Planners are going back to the drawing board after a government inspector identified serious failings in the council’s future housing plan.

Planning inspector Stephen Pratt has issued a report which says Cheshire East’s Local Plan - which guides where homes, businesses and roads will be built until 2030 - does not include enough houses to meet need. The ​plan currently includes allocation for 27,000.

He criticises the way the authority has earmarked green belt for development - something campaigners have been fighting throughout consultation. The proposals for green belt development include a new settlement with 2,300 homes on land owned by Cheshire East at east Handforth.

Mr Pratt has warned if nothing is done to ​change​ the plan, he’s likely to conclude it’s unsound and it would fail.

Cheshire East has now decided to take six months to make changes, further delaying the overdue plan.

Coun Barry Burkhill, Cheshire East councillor for Handforth, called the report ‘absolutely damning’. He said: “We’ve been warning the plan was wrong and now we’re left at risk again with no Local Plan in place.”

In Mr Pratt's statement on Wednesday, November 12 he said there are ‘serious shortcomings with the Council’s assessment of housing need’. 

He said: “The proposed level of future housing provision seems inadequate to ensure the success of the overall economic, employment and housing strategy.” He added: “The process and evidence relating to the proposed amendments to the Green Belt boundary in the north of the district seem flawed.”

Mr Pratt started examining the plan at public hearings at Macclesfield Town Hall in September. It’s his job to check it’s legally sound before signing it off for adoption.

At the start of October he adjourned the hearings to study the high volume of representations about proposed development sites.

He decided to issue his views on the plan so far.

Mr Pratt gave the council three options - to carry on with the examination on the plan as it is, to suspend it for changes to be made or to withdraw and submit a new plan.

The council has decided to take six months to work on the plan.

Coun Michael Jones, Cheshire East leader, said: “Clearly our officers have not been working as well as they could. It’s regrettable and I’m talking with the chief executive about what’s been going on.

“The inspector has questioned the methodology we’ve used in our housing targets and now we must provide more evidence.

“We do have scope for more homes, but if we increase our numbers we have to look at where they will come from. Without Handforth East we will need to pepper pot development in green belt around Wilmslow.

“It would be foolish to ignore Mr Pratt’s message. I will do all I can to protect the residents of Cheshire East.”

The plan for Macclesfield includes 250 homes on land owned by King's School at Fence Avenue.  Earmarked sites include green belt at Gaw End Lane in Lyme Green for 150 homes and off Congleton Road for 300 dwellings.

More green belt in south-west Macclesfield is earmarked for development after 2030.

Eileen Furr, from Land East of Fence Avenue (LEFA) group fighting to protect the King's School site from development, said:  "We are heartened to the Inspector is highly critical of the proposed amendments to the Green Belt boundary in the north of the district.  

"He states the process and evidence seem flawed in relation to the release of sites from the Green Belt. This mirrors the strong objections we have raised from the very beginning.  

"We also note the Inspector has recognised that some key elements such as the Green Belt assessment were not completed until after key decisions had been made about the strategy thereby supporting our view that the basic strategy may have been pre-determined. 

"We think withdrawing the Plan is the most likely outcome;  the amendments and modifications necessary to ensure that the Plan is sound will be so significant that it will result in a fundamentally different plan. So we will be back at square one and we the rate payers will be forced, once again, to foot the bill.  "What a mess."

The plan for Wilmslow includes houses at Adlington Road and the Royal London site and a new Wilmslow Business Park next to the railway. Land at Upcast Lane and off Prestbury Road would be set aside for development after 2030.

David Lewis, from campaign group Residents of Wilmslow, said: “With no Local Plan we have no protection from development. If Cheshire East amends the plan and it fails there will be no choice other than to withdraw and this gives even greater delays. People are angry about how we have got to this point.”