The current owners of the former Manston Airport site close to Ramsgate in Kent have unveiled illustrative proposals for the 300-hectare site which involve a mix of residential and commercial space as well as extensive parkland.
The former RAF airfield has a 9,000-foot long runway and was the only facility in south-east England aside from Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports with a runway capable of handling the largest long-haul aircraft
The site is owned by a joint venture company whose main shareholders are regeneration specialists Trevor Cartner and Chris Musgrave as well as Ann Gloag, co-founder of the Stagecoach Group.
The joint venture claims its designs are based on the redevelopment of European airports like Flugfield Boblingen in Stuttgart and Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. The company has talked about creating thousands of jobs and hundreds of new homes.
Last year consultancy Indigo Planning submitted a report to Thanet District Council suggesting that around 1,000 new homes could be located on previously developed land immediately north of Manston airport (beyond the B2050 road) that is within the airport’s ownership but was surplus to its then operational requirements.
Considerable controversy surrounded the sale of the airfield last year and whether or not it should have been retained as an operational airfield. There was also public disquiet over an aborted move by the district council to compulsory purchase the site.
Two months ago the Department for Transport appointed a consultant to examine the decision-making process surrounding the fate of Manston airfield.
A recent report from the Commons Transport Committee was highly critical of the role of Kent County Council which the all-party group said failed to deploy its legal and financial resources adequately to support the district council CPO assessment.
The MPs also said the top tier authority had failed to fulfill its “strategic oversight function” in a case involving” a strategic transport asset”.
View more details on the scheme’s website
Roger Milne
A 1920s London pub – demolished by the owners while it was being considered for listed building status – should be rebuilt, the planning authority involved has decided. The Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale in central London was unexpectedly bulldozed last month.
Now Westminster City Council planning chairman councilor Andrew Smith has called the demolition of the pub “an act of vandalism” and confirmed an enforcement order requiring its rebuilding.
Council officials had recommended that the pub should be rebuilt within 18 months “so as to recreate in facsimile the building as it stood immediately prior to its demolition on 8th April 2015.” The pub was the only building in the street – Carlton Vale – to survive World War II bombing.
Historic England said the tavern was built in 1920 in the so-called Vernacular Revival style by Frank J. Potter. It was commissioned by Charrington & Co brewery at a cost of £11,600 and replaced an earlier pub on the site dating from the 1860s which was destroyed by a German Zeppelin bomb on 19 May 1918.
An application to demolish the building and replace it with a pub and flats as part of a mixed-use scheme had been recommended for approval by officers earlier this year but the proposals were rejected by members on design grounds.
View the full planning committee report (PDF 3MB)
Roger Milne
Man admits Oxfordshire planning offices arson
A man has admitted starting a series of overnight fires in Oxfordshire, including one that caused major damage to council offices shared by the joint planning service operated by South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.
Andrew Main, 47, pleaded guilty to four counts of arson at a hearing at Oxford Crown Court last week. Main, of Rokemarsh near Wallingford, pleaded not guilty to a fifth charge of arson with intent to endanger life.
No explanation over why he started the fires was given in court. It was revealed in court that Main has a mental health issues. He was remanded in custody while a decision is taken over whether to proceed with the fifth charge.
Demolition order for Bath block of flats
Mary Favager, a Bath resident and developer, is appealing an enforcement notice requiring her to demolish a block of luxury flats in Upper Oldfield Park, Bath which the planning authority, Bath and North East Somerset Council says is taller and wider than the scheme originally approved for the site.
Favager‘s company Landmark Developments had also unsuccessfully applied for retrospective permission for the project. That is also the subject of an appeal.
The developer has claimed the reason the scheme changed was because of a building control requirement for a steel frame. A two-storey Edwardian villa was demolished to make way for the five-storey block of 14 flats.
Reports on office market, housing supply and green infrastructure
The number of office jobs has outstripped the rise in office space, sparking a ‘race for space’ according to a report from planning consultancy Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners.
