THE controversial Local Plan – which proposes almost 15,000 new homes in Warrington in the next 15 years – has been adopted.

It comes following a vote at the full council meeting at the Parr Hall on Monday.

In total, 33 councillors voted in favour of it and 14 against, while there were no abstentions.

It includes proposals to deliver a minimum of 14,688 new homes, equating to 816 per year, between 2021-22 and 2038-39 – along with ‘supporting Warrington’s ongoing economic success’ by ensuring provision is made to ‘meet the need’ for 168 hectares of employment land between 2021-22 and 2038-39.

Labour’s Cllr Hitesh Patel, cabinet member for environment and public protection, said the council has ‘listened’ to the concerns of residents and local elected members.

“The risk of not having a fully adopted plan is real,” he said.

“This is a document, this is a plan, that has gone through public examination and has been tested by the inspectors, and if we fail to adopt it tonight we leave ourselves exposed, not just to judicial review, but we leave ourselves exposed to uncontrolled development by private developers – and that is something we should not do for the town.”

Cllr Mark Jervis, Conservative, said ‘this is the wrong plan for Warrington’.

“It’s wrong for current residents and wrong for future residents, because it is simply not sustainable,” he added.

“Why are we in this situation? Because this is a plan that has been driven by the political ideology of this failing Labour administration.”

As well as formally adopting the Local Plan 2021-22 to 2038-39 as the new development plan for Warrington, councillors approved the ‘main modifications’ to the Local Plan proposed by the independent inspectors for incorporation into the final version of the document, approved the amendments to the Local Plan policies map for incorporation into the final policies map, and approved the ‘minor modifications’ to the Local Plan for incorporation into the final version of it.