At the Council meeting on 13/12/2022 Chorley Council considered a report that proposed to consult residents on sites submitted by landowners for development over the next 15 years as part of a wider Central Lancashire Local Plan.
Labour Councillors voted to share this detail with residents as soon as possible and as a result, there will be a Public Consultation over the 10 weeks from 19th December to 24th February 2023, where we will urge residents to have their say.
Under Tory government plans Central Lancashire will have to deliver 1,334 homes per year over the next 15-year plan period. Chorley has successfully negotiated to deliver 334 homes per year in the first phase of development compared to 400 in South Ribble and 600 in Preston.
Sadly, the Tory government in Westminster will not let Chorley set its own targets. We have seen from past experience, they expect Chorley to continue to deliver the massive government targets that have seen unwelcome and unnecessary development across the Borough over recent years.
If Chorley does not have a plan for some sites to be developed in the areas allocated for development, it faces the real risk of applications for uncontrolled development in the green belt and on other unallocated sites being enforced on us by the government. We have already seen this in villages such as Eccleston, Adlington, Coppull, Clayton-le-Woods and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Conservative and Independent councillors in Chorley voted to block the proposal to discuss these plans with residents, thereby denying us all the right to make comments and have input on the government-imposed requirements. Maybe embarrassed by the fact that their own government has not listened to the repeated requests from Chorley to support the local residents and the Council in refusing applications locally. Local Tory and Independent councillors instead recklessly voted against taking action and to allow the current situation to continue whereby government-appointed inspectors seek to overturn local decisions and grant yet more development in our area.
Cllr Alistair Bradley the Leader of Chorley Council stated “It is frankly ridiculous that local Conservative councillors who are ignored by their party colleagues in Westminster then seek to prevent a full and proper discussion with our residents. They need to stand up and be counted, oppose this Tory government policy and not play politics with our precious green spaces”.
Please find below the full live stream of the meeting.