This assessment ‘Workplace Futures: the changing dynamics of office locations’ argued that the office market is currently in flux and undergoing fundamental changes in response to various market trends.
Real estate consultancy Savills has warned that England is heading for a planning shortfall of 180,000 homes over the next Parliament if current trends continue.
That’s the conclusion of a report titled: ‘Beyond the election: what next for planning?’ This argued that housing shortfalls risk becoming embedded in the planning system, storing up problems for the future.
Meanwhile, a new report by Arup supported by the Landscape Institute and Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew has made the case for a central role for green infrastructure in city planning.
This analysis: ‘Cities Alive – rethinking green infrastructure’ highlighted how the creation of a linked ‘city ecosystem’ that encompasses parks and open spaces; urban trees, streets, squares; woodland and waterways can help create healthier, safer and more prosperous cities.
Read the reports:
- Workplace Futures: the changing dynamics of office locations (PDF 4MB)
- Beyond the election: what next for planning? (PDF 1.25MB)
- Cities Alive – rethinking green infrastructure
Classical country house project in Norfolk meets NPPF criteria
ADAM Architecture has secured planning permission for a new classical-style country house on a Norfolk farm from King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council.
The nine-bedroom house is designed to be set in open countryside on a working farm to the south east of the town of Docking where there was no house previously.
The house is set over four floors including a basement. A curved orangery links the main house to a conservatory pavilion.
The scheme satisfied paragraph 55 of the National Planning Policy Framework, which allows for new country houses considered to be of ‘exceptional quality or innovative design’.
In this case, the client and design team worked with specialists to develop a strategy for the innovative use of hydrogen fuel cell technology for the provision of power to the house.
Legal round-up
- A long-awaited Supreme Court judgment on air quality issued last week has made it clear that the UK is in breach of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive with implications for highways plans and airport expansion.
- A High Court judge has refused an application for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s policy on basements to be suspended pending the determination of a substantive challenge to the policy.
- Green energy company Ecotricity has lost an Appeal Court bid to overturn a ruling that it cannot build a four-turbine wind farm at Huntspill on the Somerset Levels.
- A bid to appeal a High Court ruling that supported the grant of planning permission to environmental company Viridor for an energy from waste facility on land in south London earmarked for a country park has failed.
- The future of the proposed redevelopment of the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank is back in the balance as a legal challenge by a local resident heads for the Court of Appeal.
- A First-Tier Tribunal judge has dismissed a challenge by developer Banner Homes to the listing of a 4.83 hectare site by St Albans City and District Council as an asset of community value (ACV). The site falls within the metropolitan green belt and is owned by the developer and house builder.
Reading skyscraper plans blocked
Proposals for three skyscrapers on the site of a former car dealership in the centre of Reading near the town’s railway station have been refused.
The scheme, dubbed Swan Heights, was turned down by Reading Borough Council’s planning committee on the advice of officers. The tallest building would have been 28 storeys high.
Developers Lochailort’s plan – designed by RCHICTS Robert Adam – proposed 352 flats of varying sizes along with office, retail and leisure floor-space.
Officers objected to the scheme on the grounds of “excessive bulk, scale and massing”, lack of affordable housing, leaving insufficient space for future public transport provision, unsuitable landscaping and the lack of comprehensive sunlight analysis.
View the planning committee minutes
Dorset brewery makeover
Plans to further develop a Grade II-listed former Victorian brewery in Dorset have been approved by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.
The proposals for the scheme at Brewers Quay involve a mix of 35 townhouses and flats as well as retail floor space, a restaurant and exhibition space. An earlier scheme which included an 85-bed hotel was withdrawn.
Date for opening of new Oxford-London rail link
The opening date for a new rail link between London and Oxford has been announced. The £130m line will run from Oxford Parkway, the first new station in the city for 80 years, to London Marylebone from 26 October.
Work on the station, located north of the city just off the A34, near Water Eaton park-and-ride, began last October. A new Bicester Village station will open at the same time. Formerly known as Bicester Town, the station is being completely rebuilt as part of the project.
