CHESHIRE East Council has admitted any future scheme to replace the Crewe Hub Area Action Plan and the Southern Link Road Bridge proposal is unlikely to be as ambitious as the original one.

Several Conservative councillors have criticised the decision made by the corporate policy committee last week to shelve the schemes, which were part of the council's plans for the arrival of HS2.

That decision was taken after the committee was told HS2 trains would not be arriving in Crewe as early as previously believed, there was no longer funding for the planned link road bridge near the station and because of the change in the commercial development market because of the pandemic.

At yesterday's (November 11) meeting of the environment and communities committee, Director of Environment and Neighbourhood Services Paul Bayley said: "Following the withdrawal of the Crewe Hub Area Action Plan (CHAAP), it is important that the council sets out a refreshed strategy for the area that supports planning decision-making to manage development and support regeneration and growth in this area.

"It is proposed to achieve this through the preparation of a supplementary planning document for central Crewe, accurately reflecting current circumstances and supporting the investment in the town by emerging government funding opportunities."

But Tory councillors continued to question last week's decision to scrap the original plan.

Nantwich South and Stapeley councillor Peter Groves told the meeting: "I had a look at the original cabinet paper dating back to November 2019 in relation to the Crewe southern link road bridge, the preferred route.

"It said, notwithstanding the strategic relationship with HS2, the bridge and junction improvements would, in their own right as an independent project, deliver significant transport and environmental benefits to Crewe.

"In the paper it identified those as improve traffic flow, reduce congestion, improve air quality, and improve the environment for both cyclists and pedestrians around the immediate areas of the station.

"What does concern me is that are we confident that the supplementary plan will address all of those benefits?"

Tom Evans, the council's neighbourhood planning manager, repeated that the CHAAP and the link road bridge scheme had to be abandoned because of the change of circumstances.

He added that the new plan "won't do the same thing, because it won't have the same policy status".

"It will carry forward, I imagine, many of the very quality aspects of the plan," said Mr Evans.

"There's a master plan that we want to re-consult on, make sure that can be updated to reflect what we need, and it will set out infrastructure that the area needs, but it will be in a different way."

Former council leader Rachel Bailey last week accused the council of "dumbing down" its ambitions for Crewe.

This week she told the environment committee that in 2019 "the benefits of this southern bridge were clear, and met the ambitions of the council in terms of improving air quality and improving access be it by four wheels, two wheels or feet".

"And in particular, it's clear today to my mind, the Crewe Station isn't easily accessible," said the Audlem councillor. "To lose that opportunity of access, actually is a retrograde step and not only a retrograde step for Crewe, but for this council and its ambition – building back better after the pandemic."