Chester
| Officers | |
|---|---|
| Chairman: | Roger Parkin/Randal Hibbert (alternating) |
| Secretary | Vacant |
| Treasurer: | Roger Parkin |
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Contact Name: | Mr Randal Hibbert |
| Email: | info@cprecheshire.org.uk |
| Telephone Number: | 01244 300667 |
| Fax Number: | 01244 300667 |
Meeting Frequency and Venue
Normally monthly at a member's home.
All members are welcome to come along and find out the latest news in the District.
Please contact us to find out the date and venue of the next meeting.
How You Can Help
We welcome help on all fronts but some specific needs are: Minutes Secretary, Secretarial help (see below), letter writers, leaflet distributors
Situation(s) Open
The Chester District of CPRE would particularly like to hear from a member living in or near the Upton area of Chester who may be able to provide the Planning Coordinator with secretarial assistance. The job would be confined to typing an average of about four letters per week from freehand drafts.
It would be helpful if you were computer literate but this is not essential; an ability on an ordinary typewriter would still be most helpful.
Please respond to the Branch Office in the first instance.
General Notes
Please contact us via the link above if you would like to find out more about Chester Zoo's plans to build a giant biodome on green belt land beside the Zoo. The Zoo's development team intend to submit a planning application to Cheshire West and Chester council in September 2009.
Current Issues
Chester City Council - Draft Core Strategy
The Chester District CPRE have issued a response to the Chester City Council draft core strategy. The principles of the response are:
1. We strongly support the well-tested Green Belt policy for Chester, which has been consistently backed by local communities, successive Secretaries of State and Inspectors at Public Inquiries over the last 20 years
2. We continue to support regeneration of previously developed land and neglected areas in need of redevelopment as the main focus for future development
3. We believe strongly in the need for the local community’s consent for development of allsites, and particularly greenfield ones.
The full response can be read here:
cprecheshire.org.uk/linked documents/2008 Chester Options Response.pdf
West Cheshire and North East Wales Sub-regional Study - fundamentally flawed
CPRE Cheshire Branch has produced a detailed critique of the evolving planning and economic strategy for the West Cheshire and North East Wales Sub-Region which it believes is fundamentally flawed. West Cheshire/North East Wales has been identified as one of the other key sub-regional areas for the purposes of the Regional Spatial Strategy, in addition to the 'City Regions'.
Written, in the main, by John Wesencraft, the Branch's Planning Adviser, the critique maintains that the unsustainable commuting patterns identified between North East Wales and Chester and between Chester and farther afield would actually become worse if a 'high economic growth' strategy were adopted for this sub-region.
It points out that the study work carried out by consultants to date has only looked at the identified sub-region as a single unit: it has neither examined the inter-relationship between the English and Welsh Districts it covers nor looked at the effects on the wider region of concentrating economic growth in this already 'over-heated' area.
The submission made by CPRE Cheshire Branch can be viewed here.
Chester Railway Station
CPRE was invited to respond to proposals for changes to the forecourt at Chester Railway Station. Our comments supported proposals for increased pedestrian area in front of the station and the re-location of the mini-roundabout to the end of Brook Street, but regret that changes are now being implemented in the absence of a master plan for the station as a whole.
We recommended that the position of the mini-roundabout should be considered temporary until a Development Brief is provided for the East and West station car parks. This Brief should, we believe, address the issue of increasing rail users' car parking and providing accommodation for increased bus services which have been identified by Cheshire County Council's report Future Operation of Bus Services from Chester Railway Station (June 2006). We strongly believe that there is an urgent need to recognise that additional space will be required to accommodate increased bus services and increased rail users' car parking.
We fully support the North West Regional Spatial Strategy's identification of Chester Station as a key Regional Transport Interchange and the Cheshire Structure Plan's policy for a new Transport Interchange at Chester Railway Station. We support the Government policy which promotes improved and increased car parking at railway stations to encourage more travel by rail for the major part of the journey as a more sustainable alternative to the car.
Waste Recovery Park on Ince Marshes
CPRE supports Chester City Council and Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council in objecting to proposals by Peel Holdings for a Waste Recovery Park on the Ince Marshes.
Our main concern is that the massive scale of the proposed development would encourage and promote the importation of waste, not only from the North West Region but also from other parts of the UK and overseas by water, rail and road with problems of control and monitoring of the material and origin of the waste.
The Ince Marshes are a greenfield site. We believe the proposals would have an unacceptable visual impact on the important views and landscape and there would be a substantial reduction in the quantity of wildlife habitat and feeding grounds.
Increased heavy road traffic, increased odour and noise levels and emissions would have a harmful effect on nearby village, particularly Ince and Elton.
We are pleased that Cheshire County Council have refused the scheme, partly on the grounds that it is incompatible with the current Waste Management Plan, backing up the earlier opposition of Chester City Council and Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council.
Beeston Railway Station
CPRE has long campaigned for the re-opening of Beeston railway station as a rural transport hub linking with local buses serving the Peckforton Hills and surrounding villages, which are a popular tourist area.
We were delighted that Cheshire County Council have included re-opening the station in their local transport plan, but very disappointed that a consultant's report assessing the feasibility of services from the station concluded against reopening the station. See http://www.cheshire.gov.uk/TransportAndRoads/beestonrailway/.
We believe that the survey took insufficient notice of local support and of the potential traffic generated by visitors to this popular area.
CPRE would like to remind all those campaigning for the re-opening of the station that Chester's Local Plan contains a policy (TR11) which says: "Land for the re-opening of Beeston Station will be safeguarded for passenger services and is identified on the proposals map". As the Local Plan is now adopted, more weight should be given to this policy.
West Cheshire College Planning Permission
We have supported Chester City Councillors in their refusal (by a unanimous decision in the Planning sub-committee and by 36 to 6 in the full Council) of planning permission for the re-location of West Cheshire College on strong planning grounds.
The proposal for the construction of 135 new housing units on the Handbridge campus (to pay for the move) would, we believe, be inappropriate development in the Green Belt and would set a dangerous precedent for further challenges to the Green Belt on the edge of the City. The change of use of the Greenbank Centre for offices and the construction of new houses would contravene the Cheshire Structure Plan and the City Council's restraint policy on new windfall housing development.
CPRE supported Chester Civic Trust and the Conservation Area Advisory Committee in their objection to the over-bearing massing of the proposed new College building at Northgate and its potential for overspill parking in the surrounding area.
CPRE appreciates that West Cheshire College wishes to upgrade and improve college facilities but has seen no evidence to justify the very special circumstances that would clearly outweigh the harm to the Green Belt.
Chester District Local Plan
After almost 20 years of revision, the Chester District Local Plan has finally been adopted. We have been active in monitoring and, where appropriate, seeking to influence the final review stages of the Local Plan. Now it is finally in place, we will continue to monitor adherence to the plan, particularly where proposals are brought forward which are not allowed for in the Plan.
Chester's Green Belt
The fight to safeguard Chester's Green Belt goes back a long way. In 1987, Chester City Council proposed rolling back the Green Belt by 1,000 acres to allow the expansion of Chester. CPRE members put forward a strong case for the protection of the Green Belt which led to the intervention of the Secretary of State. Successive Secretaries of State and Planning Inspectors have continued to back the importance of the Green Belt to Chester and the Green Belt has, so far, remained in place.
The most recent challenge to Chester's Green Belt comes from the draft Regional Spatial Strategy. Chester District has been targeted for 7,500 new homes and a second Business Park. These are based on claims - which CPRE strongly challenges - in the West Cheshire and North East Wales Sub-Regional Strategy for Green Belt release.
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