Good afternoon,

The Parish Council recently received notification that the outline planning application for the field adjacent to Northgate and John Street, that was refused by CWaC in November 2017, has gone to the Planning Inspectorate as an appeal. The graphic below shows the notification.

What this means is that the appeal will be heard by an impartial Planning Inspector appointed by the Inspectorate and that this particular appeal will be ‘heard’ through written representations. The cut-off for submissions is 11 September 2018.

It is worth noting that this application was refused on grounds of landscape amenity and not on the grounds of affordable housing.  The Inspector will, we are advised, ignore any representations (submissions) that are repetitions of what has gone before as an original objection(s) – so if you are considering a representation, please try to make sure it is new and related only to landscape and environment and its impact on the community.

We quote the Decision Notice by CWaC:

“The proposals would not be in keeping with the local landscape setting, contrary to the requirement of policy SOC2 and it is also considered that the proposals would be harmful to the existing landscape character and local distinctiveness and would not preserve or enhance the characters or features for which the ASCV (Area of Special County Value) has been designated. For these reasons the scheme conflicts with the relevant parts of policies SOC2, STRAT9 and ENV2 of the Cheshire West and Chester Local Plan (Part One) and retained policy NE11 of the Vale Royal Borough Local Plan”

You can make a representation online by logging on to the Planning Inspectorate website (https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/CaseSearch.aspx ) in the ‘Case Reference’ enter 3196169 and search, this will open the same page as above and click on ‘Make a representation’.

If you wish to make a postal representation then this is the address:

FAO C Nash – Case Officer  – Case No 3196169

The Planning Inspectorate

Temple Quay House,

2 The Square, Bristol

Avon, BS1 6PN

Both the Parish Council and the Utkinton Green Space Action Group are considering what course of action to take and this may result in a public meeting to outline the options.

We will keep you informed on our website as to the next stage – please check www.utkintonandcotebrook.com for further information.  If you would wish to comment then please do so by using this link https://utkintonandcotebrook.com/220-2/

On behalf of

Utkinton and Cotebrook Parish Council.