Rob Brighouse, managing director of Chiltern Railways, said: “This project is the first new rail link between a major British city and London in over 100 years and will bring significant economic benefit to the region.”
Scunthorpe stadium plans approved
Scunthorpe United’s plans for a new 12,000-seater football stadium have been approved by North Lincolnshire Council which has given the go-ahead for the League One side to move just over a mile from its current home at Glanford Park to a new site at Burringham where it will form part of the ambitious Lincolnshire Lakes development.
The £18m project also includes proposals for a bar, gym, hotel and office-floor space as well as a multi-use arena and outdoor football pitches for training purposes. Traffic and flood-risk issues remain to be resolved, however.
View more details of the new stadium
View details of the Lincolnshire Lakes development
York waste project withdrawn
Yorwaste, the local authority-owned waste management company based in north Yorkshire and York, has confirmed it has withdrawn its plans for a materials recovery facility and waste transfer station at a green belt location near Rufforth on the outskirts of York.
The scheme had been approved by the city council subject to the view of the Communities Secretary who had signaled he was calling in the proposals.
A spokesman for Yorwaste said: “Yorwaste has decided to withdraw its current planning application, which was approved by City of York Council, and we will not be proceeding with the public inquiry requested by the Secretary of State.
“We will now be taking time to consider future requirements for waste management and recycling infrastructure before deciding on our next steps.”
Northamptonshire solar farm submitted
Kettering Borough Council is considering proposals from Northfield UKSolar to turn a former World War Two airfield in Northamptonshire into a solar farm generating nearly 50 megawatts of electricity.
The company plans to install solar panels across part of the 112 hectare former RAF Desborough site near Wilbarston, Northamptonshire.
View full details of the planning application
Woking estate wrangle
An independent panel set up by Woking Borough Council is to take evidence next month from local residents and interested parties over the council’s controversial plans to regenerate the town’s Sheerwater Estate which could result in 600 homes being demolished.
More than 1,200 people have signed a petition opposing the proposed demolitions.
View the Woking Borough Council press release
Giant stumps proposal for Derby
Derbyshire County Cricket Club has submitted plans to erect a wickets sculpture on a busy roundabout in Derby The six-metre structure would be located on the Pentagon roundabout and greet motorists as they enter the city.
The sculpture would help support Derby’s bid to host matches in the Women’s World Cup in 2017.
Roger Milne
Green belt re-think urged
Architecture and urban design company Broadway Malyan has urged the next Government to “re-think the green belt and the protection it affords areas of land which could contribute a greater value to society through sustainable development and providing new homes”.
The company has published a report which concluded that “a re-calibrated green belt, coupled with strategic growth of towns and centres will have a significant impact on resolving the housing crisis.”
The report included an online survey by pollsters YouGov which found that two-thirds believed that the number of new homes built should be increased, with over two-fifths agreeing a significant increase was needed.
One in five respondents said that housing was one of the most important issues that will decide how they will vote in the general election.
However, just over two-thirds of respondents said that they were opposed to house building in green belt locations while 48 per cent opposed house building on greenfield sites. Only 27 per cent said that they supported house-building on green field locations. Some 83 per cent of respondents supported house building on brownfield land.
Read the full ’50 Shades of Green Belt’ report
Dover waterfront development agreed
The Port of Dover Authority has signed a deal with a real estate company to develop the town’s waterfront as it presses ahead with plans to build a new cargo terminal.
The Mermorandum of Understanding involves London-based developer Bride Hall. The new entity will be known as Dover Waterfront Limited and will look at proposals for new retail activity as well as hotels, bars and restaurants.
Dover District Council chief executive Nadeem Aziz said: “We will be working with the port’s new waterfront regeneration arm and Bride Hall to ensure all of our plans for the regeneration of Dover are coherent, joined up and offer the best opportunity to make a once-in-several-generations difference to our community and Dover as a thriving destination.”
Read the Port of Dover press release
Neighbourhood planning assistance
Planning Aid England has produced a suite of resources to assist those developing a neighbourhood plan.
