Local Plan round-up – January 2017

St. Albans, Hertfordshire

The Council’s Strategic Local Plan process is in limbo. Following the letter from the Inspector saying that he did not feel St. Albans had fulfilled its duty to cooperate, the council has gone on the attack and lodged an application with the High Court for a judicial review. If approved, the process could take up to six months. If unsuccessful, the Council faces the painful prospect of having to restart the process. A real planning problem!

There may be several impacts on St. Albans District. Apart from stopping the Strategic Local Plan, it will also stop the Detailed Local Plan process. Failure to complete a local plan by the 2017 deadline opens the prospect of Hertfordshire County Council taking over the process while budgets could also be hit with a reduction in the duration of the New Homes Bonus, something most councils can ill afford.

Central Bedfordshire

The Council has announced it is pausing the local plan process ahead of publication of the government’s Housing White Paper.

A statement from the council said that, while it could not be certain what the implications from the white paper might be, “we do recognise that there is the potential for significant changes in relation to the housing numbers we are anticipating and in terms of our responsibilities in relation to developing local plans”.

The council said that it remained confident that it would “still be able to deliver a draft plan in 2017”. This assumes, of course, that the Housing White Paper is published soon.

Uttlesford, Essex

This is another council which decided to pause its local plan process, albeit not due to the imminent publication of Housing White Paper but because it was not confident of its evidence base.

In the Local Plan Working Group meeting this month, the delay was debated in detail. Even without the impending influence of the Housing White Paper, the housing numbers had been reviewed up from 12,500 to 14,100 but the chair, Cllr Rolfe, made it clear that this was actually the starting point and the actual numbers may well be higher.

Director of public services, Roger Harborough, suggested that the forthcoming Housing White Paper may actually specify housing numbers, although to what detail or level he did not know.
The Council would be agreeing a new local plan timetable at its February meeting.

Guildford, Surrey

Cllr Spooner, Guildford Council leader, went online in December answering questions live on Get Surrey’s Facebook page, allowing readers the opportunity to ask the leader questions on the local plan. The majority of the half an hour Q&A was focused on infrastructure, student housing and the need for improvement to meet the OAN to deliver the local plan. Key points were:

• The local plan will be structured to include infrastructure and road investments. If these are not included the OAN will not be deliverable.
• Schools will be a big issue.
• After Brexit, the SHMAA will be revised, although government changes will lead to an increase in the OAN number.

Harlow, Essex

The Council local plan process has been overshadowed by the Government’s announcement in early January of the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town. The local media has interpreted this as meaning Gilston, which is to the north of Harlow, will become the Garden Town with 10,000 new homes. In fact, Gilston is currently designated in the East Herts draft local plan for just 3,000 new homes and it is generally accepted that this figure will not be able to grow without the construction of the A414 north Harlow bypass, funding for which is not expected to come forward for some time.

The Garden Town is, in reality, not only about Gilston but the whole of ‘greater’ Harlow, including all 16,000 new homes in Harlow and the strategic sites in Epping to the south and west.

Just £0.5 million has been allocated for the master planning process, albeit the tag makes availability of other funding likely and the government announced earlier this month it will fund a new junction on the M11, J7a, to be built north east of Harlow and linking to the town via Gilden Way.

In the meantime, the Harlow Local Plan is still being prepared and is due for publication next month.

Epping Forest, Essex

The repeated Regulation 18 consultation was concluded on December 12 with over 3,000 responses received. The results are expected to be reported to the Council in March. The Regulation 19 consultation is scheduled to take place in the early summer and a submission to the Inspectorate by the end of the year.

Basildon, Essex

The council has just completed consultation on a series of alternative sites, which will feed into the Draft Local Plan – the results are expected to be reported to Council in March. The Council is also undertaking some local master planning, especially around Billericay where a relief road is proposed, although progress on this is not clear.

There is likely to be some slippage in the timetable of a Regulation 19 consultation in Q1 this year, and whether the submission to the Inspector is made later in the summer depends upon the Housing White Paper.

In the meantime, Basildon Council objected strongly to the Government announcement of Dunton Garden Village in Brentwood earlier this month.

Cllr Richard Moore, Basildon Council cabinet member for planning, said: “”The council maintains the view that there is a lack of credible and robust evidence to justify that a new village in this Green Belt location is the best option for meeting Brentwood borough’s housing needs and continues to have doubts that it can be demonstrated as a legitimate proposal through the planning system.”

Thurrock, Essex

Thurrock Council is still awaiting the announcement from the Government on the route of the Lower Thames Crossing Link Road. In a letter from Highways England in response to one to Secretary of State, Chris Grayling, last week shed little light upon when an announcement of the route will be made, simply saying “in due course”. There was an acknowledgement that there were a number of developments and Local Plan considerations hinging on that route being revealed. No kidding!

East Hertfordshire

The responses to the Regulation 19 consultation, which concluded in December, will be assessed and reported to Council in March. It is expected the local plan will be submitted for inspection soon after.

There is some celebration from councillors following the success of the application for a Garden Town at Harlow and Gilston, a submission led by the Council. It is one of only three Garden Towns announced by the Government.