MEMBERS of the public will have the chance to attend a probe into the ‘soundness’ of Cheshire East Council’s Local Plan.

The Local Plan Strategy document sets out the council's case for sustainable economic growth and is the strategy that the authority wants to adopt to manage development in Cheshire East up to 2030.

The Local Plan Strategy and all associated documents, including the comments received during the representation period, were submitted to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on May 20, 2014, in preparation for independent examination.

The Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy will now be subject to an independent examination by the Planning Inspectorate at Macclesfield Town Hall in September.

More than 40,000 responses from residents and organisations were collated, assessed and fed-in to the ‘submission version’ of the Local Plan Strategy.

The strategy has undergone nine rounds of public consultation since 2010, and the final six-week consultation, when even more comments were received over March and April this year, attracted 3,458 responses alone from 657 individuals and organisations.

Clr David Brown, deputy leader of Cheshire East Council, said: “What we have now is a highly-consulted-upon strategic document that will map housing, jobs and infrastructure for the next 15 years.

“This has been a huge undertaking and an incredible journey – but a vital one for the people of Cheshire East if we are to have planned and sustainable housing, jobs and economic growth while protecting our precious countryside and green spaces.”

Inspector Stephen Pratt has been appointed to conduct the examination to determine whether the Local Plan Strategy is sound. The programme officer for the examination is Miss Kerry Trueman.The examination is a continuous process, which runs from submission through to the receipt of the Inspector’s report.

Part of the process will involve hearing sessions, where those invited to attend will have the opportunity to respond to matters raised by the Inspector.

Only those parties who made representations on the ‘submission version’ of the plan during the prescribed period, and who were seeking some change to the plan, are entitled to speak.

The hearing sessions will, however, be open to any parties who wish to attend to observe proceedings.

The public hearings into the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy Submission Version, which are expected to sit for about six weeks, will begin as follows: Start date: 10am, Tuesday, September 16, 2014 at Macclesfield Town Hall, Macclesfield, SK10 1EA.

Hearing sessions will not take place during the week commencing October 13.

For further information on the Local Plan Strategy, visit www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/localplan