Letter: Time to rethink county house building plans
Tuesday 6th July 2010, 7:59AM BST.
Letter: Jake Berriman is reported as saying there is no need to halt work on the county planning strategy as a result of policy changes by the new government. He is wrong.
The county plan – the core strategy – was based on policy conditions that no longer apply. Work not only must be halted, all work to date must be reviewed and overhauled.
The core strategy is clear on how its priorities are derived. It says: “While it is important the core strategy reflects the views and aspirations of local communities, other factors and established priorities must be taken into account.”
These factors and priorities include “regional planning policy . . . including a range of targets for housing, employment, land, minerals and waste.”
Regional planning policies have now been abolished by national government, as have housing targets.
There are more than planning reasons for revisiting the core strategy.
Jake Berriman claims it has been developed on the basis of “close engagement with local people.”
The council may have engaged with communities, but it has rarely listened to them.
There are few in Shropshire who desire the high levels of housing development proposed and few believe that large tin sheds on the edge of Shrewsbury and our market towns will bring prosperity.
The council must now thoroughly revise its plans, which are unsound in planning terms and unsound as a blueprint for the well-being of Shropshire and its people.
Andy Boddington
Chairman
CPRE Shropshire
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Well according to the Planning Inspectorate the Regional Strategy still applies. The government has made clear its intention to do away with it but until the legisation is passed the current law still applies.
Ideally both the core strategy and the old RSS would have been informed by locally applicable evidence which probably demonstrated that Shropshire had capacity and for the number of houses, these weren’t random numbers plucked out of the air and imposed on places. In fact, last week I learned that in Telford and Wrekin for example the evidence showed that they needed more houses not less and that the region imposed a cap to try and prevent too much out migration from the conurbation.
Having said that, there are clearly going to be changes to the planning system. The council might be wise to slow down and see what happens unless they are so afraid of what the new system might look like they are desperate to have something in place before it happens.
The last time planning policy followed tory lines we ended up with mile upon mile of sprawling suburbia and out of town retail and business parks. At least the old Labour government prioritsed regeneration and a town centre first approach.
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Shropshire is a county of BANANAS and NIMBYS So where do you go from there?
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Well said, that man.
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