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
Developer Gladman Developments Ltd has withdrawn its legal challenge in the Court of Appeal over the “making” of Winslow’s Neighbourhood Plan by Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC).
The Buckinghamshire planning authority had formally approved the plan, following a local referendum in September 2014.
Gladman initially challenged that move in the High Court on a number of grounds, including the reasoning of the independent examiner who scrutinised the plan and the lawfulness of the council’s decision to formally make the plan.
However, a judge dismissed the developer’s case in December 2014. A subsequent appeal against that decision was made to the Court of Appeal in March this year.
However, AVDC has now been informed that the developer has withdrawn from the Court of Appeal proceedings and is also no longer challenging Community Secretary Eric Pickles’ decision to refuse planning permission for a 211-dwelling residential scheme on land off Verney Road in Winslow.
AVDC had refused this scheme and the developer appealed. The inspector who held the recovered appeal had recommended approval but the Secretary of State disagreed, citing the neighbourhood plan.
Susan Kitchen, who heads the council’s development management team, said: “This is fantastic news for the residents of Winslow. A huge amount of work went into drawing up the plan by the Winslow community and the withdrawal of this challenge removes any doubt over the status of the plan when making decisions on planning applications in the area it covers.
She added: “Although AVDC was confident that the Court of Appeal would dismiss this latest challenge to the plan, Gladman’s decision to drop the action is very welcome. We will be pursuing the recovery of our legal costs, where permitted.”
Meanwhile, in a separate move Mendip District Council has confirmed that Gladman has dropped its High Court challenge to the council’s local plan over the adequacy of the strategy’s housing provision.
View the Aylesbury Vale District Council press release
View the decision letter and inspectors report
Roger Milne
The Liberal Democrats’ Manifesto commits the party to at least ten new garden cities (where locals back the idea) and a slew of new garden villages and suburbs to help provide 300,000 new homes. Up to five of these major new settlements are proposed along a new rail link between Oxford and Cambridge.
The party plans to end ideologically motivated onshore wind farm decisions, pilot capturing land value increases from grant of planning permission for garden cities and would require local authorities to plan for 15 years of housing need, a move which will need a strengthened duty to cooperate with neighboring authorities.
Like the Greens the Liberal Democrats favour a community right of appeal. The latter has pledged to introduce so-called “landscape-scale planning” to encourage access to green spaces and would revoke both the new offices to residential permitted development regime as well as the exemption for schemes of ten homes or fewer to meet zero carbon standards.
Both the Greens and UKIP want to scrap HS2. The latter would replace the National Planning Policy Framework with guidance encouraging brown field use and protecting the green belt. The Greens want to scrap the NPPF. UKIP has declared it wants to allow referendums to overturn large-scale housing, wind farm, solar, incinerator and supermarket permissions.
The Greens want to ease planning constraints for wind and solar, in particular for onshore wind schemes and insist that climate change and carbon reduction should figure in all planning decisions.
Roger Milne
Nexus Planning, on behalf of Commercial Estates Group and the Bird Group, has submitted an outline planning application for a proposed new settlement on land adjacent to the village of Lighthorne Heath, near Gaydon, Warwickshire.
The application for a first phase of 2,000 new homes includes a village centre with supermarket and elderly accommodation, a new primary school, community hub, health centre, sports and recreation facilities and a 47-hectare managed ecological reserve.
The 140-hectare site forms the first phase of a 300-hectare strategic allocation identified in Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s emerging core strategy for 3,000 new dwellings, 100 hectares of land for the expansion of Jaguar Land Rover, and 4.5 hectares of land for the expansion of Aston Martin Lagonda.
Nexus Planning submitted the planning application in collaboration with place-making practice, John Thompson & Partners following extensive public consultation over the last two years.
The site is located along the M40 corridor within an area of high-value automotive-related research and development activity. Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin Lagonda employ around 7,000 staff in their research and production facilities immediately adjacent to the site where there is scope for further expansion.
When complete, the new settlement will be the second largest settlement in the district with only the Warwickshire town of Stratford upon Avon town being larger.
Read the Nexus Planning press release
View details of the Stratford-on-Avon District Council core strategy
Roger Milne
The Department for Communities and Local Government has announced changes to the guidance on the vacant building credit (VBC) regime initially introduced in November last year.
The changes confirm that the intention of the VBC is to act as an incentive for brownfield development on sites containing vacant buildings and that it can operate with respect to either the number of affordable housing units or the amount of a financial contribution towards affordable housing.
The revised guidance makes it clear that the regime provides an element of discretion for local planning authorities (LPAs) over the way VBC is applied.
This means that LPAs can consider whether the building was made vacant for the sole purpose of redevelopment and whether the building was already covered by an existing or recently expired planning permission for a development similar what is now proposed.
The updated advice also sets out the detailed procedure for determining the VBC where there are changes in the gross floor space of vacant buildings on the site, which affect the amount of affordable housing contribution.
When the guidance was originally published some local authorities, particularly in London, opposed the principle of the initiative on the basis that it would significantly reduce the level of affordable housing contributions.
Some local authorities are considering introducing local planning policies to mitigate the impact or establish a local VBC exemption.
George Wilson of planning law specialists Pinsent Masons said: “These changes go some way to alleviating concerns local authorities had when the vacant building credit was first introduced by the Government, but not entirely.
“The amendments provide some flexibility and discretion for the local authorities in the way in which they apply the VBC and in considering whether the VBC would be applied, to encourage genuinely vacant, brownfield sites into use, as is the intention for which the credit was introduced.
