Consultation Portal

There is now a strong focus on local authorities identifying sufficient land to deliver their housing requirement over a 15-year period as well as demonstrating a continuous five-year supply of deliverable housing sites.  Therefore, as required by Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3), Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) has undertaken a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).

The SHLAA is an assessment of how many units can be accommodated on identified sites and the timeframes for when these sites are likely to be available.  The exercise also identifies constraints associated with bringing potential sites forward and how and when these can be removed to help improve the potential for housing.

It is important to make clear that the SHLAA does not in itself determine whether a site should be allocated for housing and a site's inclusion in the SHLAA does not imply a site will be allocated for housing or that alternative uses should not be considered.  However, the SHLAA is an important piece of evidence which will inform the Local Development Framework, particularly the Core Strategy.

Following consultation in November and December 2010, the first SHLAA for Cheshire West and Chester has now been finalised.

We have worked closely with the Housing Partnership Group (HPG) which was set up earlier in the year and is made up of council officers, house builders, landowners, agents and other interested stakeholders. The council recognises that to provide the right housing in the future we must work in partnership with the housing development industry.

As the SHLAA is a very factual document that will only be used to help prepare the Local Plan and other documents, we decided to concentrate this consultation on the HPG and all those who submitted sites during the process. However, all comments on the document were taken into account in preparing the final version.

Initially over 900 sites had to be looked at. However at present a lot of sites have been taken out of the SHLAA if they fall into one or more of the following categories:

• Green Belt sites (except existing major developed sites)
• Sites less than 0.4ha
• Sites within Flood Zone 3b
• Sites in remote locations (those not located within or adjacent to existing settlements)

Site visits and surveys have been carried out and we now have a comprehensive portfolio of nearly 600 suitable SHLAA sites identified across the borough. Each site has been mapped in GIS, with relevant site data recorded.

To read the document, click "Read Document" below.

Under the "Supporting Documents" tab you will find:

• An A3 map of the borough showing all suitable sites and ward names. (please note that these are the old ward boundaries - future updates will use the new ward boundaries which came into effect on 5 May 2011. You can read more about the boundary changes on the Boundary Commission website).

• Schedules of sites for each ward, which provides more information on each site along with a map showing the site in more detail.

• A3 maps showing the discounted sites for each ward (these form Appendix G but have been included below for printing).

• Comments received and the council's responses on the Draft Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment.

• Comments received and the council's responses on the Draft Schedules of Sites.