Sam Stafford's Blog

As one storm abates another continues to brew. The perfect storm that is the Cheshire East Local Plan will develop further this week as a Portfolio Meeting is set to review a final Draft Pre-Submission Local Plan document and approve a 6 week consultation that would start on 5 November.   In most circumstances progress by a LPA towards the adoption of a development plan would be heralded as a positive step, but circumstances at Cheshire East are, whilst not far from typical, certainly unique and the review of the final Draft Pre-Submission Local Plan will come only two weeks after the Secretary of State revealed in that he is “not persuaded that the updated SHLAA provides a robust assessment of 5 year land supply."   The Cheshire East storm has been brewing for some time, but the clouds really began to darken when a SHLAA update was produced in February in advance of the expiration of the NPPF transitional arrangements. It is fair to say that eyebrows w...

Cheshire East Council has confirmed that a Portfolio Meeting on the 1 November will review the final Draft Pre-Submission Local Plan document and approve a 6 week consultation that would start on 5 November.   The agenda and papers will be available via this link in due course. http://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=714&MId=5118&Ver=4   The meeting will come only two weeks after the Secretary of State revealed that he is not persuaded that the updated SHLAA, upon which housing supply policies in the Plan will be based, provides a robust assessment of 5 year land supply...

Cheshire East Council released the following statement yesterday in response to the recent appeal decisions.     STATEMENT: Abbey Road, Congleton Road and Sandbach Road North Planning Appeals   Council Leader Councillor Michael Jones said: “We are content to win the planning appeal in respect of Sandbach Road North and are determined to protect the Cheshire’s countryside and this decision goes to prove the value of the ‘countryside argument‘.   “However, we are disappointed that the Secretary of State and the Planning Inspector have seen fit to turn down two other appeals (Abbey Road and Congleton Road). We put up a strong defence of our decision to refuse these planning applications.   “The Planning Inspector agreed that we had met the housing requirement of 5,750 homes. But because of the recession and the stall on house building this figure has now inflated to 9,000 homes over five years. This is a relatively new target. ...

Three appeal decisions have been published, which are the first to interrogate land supply in Cheshire East since the publication in February of the updated SHLAA. The three are:   Middlewich Road & Abbey Road, Sandbach;   goo.gl/o6FxA0   Sandbach Road North, Alsager; and   goo.gl/7kBNJs   Congleton Road, Sandbach   goo.gl/XGbd9u   The fact that two Inspectors have confirmed that the Council does not have a five year land supply will come as little surprise to those who expressed a degree of sceptism about the 7.1 year figure included in the SHLAA. The decisions come though at a critical point in the local plan process and so the implications are of major significance to planning and development in the Borough. The housing requirement is currently 5750 for five years, based upon the old Regional Spatial Strategy figures (although it should be noted that the Council’s emerging housing requirement is h...

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, featured in an Inside Housing article recently in which he suggested that councillors are "deeply conflicted when balancing planning responsibilities and re-election strategy."   This is the piece:   http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/regulation/councillors-deeply-conflicted-when-balancing-planning-responsibilities-and-re-election-strategy-says-nhf-chief/6528755.article   In a blog post today Mr Orr continues the theme, stating that "where we need creative local leadership, we get cautious self-interest."   This is the blog:   http://www.hothouse.org.uk/towards-a-vision/where-new-housing-built/blog/planning-for-the-future/   I wholeheartedly agree that problems with planning are not, at root, systemic and welcome the light that he is trying to shine on the operation of the current system.   The suggestion, noting the conflict between planning responsibilities a...

Nick Boles told a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference last week that being planning minister was a 'wonderful job' ( http://www.planningresource.co.uk/news/login/1214541/ ), but reports in the Telegraph suggest that he is tiring of battles with campaigners ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10356601/Tory-women-set-for-promotion-in-David-Camerons-second-reshuffle-next-week.html?utm_content=buffer880e4&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer ). With a reshuffle expected today I for one hope that Mr Boles does not move to another brief because he is in my humble opinion the best planning minister in recent memory.        

Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past is a terrible, terrible film, but one that, following the 'my turn, your turn' principle, I have had to sit through with Mrs Stafford (a little tip: it gets less terrible with every additional glass of wine...).   What relevance though does this have to a blog on town planning?   Well my recent frustrations bring to mind the only memorable line in the film, which is from the principal protagonist played by Matthew McConaughey.   The power in all relationships lies with whoever cares less .   The character wasn't speaking about the UK planning system, but unfortunately he could have been.

“This government is committed to localism and greater local decision-making in planning. The flawed top-down targets of regional planning, centrally imposing development upon communities, built nothing but resentment. They will hang over communities no more."   Planners would not need three guesses to attribute that quote to Eric Pickles, speaking earlier this year as the last of the Regional Spatial Strategies was abolished.   What though is the practical difference to a local community of a Borough-wide housing target 'imposed' by a former regional assembly, and the Planning Inspectorate raising concerns about the soundness of a local plan because of a failure to address full and objectively assessed housing need?      The difference to the layperson is negligible because in both scenarios their Council's housing requirement is ultimately set by an 'unelected and unaccountable quangocrat' telling a LPA what ...