On Tuesday we had an important debate about housebuilding and local plans. Several of us made the point that local and neighbourhood plans can be outflanked by developers using the appeal system. Where a Council has concentrated development on a few sites to maximise the development gain payments and to ensure proper infrastructure provision, the developer can go slow on the build rate. This can lead an Inspector to grant permission for more homes in a place where the local community and Council did not want to build.
The truth is that having an up to date Local Plan and supporting Neighbourhood Plans does not fully protect areas where a community does not seek more building. The best defence a Council has comes through working closely with developers that do have planning permission to try to keep the build rate at the required level.
THe Minister promised to tackle this problem by relaxing the rule over the 5 year supply of land.
December 14, 2016
interesting conversation with a retired highly qualified local town planner when in hospital for day treatment yesterday.
we agreed
plan well ahead for development, agree and construct the infrastructure, which should be in place, before allowing development
too many senior staff now in charge of council departments who may be academically qualified in some form or another, but who have little or no practical experience in the field.
developers using the appeal system with their own so called experts to make/support their case, with too few qualified people on the councils side able to defend its position.
too many examples of bad planning to list, but royal berks hospital location/expansion and now chaos, was a prime example of lack of forethought.
west berks hospital day unit a joy to attend by comparison, easy/cheap parking, location just out of town on a main road, modern clean buildings, staff pleasant, friendly and helpful and all ran to time.
sorry no caps due to one hand typing.