun, including preparation of a ‘Baseline Report’.
A scoping paper was published alongside the scoping consultation, thematically describing key issues the council faces. This document provided a substantive set of information for stakeholders to respond to, in addition to any matters that were specifically important to them and not covered by the paper.
Some 6,000 individual comments were received to the scoping consultation from around 1,600 consultees. Consultation responses were strongly focused on the scale, location and impact of future development across Cheshire East. Respondents generally supported an evidence-led, infrastructure-led and environmentally responsible approach to planning, with widespread support for prioritising brownfield and regeneration sites before considering greenfield or Green Belt land.
Key concerns related to the protection of the Green Belt, countryside, biodiversity and agricultural land, alongside the capacity of existing roads, schools, healthcare services, drainage and utilities to accommodate future growth. Many respondents questioned the scale of proposed housing growth, called for greater transparency in site assessment and decision-making, and emphasised that development should be sustainable, proportionate and supported by the timely delivery of infrastructure.
Overall, while many recognised the need for new homes and economic growth, there was a strong expectation that future development should protect Cheshire East's environmental assets, respect local character, and be supported by robust evidence and infrastructure planning.
We began a Strategic Environmental Assessment
We are legally required to identify, describe and evaluate likely significant effects on the environment of:
- implementing the local plan
- reasonable alternatives, taking into account the plan’s objectives and scope
This process will consider how community, national and international environmental protection objectives and any other environmental challenges are taken into account in the plan. It will help us to predict significant environmental effects and develop ways of preventing, reducing and offsetting these.
It is important we start this work early and are transparent about how we’re doing the assessment when engaging stakeholders and communities.
The council has made good early progress on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process. In accordance with the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004, an initial SEA screening statement has been prepared to determine whether the new Cheshire East Local Plan is likely to have significant environmental effects and therefore requires a full SEA. Following assessment against the prescribed criteria in Schedule 1 of the Regulations, the council concluded that the new Local Plan should be subject to Strategic Environmental Assessment.
The council has also undertaken consultation on the screening statement as part of the early plan-making process. The period for making comments on the screening determination has now concluded, demonstrating that statutory consultees and interested parties have had the opportunity to provide views on the proposed approach.
The council has now considered the representations received and published a formal SEA determination statement. This will establish the basis for undertaking a full SEA alongside preparation of the Local Plan, ensuring that environmental considerations are integrated into the development of the plan's vision, spatial strategy, policies and site allocations from an early stage.
The council has identified relevant plans and programmes that have a relationship with the local plan, collected baseline information, identified environmental protection objectives, and begun to develop the scope and level of detail intended to be included in the environmental report. Additionally, the council has also started to develop SEA objectives to assess the environmental performance of the plan.
We have commissioned evidence, secured resources and engaged members.
The council has established an extensive evidence programme to support preparation of the new Local Plan. Through the Local Plan PMO, dedicated arrangements are in place for managing commissioned consultants, monitoring evidence production and tracking delivery of plan outputs. Work is being coordinated through evidence gathering and project delivery workstreams, supported by consultant registers, programme planning tools and publication management systems.
A significant amount of evidence is already being commissioned or prepared, covering the full range of matters required to support a new-style Local Plan, including housing needs assessment, employment needs assessment, transport modelling, infrastructure review, environmental background evidence, commissioning of a strategic design code, minerals and waste needs evidence, and sustainability considerations. Early outputs from the evidence base are expected to emerge and be published in the coming months.
Further evidence commissions are planned throughout the programme, particularly during the period leading up to the consultation on proposed plan content and evidence in 2027. The council's timetable envisages ongoing evidence gathering as a core component of plan preparation, with information being assembled, published and consulted upon before progressing through Gateway 2, Gateway 3 and examination. The overall approach demonstrates a broad and evolving evidence programme designed to ensure that the plan is robust, proportionate and capable of meeting the tests of soundness.
The council has also actively aligned its programme with the government's reformed plan-making system and associated support programmes, using external funding opportunities where available to help deliver the new Local Plan within the statutory 30-month timetable. These include participating in ‘Pathway’s to Planning’, the ‘Digital Planning Improvement Programme’, and the ‘Plan Making Support Fund’. Further, prior to commencement an internal review of capacity lead to a restructure of the Strategic Planning Team and via the medium-term financial strategy, a financial commitment to secure the resource necessary to ensure delivery of the plan programme.
The council has engaged members throughout the early stages of Local Plan preparation through its governance arrangements, political oversight processes and wider consultation programme. The Local Plan timetable confirms that the plan is being prepared as a council-led process, with key milestones, consultations and eventual plan adoption requiring member involvement and decision-making. Member engagement is supported through the programme's governance framework, which includes management and governance workstreams, programme briefings, forward planning and structured reporting arrangements via a specific Member Reference Group, via the Councils Cabinet and through all-member briefings. These mechanisms provide opportunities for councillors to oversee progress, consider emerging issues and help shape the direction of the plan as it develops.
In parallel, councillors have been able to participate in and observe wider engagement activities, including the scoping consultation and Community Assembly programme, helping to ensure that local concerns, priorities and opportunities identified by residents are understood and reflected as the plan progresses.
How to stay up to date
All updates on the local plan can be accessed via our website and interested parties can sign-up to receive updates on plan preparation.