Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

An inspector has found that Warrington Borough Council's Local Plan core strategy is sound, subject to the inclusion of agreed modifications including the allocation of a 1,100-home urban extension. 

The plan will provide a guide to planning in the borough until 2027. It proposes the construction of a minimum of 10,500 homes over the total plan period of 2006 to 2027, with 9,099 proposed for 2012 to 2027.

Inspector Mike Fox's report included a series of modifications to the plan, which had been agreed with the Council since the draft plan was submitted for examination in September 2012.

One agreed modification was the allocation of 1,100 homes to the Omega-Lingley Mere site in west Warrington, a site initially designated only for employment use. A policy identifying several contingency sites for housing development was removed from the plan due to the likelihood that no development would take place at those locations during the plan period.

The inspector also agreed the inclusion of a new policy stating that the Council would "review its housing land provision, and bring on-stream additional housing sites as required", if monitoring indicated that sufficient deliverable and developable housing land could not be sustained.

"This document provides a robust plan that will shape and protect the way in which our town evolves and develops over the coming decades", said Council leader Terry O'Neill, according to a report in Planning Magazine.

"Importantly it will also support our ambitions for the growth of our town set out in our growth framework Warrington Means Business", said O'Neill.

The Council said that the final version of the plan is intended to go before the council to be approved for adoption on 21 July.

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