Agenda, decisions and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relating to the work of the body in question.  Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

No members of the public were present.

To approve and designate Knutsford Parish as Knutsford Neighbourhood Area.

That approval be given to the designation of Knutsford Parish as Knutsford Neighbourhood Area for the purposes of preparing the Knutsford Neighbourhood Plan, as shown on the map attached as Appendix 1.

The Localism Act 2011 introduced new legal rights that enable communities to prepare local development plans (neighbourhood plans) with equal weight to the Local Plan for decision making purposes on development proposals; the first stage of the process is the designation of a neighbourhood area.

Consideration was given to an application to designate Knutsford Parish as a Neighbourhood Area.  The application had been submitted by Knutsford Town Council in December 2014 and approval will enable it to prepare a neighbourhood plan with formal statutory powers. Once completed the plan will be adopted by Cheshire East Council and form part of the Development Plan for the Borough. The policies eventually held in the Knutsford Neighbourhood Plan will be used for decision making purposes within the Parish along side those other relevant policies form the Cheshire East Development Plan.

RESOLVED

That approval be given to the designation of Knutsford Parish as Knutsford Neighbourhood Area for the purposes of preparing the Knutsford Neighbourhood Plan, as shown on the map attached as Appendix 1.