The resources provide practical tips and advice on various stages of the neighbourhood plan process from designating the neighbourhood area to submitting the plan for examination. They are designed for community groups to use.
They include a series of” how to” guides, templates and videos. Topics include:
- project planning;
- resourcing your neighbourhood plan;
- engaging with landowners and developers;
- developing a vision and objectives; and
- writing planning policies.
Visit the ‘Forum for Neighbourhood Planning’ website (not currently working)
Outline permission agreed for 3,000-home scheme in London docklands
Newham Council in east London has agreed in principle to grant outline planning permission for the mixed-use regeneration of Silvertown Quays in the capital’s docklands.
The proposals involve 3,000 new homes, 179, 000 square metres of office space and 222,000 square metres of brand units, restaurants and a new school.
The scheme needs the approval of the Mayor of London and both the Communities Secretary and the Transport Secretary.
Norwich Passivhaus initiative
Norwich City Council is seeking housing association partners for a £300m programme to build hundreds of super energy-efficient homes.
The city council has gone out to tender on proposals which could mean the construction of 900 so-called Passivhaus homes – which are built to rigorous design standards to ensure they are highly energy efficient – over the lifetime of the four-year scheme.
Proposals for 287 Passivhaus homes are already in the pipeline in Norwich
Brixton makeover
Muse Developments has submitted planning applications for a major Brixton town centre in south London redevelopment called ‘Your New Town Hall’.
The planning applications, for ‘The Triangle’ and ‘Olive Morris House’ sites facing onto Brixton Hill, are part of a project which will ultimately reduce Lambeth Council’s core office buildings from 14 to 2, saving taxpayers at least £4.5m a year.
The proposals include the refurbishment of the Grade II listed Lambeth Town Hall; a new 120,000 sq ft, energy efficient civic building; a total of 194 new homes and new landscaped public areas.
View further details on the scheme’s website
Hampshire development approved
East Hampshire District Council has approved the largest application it has ever considered which will see lead to the transformation of the garrison town Whitehill & Bordon with 2,400 new homes, jobs, essential infrastructure, facilities and a new town centre.
The town was one of the previous government’s “Eco-towns” and has recently been awarded ‘Housing Zone status’ by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
It has also been designated as one of five ‘step up towns’ by the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership in recognition of its regional importance.
View full details of the application
Elephant and Castle move
Notting Hill Housing has received planning permission from Southwark Council for the regeneration of the Aylesbury estate in the Elephant and Castle area of south London.
Southwark Council’s planning committee last night gave the green light to two separate applications – one for the first development site to the south-west of the estate, bordering Burgess Park, and one for the outline master plan for the remainder.
At the first site, 830 homes will be built, including specialist housing for older people and homes for people with learning disabilities, as well as a community facility and extensive new public open space including two new parks.
Phases two, three and four of the regeneration come under the outline master plan permission. This will see 2,745 homes built, as well as the creation of office space, retail units, a new public square with a health centre and early years care, and more public open space, such as pocket parks and playgrounds.
View details of the applications from the Southwark Council planning committee adgenda
Bath wrangle
A row over whether a block of flats in Bath should be demolished or altered will now be determined by the planning inspectorate. City councillors say the scheme as built bears little resemblance to the scheme they approved.
Last week they refused a retrospective application which has now been appealed by Landmark Developments Ltd.
Dorset solar farms planned by council
Plans to generate solar power on farm land owned by Dorset County Council could generate solar energy for nearly 10,000 homes, the authority has claimed.
Solar panels would be installed at 11 farms, owned by the council, covering a total area of about 67 hectares under plans approved by the council cabinet.
The locations of the specific shortlisted sites will be made public once full assessments have been carried out and planning applications have been prepared.
Wind farm deal
Glasgow-based renewable energy firm UrbanWind has announced plans to develop on-shore wind farm schemes across the UK after signing a £30m funding deal with a private equity firm.
