Notice of Motion Submitted by Councillor Mahon
To consider the following Motion submitted by Councillor Mahon:
“This Council:
Calls on the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Mr. Eric Pickles M.P. to examine the changes this coalition government has made to this country’s planning system to see if they are working for the benefit of the communities. Some of the issues are detailed below.
The National Planning Policy Framework
There is a body of opinion that sees this as a ‘Developers Charter’ where the rules have shifted in favour of allowing much more development.
Prior Notifications
Several kinds of developments can now progress without the need for full application and full assessment of impacts. In most cases these don’t include highway issues and ignore issues that many residents may be concerned about.
Types of development covered by these changes include large house extensions, changes between different uses, changes of agricultural buildings to many other uses like hotels etc. Councils still need to determine these prior notifications, in many instances with no fee and with reduced timescales for decision making.
Changes to the Use Classes Orders
Now a much wider range of uses than ever can change to another use without the need for planning permission.
These include shops to residential – what will this mean for our town centres? Restaurants to offices, shops to building societies or credit unions. These are only a small number of the changes of use that are now possible without needing planning permission.
Localism Act – Neighbourhood Planning and Community Right to Bid.
Neighbourhood Planning could be a positive tool to support our own local plans. The process has been designed so that communities can help plan their local areas, but only if they accept the same, or more, development than our own Local Plan.
Community Right to Bid – this is in danger of becoming a tool to stall development proposals from many months when key assets come up for sale. This does not provide certainty and speed for new developments – it provides the opposite.
Abolition of Regional Planning
This was intended to bring more effective local decision making through the removal of a whole regional tier of control and influence in strategic planning. This has resulted in each local authority now having to prepare their own evidence and their own estimates about how many houses they need to build in their area. This has, in effect, introduced a huge new area of controversy and uncertainty for councils.”
Minutes:
It was moved by Councillor Mahon, seconded by Councillor Veidman and unanimously
RESOLVED:
That this Council:
Calls on the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Mr. Eric Pickles M.P., to examine the changes the coalition Government has made to this country’s planning system to see if they are working for the benefit of the communities. Some of the issues are detailed below.
The National Planning Policy Framework
There is a body of opinion that sees this as a ‘Developers Charter’ where the rules have shifted in favour of allowing much more development.
Prior Notifications
Several kinds of developments can now progress without the need for full application and full assessment of impacts. In most cases these don’t include highway issues and ignore issues that many residents may be concerned about.
Types of development covered by these changes include large house extensions, changes between different uses, changes of agricultural buildings to many other uses like hotels etc. Councils still need to determine these prior notifications, in many instances with no fee and with reduced timescales for decision making.
Changes to the Use Classes Orders
Now a much wider range of uses than ever can change to another use without the need for planning permission.
These include shops to residential – what will this mean for our town centres? Restaurants to offices, shops to building societies or credit unions. These are only a small number of the changes of use that are now possible without needing planning permission.
Localism Act – Neighbourhood Planning and Community Right to Bid
Neighbourhood Planning could be a positive tool to support our own local plans. The process has been designed so that communities can help plan their local areas, but only if they accept the same, or more, development than our own Local Plan.
Community Right to Bid – this is in danger of becoming a tool to stall development proposals for many months when key assets come up for sale. This does not provide certainty and speed for new developments – it provides the opposite.
Abolition of Regional Planning
This was intended to bring more effective local decision making through the removal of a whole regional tier of control and influence in strategic planning. This has resulted in each local authority now having to prepare their own evidence and their own estimates about how many houses they need to build in their area. This has, in effect, introduced a huge new area of controversy and uncertainty for councils.