Planning Delays for Cheshire West

Cheshire West and Chester are restarting the process of producing the Local Plan. 

The Local Plan is the key strategic planning document for the Local Authority, and will have important repercussions for housing and other development. CWAC have had to restart the Local Plan process to conform with changed national legislation,

The first stage is a high level consultation on "main issues and priorities". CWAC have said that they will also use the input from the same stage undertaken last summer in their first attempt at revising the Local Plan.  

Unfortunately, the delay means that the Borough will stay without  'key planning policies' for a longer period, leaving more leeway for developers to pick advantageous sites for development. 

The full communication says

We are preparing a new Local Plan for Cheshire West and Chester. It will replace the policies in the current Local Plan and will also cover minerals and waste.

The new Local Plan will guide decisions about how land is used and developed. For example, it will help decide where new homes and jobs could go and how the environment could be protected.

As required by the regulations, we published a formal notice of intention to commence Local Plan preparation and Local Plan timetable on 12 June 2026.

The next stage is a scoping consultation, to seek views on what the new Local Plan should contain, and how future consultation and engagement should be carried out.

We are now inviting views on the scoping consultation until 5pm on 28 September 2026.

This is a short, early-stage consultation designed to help us identify the main issues and priorities for the new Local Plan. As more detailed proposals are developed, there will be further opportunities to comment.

Full details of the consultation and how to respond are available on our Local Plan scoping consultation webpage.