The Learning Zone conflict exposes the hypocrisy of our planning regulations

LET ME be absolutely clear I am in favour of improved educational facilities, whatever the Local Education Authority chooses to call them. Like every sane person in the borough I want the best for our children. What I also want are the same rules applied evenly to everyone.

If the current moratorium on house building makes an exception for 'affordable' homes then so be it; lower priced housing is certainly needed in this borough. Suitable land is, however, hard to find so when a plan emerges to sell off Henbury High School for housing development you might assume this to be an excellent opportunity to build those 'affordable' homes but you would be wrong.

Far from being 'affordable' this development calls for 123 'prestigious' homes to be built (in estate agent terms read 'expensive,) so now I'm confused. Having agreed the priority is low-cost housing why would Macclesfield Borough Council consider more high-priced homes?

Now, we come to the Learning Zone (stick with me) where another £11.5m is needed to fund the development. Proceeds from the sale of the Henbury site are already earmarked to fill the void, hence a 'prestigious,' expensive, development rather than an 'affordable' one.

Despite the obvious conflict I expect these plans to be approved but what worries me is the damage done to planning integrity. Will the rules be stretched to accommodate a farmer in Rainow or a pensioner in Wilmslow? I doubt it.

We already have an incongruous space-age police station in the middle of Macclesfield's conservation zone, how many more breaches of their own planning laws are MBC going to tolerate? How many can we tolerate?

If residents are forced to rip out perfectly good window frames because they don't conform to the prescribed standard how impressed are those same residents going to be when MBC approve 123 'prestigious' homes in direct conflict with their own planning policy?

If you have plans for a granny flat turned down then walk into town to see a grotesque new building stuck out like a sore thumb right next to the town hall how happy will you be?

If we must have planning regulations then let's all live by the same rules and not have MBC breach them to suit their purpose. If our council want to be a 'flexible friend' to Cheshire Police or the Local Education Authority then they should offer us all the same flexibility.

Planning is a very contentious issue and the only way to maintain integrity is for rules to apply evenly throughout the borough not bent to suit some but not others.

Let's have improved educational facilities by all means but not at the expense of honesty.