Staffordshire Moorlands District Councillors have voted to adopt the Local Plan, which outlines how the area will be developed in order to comply with Government house building targets.

The plan includes details of over 900 new houses that are to be built in Biddulph between now and 2033, with land being removed from the Green Belt to make room for some of these.

At a Council Assembly meeting held on Zoom yesterday (Wednesday), councillors voted to adopt the plan.

Although the plan may continue to evolve as development continues, the vote marks a significant milestone for a process that has been with the authority for years.

Commenting at the meeting, Biddulph town and district Cllr Nigel Yates said: "I would like to take the time to thank all those in Biddulph who worked on the Neighbourhood Plan and presented evidence to the inspector, as well as those who worked to save areas of the Green Belt in Biddulph.

"However, Biddulph only has one A-road, and has the lowest average speeds and most congested roads in the Moorlands. There is very little infrastructure to support development, so it's important that any development in Biddulph is supported by infrastructure."

Fellow Biddulph town and district Cllr Kevin Jackson also commented, comparing the Local Plan process to baking a cake.

He said: "This plan has been going on for so long, a blue whale could've had four or five calves in that time.

"It's like baking a cake, where hundreds of people decide the ingredients and how long to put it in the oven for - not everyone will love all of it, but hopefully everyone will have different bits that they like."

Council leader Cllr Sybil Ralphs thanked the authority's officers and councillors for their work throughout the process.

She said: "For those of us who started the groundwork on this plan many years ago, we will be sitting here tonight thinking 'thank goodness' that we have a blueprint in place.

"When the plan was submitted, it was so professionally compiled that we didn't have the problems of some other authorities where it went backwards and forwards many times. We have just had slight modifications made, and that is down to the officers and councillors.

"Councillors have given up a lot of time, and we have had meeting after meeting - I don't think I have ever seen such consultation take place. Thank you to those people for leading us along such a difficult route."

And the council's chairman, Cllr Keith Flunder, also thanked the district's residents for their input, saying: "I'd also like to thank all the residents who took part in putting their ideas forward. I think they have also helped to lead to tonight's situation where we can approve the local plan. It has taken 17 years or more to get to this point."

Following councillors' comments, a named vote was taken, with councillors voting in favour of adopting the plan.

The authority aims to adopt the plan in order to demonstrate to Government that it can provide an adequate number of new houses in the area over the coming years.

Upon demonstrating this, the council can avoid being subjected to severe planning penalties, which the Government can impose on local authorities who cannot show that they have the appropriate housing provisions set out.

The district council's officers had warned in the past that without a Local Plan in place, areas of the Moorlands could be vulnerable to developers, who could take advantage of the situation to get permission for housing developments in less suitable locations.

Biddulph Nub News reported previously how the plan's inspector, Mark Dakeyne, ruled that the plan was ready for adoption provided that a number of modifications were made to it.

One of the points included deleting part of the Wharf Road development site - which lies to the west of the Biddulph Valley Way - from the plan, and retaining the land as Green Belt.

Previously in the Local Plan process, the plan was originally declared "unsound" by inspector Mark Dakeyne due to this area being marked for housing.

However, the inspector's latest conclusion, received by the council in June, stated that the plan "provides an appropriate basis for the planning of the District, provided that a number of main modifications are made to it."

Another of the inspector's modifications included retaining a site in Gillow Heath that had previously been marked for housing as Green Belt.

The main modifications were summarised into 12 main points near the beginning of the inspector's report, and laid out in full via supporting appendices in separate documents.

The inspector's report added: "I conclude that, with the recommended main modifications set out in the Appendix, the Staffordshire Moorlands Local Plan satisfies the requirements of Section 20(5) of the 2004 Act and meets the criteria for soundness in the National Planning Policy Framework."

To read the report and its supporting documents in full, visit the Local Plan page of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council's website here.

To view last night's meeting in full, click here.