Examination of Wirral Local Plan

The second week hearings in the public examination of Wirral’s proposed Local Plan  were held on Tuesday May 9 and Thursday May 11.

While the opening days were focused on legal compliance of the Local Plan the sessions this week were focused on detailed policies and minerals, waste and pollution.

The examination looked at a range of issues, such as agent of change policy (to do with protecting existing businesses from complaints from newly built residential properties near them), and Social Value as the council explained to the inquiry the importance of this to the local authority.

Other issues considered included national design space standards for houses, accessible and adaptable housing, water efficiency standards zero carbon design, self-build housing, open space policy and design principles, and the final day saw the remaining examination of detailed policies before turning to issues around Minerals and Waste.

There will now be a break in the Local Plan examination, which will allow the Leverhulme appeal hearings to take place. The Local Plan examination is expected to re-start in September. When the programme is formally confirmed it will be available through the Local Plan website.

All information relating to the Local Plan examination, including documents and livestream links, is available on the Local Plan webpages which are also regularly updated with new documents and information.

In the meantime, the hearings for the Leverhulme appeal are scheduled to begin next week on Tuesday May 16, and are currently expected to last for 25 days.