A PLANNING policy document described as “a weapon” against developers is to be reviewed by town councillors.

The Northwich Neighbourhood Plan came into effect in 2018 after a public referendum and following five years of hard work by a dedicated team of volunteers.

It sets out the town’s development ambitions through to 2030 and complements the Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) Local Plan when future planning applications are considered.

At a meeting of Northwich Town Council on Monday, July 4, Cllr Andrew Cooper said it made sense to review the plan, despite there being no formal requirement to do so.

He said: “Although there’s no legislative requirement to review the plan, it’s good practice to at least monitor its effectiveness.

“Occasionally this might mean bringing your evidence base up to date or tweaking policies that aren’t working as you’d expect.

“Some of the ideas and evidence that went in the plan are now quite old, so I think it’s a good time to at least start the process of looking at it.

“As long as the changes made to the plan are not material then it wouldn’t need to go to a referendum again.

“I recommend we form a task group to consider how the plan is performing before making a decision on what to do next.”

Cllr Bob Cernik, said he was in favour of the review, calling the plan “a weapon” against developers.

“We don’t have many weapons when we’re fighting planners,” he said.

“However, the Northwich Neighbourhood Plan has been used quite successfully by a number of councillors in the past.

“It is a weapon.

“One of the things we can do is defend public places, commercial, residential and community-use space and it is very useful for that.

“One aspect we could look at is including something about the climate emergency and ensuring new properties are properly insulated.

“We can then use the plan as a lever to convince developers to build better quality properties.

“There was a lot of hard work that went into that plan, but I think it does need to be reviewed.”

Cllr Derek Bowden, who was one of those instrumental in drawing up the current plan, said it was “instrumental” in affecting developers.

“It would be very rewarding to review the plan,” he said.

“I can’t over-empathise just how important it is.

“It has significantly affected developers and will help to affect the future make-up of the town.”

There was unanimous agreement from the council to set up a task group to look at the plan.