Cheshire West and Chester Council has opened a new call for development sites today, 14th October 2026, as it prepares its replacement Local Plan. Landowners and others with potential sites not already identified on the council’s map have until 5pm on 6th November to submit them.
This is an evidence-gathering exercise across the borough, covering places including Chester, Ellesmere Port, Northwich and Winsford. It gives the council more land options to assess for future development. A submission does not grant planning permission or guarantee that a site will appear in the new plan.
I would start by checking the existing map before preparing anything. Cheshire West is asking for missing sites, and specifically says not to resubmit land already identified. There will be later opportunities to update information about those existing sites, so the immediate task is to establish whether your land is already in the evidence base.
Cheshire West wants missing sites, not repeat submissions
Cheshire West published the new call for sites notice on 13th October. Its purpose is to identify additional land that is absent from the published Stage 1 site-selection map. The online consultation portal also repeats the instruction against duplicate submissions.
The notice says: “Please do not submit sites that have already been identified on the site selection map.” That makes the map check an essential first step for an owner or agent considering a response.
The council directs submissions through its Call for Sites 2026 portal. The form currently leads to an account sign-in screen, with an option to create an account. The notice specifies a 5pm closing time, so I would work to that deadline rather than assume submissions can be left until midnight.
Being on the map does not mean a site is selected
The published map was updated on 12th October. It provides baseline information about potential sites, including their reference, location, area, land type, source and possible use.
Cheshire West expressly states that the mapped sites have not yet been assessed and that no decisions have been made about which may be taken into the draft Local Plan. A dot or boundary on that map therefore identifies an option for examination, not an adopted allocation.
For residents, this distinction matters when land near your home appears on the map. You can use the reference to follow it through the process, but its inclusion alone does not establish that housing or employment development will happen there.
For landowners, the same distinction prevents an unrealistic assumption about value or prospects. Getting land into the evidence base is one stage in a longer selection process. Suitability and delivery still need to be considered before the council reaches a proposed allocation.
Housing, employment and other land uses are considered
The council’s site-identification guidance describes a borough-wide search. It includes brownfield and greenfield land, as well as land in the Green Belt, drawing on its Land Availability Assessment and earlier consultations.
Cheshire West lists housing sites with capacity for five or more dwellings, or a net size of 0.2 hectares. For employment sites, its listed threshold is over 0.25 hectares, or 500 square metres of floorspace in town centres.
Mixed-use sites apply the housing and employment thresholds, with an initial even split of uses that can be adjusted where further information is available. Other potential uses include retail, leisure, minerals extraction and green space.
Those are the council’s site-identification criteria. Including Green Belt land in the search does not remove Green Belt restrictions, and identifying a potential use does not settle whether it is acceptable. The later assessment is where competing opportunities and constraints must be considered.
What happens after the call closes?
The council’s next-stage explanation says sites will be categorised and assessed for suitability, availability and achievability. It also describes scoring against criteria and considering deliverability and developability.
That work is intended to inform the emerging spatial strategy and draft allocations. The wider process runs from identifying sites through assessment, determining draft allocations and confirming them. A call for sites sits at the beginning of that sequence.
I would keep a clear record of the site’s reference and the material submitted. For a site already mapped, record the existing entry and watch for the promised opportunity to provide updated information. For missing land, use the current submission route before the stated deadline.
The Local Plan timetable provides the wider context
The replacement Cheshire West Local Plan is intended to cover December 2028 to December 2043. The council’s current timetable targets Gateway 1, the formal start of plan preparation, for 16th October 2026.
Consultation on proposed content and evidence is scheduled for 23rd November 2026 to 8th January 2027. Consultation on the full proposed plan is scheduled for October to December 2027, with submission for examination in May 2028 and adoption targeted for December 2028.
These are programmed milestones, not completed steps or a guarantee that the plan will be adopted on time. The council says first-of-the-month dates are used where precise dates remain unknown. For now, the live opportunity is narrower and immediate: identify missing potential sites and submit them by 5pm on 6th November.
For a separate local application decision, see our report on the Tattenhall permission in principle appeal. That concerns an individual proposal, rather than this borough-wide plan-making exercise.
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