Zouk Capital will provide finance for smaller schemes which have won planning permission but lack funding to proceed. Under the agreement, Zouk and UrbanWind will create a joint venture to develop suitable projects. UrbanWind says it has about 100 sites in the development appraisal phase.
Read the UrbanWind press release
Legal round-up
- A naturist spa located in Surrey Green Belt near Staines has lost its High Court challenge over an enforcement order requiring the demolition of new buildings which the judge ruled were “inappropriate”.
- Campaigners objecting to plans from Barratt Homes approved by Bradford City Council for 176 houses at Derry Hill in Menston, West Yorkshire have persuaded the Court of Appeal to reinstate all its proposed grounds for challenge. Bradford Council gave Barratt Homes planning permission in August 2014 for the scheme at Derry Hill in Menston, subject to certain conditions.
- A parish council has failed in a High Court bid to quash, in part, the aligned core strategies (ACS) of three councils in Greater Nottingham. Calverton Parish Council had made the application under s. 113 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 over the ACS, adopted by Broxtowe Borough, Gedling Borough and Nottingham City councils in September 2014. The parish is within Gedling’s area and has been described as an enclave within Green Belt. It feared that the village would increase in size by a third.
- A Crown Court has ordered a third party to contribute to the costs of a successful prosecution by a local planning authority under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, linked to a Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 application. According to Francis Taylor Building, the Court in Ipswich found that the non-defendant layperson had exhibited “serious misconduct” at various stages during the proceedings.. The third party was ordered to pay a contribution of £14,000. “The order is considered to be the very first obtained within England and Wales, specifically in a planning enforcement context,” FTB said.
- The developer behind Winchester’s controversial Silver Hill scheme has been refused leave to appeal a High Court decision which quashed proposed changes to the £165 million development. Now TIAA Henderson Real Estate, which sparked a storm of protest last year when it dropped affordable housing and a bus station from the project, plans to take the case to an oral hearing.
Council serves enforcement notice over ‘red tape’ stripes
A woman in west London’s Kensington has been told to remove the red and white stripes she had painted on her house in protest over a rejected planning application.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have served an enforcement notice on the owner ordering the stripes’ removal after neighbours complained.
The stripes appeared earlier this month after plans to demolish the house and replace it with a new house and two-storey basement were refused.
Roger Milne
A Norfolk district council has established a new form of property joint venture that could see the development of more than 140 sites across the local authority area.
The joint venture – Breckland Bridge Limited – involves Breckland District Council and developer Land Group and is initially expected to revitalise Thetford town centre, bringing a new cinema, hotel, restaurant and retail units and improved public realm on the Riverside site.
It will also involve the development of new residential sites in Attleborough and Mileham. It is understood the JV could be used to develop a further 142 sites once those first three are delivered.
Law firm Trowers & Hamlins advised Breckland on the initiative. Helen Randall, the partner at Trowers who led on the deal, said: “This project is particularly innovative because the joint venture has been uniquely structured as an evolved and more sophisticated variant from the standard local authority asset backed vehicle (LABV) to give the council more flexibility, greater certainty of delivery and the ability to apply a funding model which provides better value for money than traditional LABVs”.
Council Leader Michael Wassell said: “This innovative approach means that our key regeneration projects will bring new jobs, improved leisure facilities and much needed new homes for Breckland residents.”
Roger Milne
A millionaire property developer has admitted in court that he should not have modernised Llanwenarth House, a Grade II listed property in the picturesque Usk Valley in Monmouth shire.
The Georgian-style manor house was built in the late 16th century and is where Irish composer Cecil Alexander is thought to have written the lyrics to the famous hymn ‘All, things bright and beautiful’.
Newport Crown Court heard how Kim Davies, 60, made extensive changes after buying the house in 2007, wrecking its Regency features and replacing them with modern and mock-Tudor ones. One bedroom had been converted into a bathroom fitted with a mosaic-carved jacuzzi.
