Cheshire East Council is being forced to do MPs’ ‘dirty work’ and produce a future ‘environmentally damaging’ local plan to tackle the housing crisis, an angry councillor claimed.
Local councillors have to decide what fields get destroyed
Cllr Mark Goldsmith (Wilmslow, Ind) launched a blistering attack on the MPs saying, over the years, both the Conservatives and Labour were responsible for the planning and housing ‘mess’.
And he said now councillors were being forced to develop local plans which would see trees and hedgerows destroyed to build the 1.5 million homes demanded by the Labour government.
Speaking yesterday (Thursday) as Cheshire East agreed to put out a call for new development sites for when it updates the local plan, Cllr Goldsmith said:
Ordinarily, I would instantly vote against all this environmental destruction, but unfortunately, it is not that simple, because the decision to build on our green fields has already been made by central government.
So, if we approve this proposal, then the council will ultimately decide which fields will be dug up, but if we reject it, the developers will decide which fields are dug up.
So however we vote, there is no option to not dig up our fields.
MPs are responsible for the mess, councilors get to do the dirty work
The Wilmslow councillor told yesterday’s meeting of the environment and communities committee, MPs were responsible for the ‘mess’ and ‘our new local plan is how they will make councillors do their dirty work to try and tackle the housing crisis’.
He continued:
So I urge the public to direct their understandable anger about house building and the loss of our green fields towards our MPs and not the councillors who have to make today’s impossible decision, because we do not want to do this…
Put the blame for this environmental damage squarely where it belongs, and that’s with parliament and our local MPs.
Wybunbury councillor Janet Clowes (Con) agreed. She said:
In terms of going forward with this, we don’t have any choice in the sense that if we don’t do it, then the developers will.
Eco-friendly housing could soften the blow?
Macclesfield councillor Sarah Bennett-Wake (Lab) said people need homes to live in. She calls for eco-friendly housing
What we need is the right type of housing to be built in the right place, at the right time, with the right services.
I would actually insist in our local plan that we build social housing, truly affordable housing, and shared housing so that everyone has an opportunity for a home.
We can’t just protect the land for our own benefit for those who’ve already got a home to live in.
People deserve homes, and we should work together to find the most suitable places and most suitable kinds of homes for the need, that should be evidence based.
Cllr Lesley Smetham (Gawsworth, Con) said:
We have no option to start the work on our local plan to take as much control as possible.
An article by Local Democracy reporter Belinda Ryan.
