In December 2010, Willaston Green Gap Action Team submitted a petition of 1231 signatures to Cheshire East Council objecting to the fact that the Green Gap around Willaston was not included in the draft Core Strategy Issues and Options Consultation document issued on 4th November 2010.
Last week, Cheshire East published a 29 page response to the Consultation. This states on page 5:
“The response to the consultation includes 1295 comments, from 460 separate consultees. A petition, requesting the retention of the Green Gap boundary in the Willaston area, on the edge of Crewe, was also received. The petition contains 1,231 signatures. Although the consultation was based on a questionnaire, a large proportion of consultees chose to submit their comments via letter or e-mail, rather than complete the questionnaire.”
The population of Cheshire East is approximately 383,600 people. Therefore a response of 460 (excluding the Willaston petition) represents a response of only slightly more than one tenth of one percent. When representatives from Willaston Green Gap Action Team met with representatives from the Spatial Planning team in March, they were told that this was thought to be a “normal response”. Willaston Green Gap Action Team consider this to be an extremely poor response indicating that the consultation process is flawed.
The consultation responses were requested via a portal on the Cheshire East website, which Willaston residents reported as being difficult to use and that they were only aware of through the actions of the Willaston Green Gap Action Team.
The Consultation report can be viewed at:
http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/environment_and_planning/planning/spatial_planning/local_development_framework/core_strategy_dpd/report_of_consultation.aspx
Willaston Green Gap Action Team can be found on facebook – search for “savethegreengap”
or can be contacted by emailing savethegreengap@hotmail.co.uk
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