At an earlier hearing in Abergavenny Magistrates Court, which could not be reported until now for legal reasons, Carl Harrison, for Brecon Beacons National Park Authority said Davies had destroyed the character of the building – one of the top nine per cent of listed buildings in Wales.
Davies had previously denied any wrongdoing but has now pleaded guilty to five charges under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.
The court heard that the renovation work carried out between June 2006 and August 2012 were deliberate breaches of planning law.
Penalties for unlawfully altering a Grade 11 Listed building include a maximum 12-month prison sentence or an unlimited fine. Davies is due to be sentenced on 15 May.
Roger Milne
Proposals for a potash mine in North Yorkshire have made progress after planning permission for part of the £1.7bn project was given the go-ahead by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.
Sirius Minerals has had its application for a mine and mineral transport system near Whitby approved by the local planning authority, which has yet to pronounce on a related application for a materials handling facility.
The company still needs approval from North York Moors National Park Authority for the fertiliser project, much of which inside the boundary of the Park.
It also requires a Development Consent Order for the scheme’s port facilities on Teesside. Revised proposals were submitted to the Planning Inspectorate last month.
The proposed site for the mine head is at Sneaton, three miles south of Whitby, in the north-east part of the designated area. The mine head is in a pleasant, wooded area close to the popular long-distance Coast to Coast trail between St Bees in Cumbria and Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Yorkshire coast.
Sirius wants to mine the fertiliser from underneath the North York Moors National Park and use an underground tunnel to send it to Wilton, near Redcar, for distribution.
Chris Fraser, managing director of Sirius, said: “We are delighted with the positive decision from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council for this substantial part of the project and look forward to further progress with our other applications”.
View further details on the scheme’s website.
Roger Milne
A commitment to Garden Cities – not to mention towns and suburbs – is a feature of some of the current crop of election manifestos with the most gung-ho proposals outlined by the Lib Dems and Labour.
However, neither the Green Party nor UKIP are flying the flag for 21st century versions of Ebenezer Howard’s ideas.
All five parties want to see more brownfield development for new housing and promise continued or greater protection for the green belt. The Conservatives would create a brownfield regeneration fund.
In terms of housing supply – a key issue – there is no consensus on numbers.
Labour is promising one million new homes by 2020 and have promised to implement the recommendations of the Lyons Commission.
The Lib Dems want a strategy involving 300,000 new homes a year while the Conservatives have plans for 200,000 new Starter Homes as well as an aspiration of 120,000 new homes courtesy of its Help to Buy initiative plus a further 95,000 as part of the Housing Zone regime, already signalled. The party has also confirmed move to establish London Land Commission.
The Greens want to “break up” what they call the “big builder cartels” and would oversee the provision of 500,000 social rented homes. UKIP has set its sights on one million new homes built on brownfield land and would offer grants of up to £10,000 a unit to help developers remediate contaminated sites.
Labour is proposing “greater transparency” in the land market and would give local authorities new “use it or lose it” powers to encourage more building. It favours a strengthened “brownfield first” policy but would “respect local decision making over green belt configuration”. All five of the UK-wide political parties want to see more custom-build activity.
Neither Labour nor the Conservatives are proposing radical or comprehensive changes to the planning system.
The Conservatives want more neighbourhood planning and a stronger Right to Bid regime. Labour says it will give local communities more power to shape the High Streets and councils more powers over the clustering of payday lenders and other retail categories.
For major changes you will have to look at the Lib Dems, the Greens and UKIP. The Green Party would repeal the National Planning Policy Framework and its presumption in favour of economic development.
UKIP would replace the NPPF and “introduce fresh new planning guidelines “with a “presumption in favour of conservation” instead of the NPPF’s backing for development.
UKIP wants to give local people control over planning through the use of binding local referenda on such proposals as large out-of-town supermarkets, wind turbines, incinerators, solar farms and major housing schemes. It would merge planning and building control departments.
The Conservatives have committed to ending onshore wind subsidies and would ensure that local people would have the final say on wind farm applications. They also want to give local businesses more say over minor planning applications.
