Council pauses Local Plan process as it seeks best way to protect green belt
As part of an ongoing effort to protect the local green belt whilst building an appropriate number of homes, Three Rivers District councillors have agreed to delay publishing its final Local Plan in order to gather more evidence to protect the area’s green belt.
Councillors sitting on the Local Plan Sub-Committee decided last night (Thursday 17 October) not to proceed to a final round of public consultation (Regulation 19) at this stage on its Local Plan, which proposed less than half of the government’s housing figure for Three Rivers, due to changes planned by the new government.
Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Leader of Three Rivers District Council and Lead Member for the Local Plan, said: “Despite our current and preferred Lower Housing Growth Local Plan receiving strong support from residents, the Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association and environment groups, it is clear that the planning inspectorate would outright reject our plan as it stands and that the new government could impose what councillors and residents consider to be an unreasonable 13,300 housing figure on us, almost all of which would be on all green belt land. We do not want that.
Cllr Giles-Medhurst added: “We have agreed to pause the current plan in order to get more evidence to back up our claims of the harmful effect of releasing large acres of green belt. The new government planning regulations say we must now provide clear evidence that allowing the release of a lot of our green belt for development will fundamentally undermine its function in Three Rivers. We need to get expert evidence to support our case. We want to prevent merging communities and protect areas but need thus extra work is needed to show that. We also now have to do further work updating our sustainability appraisal, open space study and other background work. This also gives us the opportunity to again look at and call for more brownfield sites to be released for development and reassess housing needs.
“We remain committed to a Local Plan that ensures we have the right amount of housing while protecting as much of our precious green belt as possible. To push ahead now the goalposts are changing without that evidence and work would most likely mean the higher housing figure being imposed on us. None of us want that. We will work with all parties who want the best for our area including the Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association. We want to get the best mix of new housing and infrastructure whilst protecting as much of our valuable green space as possible. To push ahead now regardless of the changed government targets would be foolish.”
A Local Development Scheme, which sets out key timelines in the Local Plan process going forward, will be brought to the Policy and Resources Committee and then to Full Council for approval. The current timetable for approval by the government of the Local Plan was May/June 2026 The delay may mean it will be a few months later in 2026. Officers are to review if they can keep to the original timescales.
NOTES:
The Local Plan guides decisions on future development proposals for thousands of new homes and associated infrastructure and employment to meet the district’s future economic and population needs.
The government is expected to publish its final National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) before the end of December.
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