Cheshire East’s Local Plan has been formally submitted to the Secretary of State after more than four years worth of public consultation and thousands of responses.

The council received more than 40,000 responses from residents and organisations across the borough, which were all assessed and fed into the final submission 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, who oversees the plan, heaped praise on the council planning team, saying they had carried out a phenomenal job.

Clr Brown said: "The Local Plan has finally been submitted, within good time and is one of the most highly consulted Local Plans in the country.

“A Local Plan for an authority this size, and with such character and heritage, is indeed a minefield, but we have done it and we have done it well.

“What we have now is a highly consulted upon strategic document that will map housing, jobs and infrastructure for the next 15 years.

"This is about creating opportunities for our future generations so that people who grow up in Cheshire East can live and work here.

"Cheshire East is officially the best place to live in the North West, so we know we have a lot to offer here in the borough.

The independent inspector will now examine the authority’s Local Plan Strategy and it is anticipated that this process will begin in September 2014.