Both the Greens and the Lib Dems want a community right of appeal in some circumstances. The former also wants to restrict ministerial call-ins and greater local authority powers over change of use. The Lib Dems would scrap the recent extension of permitted development to offices to homes conversions and would “end ideologically motivated interference in local planning decisions for wind farms by government ministers”.
The party also wants statutory 15-year housing plans, more cooperation by neighbouring authorities over housing provision and more restricted appeal arrangements for developers. It would update planning law by introducing the concept of so-called “landscape-scale planning” to make sure new developments promote walking , cycling, car-sharing and public transport, while improving rather than diminishing access to green spaces.
The Greens would make the planning system ensure that everyone lives within five minutes walk of a green open space and oblige Government departments and local authorities to consider climate change and carbon reduction in all their planning activities and with a long term horizon of 50-100 years. All local authority planning decisions would adopt that timescale.
The Lib Dems would expand “accessible green space” with new National Nature Parks chosen by the public. The Conservatives have promised a “pocket parks” programme while Labour also wants the local planning system to promote green spaces.
The Conservatives remain firmly behind HS2 and Crossrail 2. Labour still supports the former. Both the Greens and UKIP would scrap HS2. The Greens don’t want any new airport capacity. Labour wants a new National Infrastructure Commission which, amongst other things, would prioritise investment in flood prevention and the party has promised tougher controls over fracking.
The Conservatives would create a sovereign wealth fund for the North of England bankrolled from unconventional oil and gas development, including fracking. It blows warm on more City Deals.
The Lib Dems are committed to introducing a Land Value Tax which would replace Business Rates in the long term.
Access the main parties manifestos on the following links:
Roger Milne
A plan to expand England’s second biggest onshore wind farm, located in the Lancashire Pennines, has been submitted to Rochdale and Rossendale Borough Councils.
Scout Moor Wind Farm Expansion Ltd, a joint venture between United Utilities and the land’s co-owners Peel Energy, want to build another 16 turbines between Rawtenstall and Edenfield.
The move comes after proposals to double the size of the 65 megawatt wind farm were scaled back last year after Rossendale residents objected. The developers had originally sought to build a further 26 turbines but agreed to add just 16 after a public consultation.
The decision to opt for a smaller scheme means it is no longer categorised as a nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP). Scout Moor became operational in 2008 after a public inquiry.
The scheme includes proposals for the restoration and management of some 900 hectares of degraded moorland peat habitat within the application site, including the erection of temporary fencing. Also involved will be the creation of new pedestrian and horse-riding routes and a Community Benefit Fund and the opportunity for the local community to invest in the project.
The wind farm extension will be connected to the national electricity grid via underground cabling. The developers will create of temporary off-street car parking facilities for residents in Edenfield during the construction phase.
View full details of the application on the respective local authority websites:
Roger Milne
East London local authority Tower Hamlets was the biggest beneficiary of the Coalition’s New Homes Bonus scheme over the past five years.
It was paid £74.7m according to figures just released by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
Birmingham City Council came second with £53.7m while Cornwall Unitary Authority (UA) came third, with just under £45.4m.
Local authorities from the capital filled 20 of the top 50 slots. Local authorities from the North and the Midlands were sparingly represented in the top 50 group. Only Barnsley, Bradford, Cheshire East, Coventry, Durham UA, East Riding of Yorkshire UA, Kirklees, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester, Nottingham Salford, Sheffield and Wakefield clocked up allocations of over £15m during the scheme’s lifetime.
The Government bankrolled the scheme to the tune of nearly £3.4bn. DCLG calculated that the scheme rewarded delivery of 700,000 net additional dwellings and over 100,000 long-term empty homes, which were brought back into use.
DCLG’s assessment of the scheme concluded that shire districts were the highest net beneficiaries while more negative impacts were found in the north of England, Yorkshire and the Humber.
The department found no evidence that the initiative “was providing an additional incentive in increasing support specifically for more affordable homes”.
View details of the New Homes Bonus scheme and download the statistics
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 