Local Plan round-up – November 2016

Hertfordshire Minerals Local Plan

For those with interests in quarrying, the news is that the review of the existing Mineral Local Plan (2002-2016) has been delayed for around a year. The original timetable envisaged the draft review being published this autumn, following a call for sites earlier this year. In a meeting on November 2, a revised timetable was agreed.

St. Albans Initial Hearing

An Initial Hearing called by Inspector David Hogger to determine whether St. Albans District Council has fulfilled its duty to cooperate for its Strategic Local Plan (SLP) took place on Wednesday (October 26).

St. Albans council came under significant criticism from neighbouring authorities, including the South West Herts Group, which argued that the council did not engage with them effectively at a number of levels. It was clear that St Albans feels otherwise, making its arguments robustly.

Having heard all sides, the Inspector will now await relevant meeting notes and public written submissions to assess whether the evidence of cooperation and soundness is in fact robust, and will decide the fate of St. Albans plan.

East Herts Local Plan

East Hertfordshire’s local plan up until 2033 started its Regulation 19 pre-submission consultation on November 3^rd. This is for six weeks, finishing on December 15. The plan is likely to be submitted for examination at the end of March 2017. Rumours are that the consultants employed by the council to review the duty to cooperate have questioned the delivery figures presented by the developers of Gilston (North Harlow) – apparently, discussions are ongoing.

Epping Forest Local Plan

Regulation 18 consultation of the local plan commences on October 31, running until December 12, 2016. The council has uploaded a dedicated website for this consultation: http://eppingforest.consultationonline.co.uk/. The pre-submission local plan is expected to be published in June/July 2017 with submission and inspection anticipated in November the same year. The Local Plan is expected to be adopted in October 2018.

Apparently, Harlow Council have been engaging in earnest with Epping to try and get the allocations to the south and west of the town removed. This followed a Harlow resolution at Full Council in late August to oppose any such developments. Considering that Harlow council had been participating in the cooperative group when these sites were being discussed, there is surprise that such a resolution has happened and at such a late stage. The request has so far been met with short thrift.

Harlow Local Plan delayed

Despite the council’s forward plan indicating that the draft local plan would be discussed and approved at Cabinet on November 10, publication of the papers for that meeting revealed no agenda item. The revised forward work plan showed the local plan would come before cabinet on December 8. This means the draft local pan would be published with the papers for that meeting on or around December 1. This was preceded by the cancellation of the scheduled Local Development Plan Panel meeting the week before, citing the need for more time to consider planning policies.

At Cabinet on November 10, the Conservative opposition group asked questions about the lack of effective consultation within the district, citing the 126 response to the previous consultation compared to Epping’s 3,000+. It was suggested that the council should go back to a Regulation 18 consultation, instead of 19, with a programme to encourage participation but that is unlikely.

Basildon Local Plan

The meeting of the Basildon Council Housing and Growth Scrutiny Committee met on October 25 to review the Local Plan evidence base. The committee has a new chair, following the removal of Cllr Allport-Hodge (UKIP). Cllr Baggott (Con) has taken over the chair of this committee and his first acts were to invite a far greater cross-section of councillors to attend scrutiny (as guests), as well as representatives from local housing and residents’ groups.

Cllr Allport-Hodge did attend and again raised questions about the numbers, suggesting that Brexit will impact significantly on the numbers of houses, that the figures used on job creation were flawed and that the latest ONS figures have not been taken into consideration. Cllr Baggott reprimanded her in terms of her criticism of officers, which was somewhat vindicated when they revealed that they had actually been doing their job and were in fact in the process of reviewing the numbers in light of the revised ONS figures. This will be complete by the end of this year.

Looking at other authorities who similarly reviewed the numbers, Cllr Allport-Hodge is probably going to be disappointed. Many have had to increase their numbers as a reduction in immigration up until 2021 was factored in previously, apparently, to reflect Government policy at the time. Again it was reiterated that the Inspector can only base his/her decision on the evidence before them, not on speculation, so it is unlikely Brexit will be taken into consideration in any local plan deliberations for the time being.

There was one other item of interest discussed at the committee which was the proportion of affordable housing. The local plan is currently based on 25%, although all sites have been evaluated for viability on 30% and 40%. There is currently no clear council policy on this, although one will need to be agreed before the next stage of the local plan process.

Central Bedfordshire Local Plan

The council has approved the Regulation 18 consultation, to start in December 2016 for six weeks. In conjunction, the council is holding a series of planning events across the district until March 2017 so it can produce a community plan for every area.

The Regulation 19 pre-submission consultation is expected to take place in July 2017.