“Although the changes have largely been welcomed, we would not be surprised to see further authorities try and introduce blanket exemptions for the credit in their areas and further ‘clarifications’ to the guidance issued,” he said.
View the guidance on the Vacant Building Credit
Roger Milne
PINS confirms appeal delays
The Planning Inspectorate has confirmed that staff shortages at the organisation have led to delays of up to 10 weeks to validate planning and householder appeals. For some inquiry categories this means decisions may take 12 months or thereabouts.
The admission of problems has been posted on the Planning Portal. The post says: “We apologise for the delay and are taking measures to address this. We would like to thank you for your understanding and patience during this period.
“When your appeal has been confirmed as valid we will then issue a start date letter giving details of the timetable for the appeal.”
According the latest appeal handling times published by PINS, the worst affected categories appear to involve enforcement appeal inquires, listed building/conservation area consent appeals considered by written representations and appeals involving lawful development certificates.
PINS advised it was recruiting more staff to deal with the growing backlog.
View the appeal handling time statistics
Hampshire 2,400-homes scheme makes waves
The largest ever planning application submitted to East Hampshire District Council is being determined by the planning authority this week.
The application proposes to transform the Army site at Whitehill & Bordon with 2,400 new homes and a new town centre.
The planning application, submitted by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) which is the property arm of the Ministry of Defence, outlines how the area could be transformed with new shops, offices, cafes, restaurants, a food store, a swimming pool in a new leisure centre, new schools and sports pitches.
Plans also include proposals for new a new cycling route, footpaths, public open space, car parking, children’s play areas, multi-use games areas, a BMX or skate park, allotments and landscaping. In addition there are also proposals for the southern section of the new relief road which will link to the A325.
View the planning application in detail
Report charts office to residential conversion activity
Research by commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) has revealed that more than 11 million square feet of office space has switched use since changes to permitted development rights (PDR) in England made the move to residential much easier as no planning permission was required.
Although much of the activity has been in the English capital, particular in outer London boroughs like Croydon and Sutton, there has been substantial activity in the regional markets the consultancy tracks outside London.
The consultancy has reported that there around eight million square feet of office stock has left the commercial market since May 2013, when the changes to the PDR kicked-in.
Some 4.7 million square feet of commercial floor space changed use in 2014 with Bristol proving a “hot spot” with over one million square feet changing use since 2013, and 800 000 square feet in 2014 alone.
Commuter locations around London have also been popular. In Slough, for instance, some six per cent of office floor space has gone for residential while the so-called Hertfordshire markets – including Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead – have collectively lost around 900,000 square feet of office since 2013.
View further details of the research
Stroud retail saga latest
The planning saga over proposals for a new supermarket at Stroud took a surprise turn last week when the district council’s development control committee considered three plans for out-of-town supermarkets: Asda at Daniels industrial estate on Bath Road, a potential Lidl on Stroud Metals site at Dudbridge, and a third supermarket at Brunsdon’s Yard, Ryeford.
Planning officers had recommended that the Asda scheme should go ahead and the other two should be rejected.
However, councillors defied this advice and approved the proposal for the Dudbridge site, which Lidl has expressed interest in but which has flooding issues.
The decision had been delayed since September to allow a fourth proposal to be developed – a town centre supermarket on the site of the Market Tavern pub and Cornhill.
The landowner of that site, Setminds Ltd, has said it has been in discussion with Marks and Spencer but no planning application has been submitted for the site.
North Wales power link consent move
The Planning Inspectorate has accepted for examination for development consent proposals from power distribution company SP Manweb for a scheme to connect four new wind farms in North Wales to an existing electricity substation at St Asaph.
Like the latter facility, all the wind farms in question are located in Denbighshire. The scheme involves some 17 kilometres of overhead line carried on wooden poles, which will be around 15 metres in height.
The planned wind farms are Clocaenog Forest (developed by RWE npower renewables), Brenig (Brenig Wind Ltd), Nant Bach (Vattenfall) and Derwydd Bach (Tegni).
View details on the National Infrastructure Planning website
Underground freight delivery trial for Northampton
A study to see whether underground freight deliveries could become reality in the UK is to be carried out in Northampton.
A Government grant will allow Cambridgeshire company Mole Solutions to see whether its magnet and track-based system could work in urban areas.
The firm’s technical director Stuart Prosser said: “We’re going to use Northampton as a bit of an exemplar.
“They have some issues with air pollution and distribution of goods and they want to see if there’s other ways of doing it, rather than just using the traditional ways between the M1, the A14 and into the city centre.”
The “mole” concept involves propelling bulk goods through pipelines powered by magnetic waves. The company said the system could work unmanned in pipes laid beside or under existing transport infrastructure.
View the Mole Solutions press release
Tallest residential tower waved through by Boris
London Mayor Boris Johnson has decided not to intervene over proposals for a 215-metre high residential tower, the UK’s tallest, proposed for Marsh Wall near Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs in east London.
The scheme, known as South Quay Plaza will provide 888 flats, 188 of which will be affordable, was approved by Tower Hamlets Council last November.
Designed by Foster & Partners, the scheme comprises a 68-storey tower and a smaller 36-storey structure. There will also be ground-floor commercial units, car parking and landscaping. Three existing commercial buildings will be demolished. Changes from the original planning application include a reduction in the height of the tallest building from 73 storeys to 68.
Visit the South Quay Plaza website
Revised Plymouth regeneration master plan approved
An updated master plan setting out future phases in the transformation of Millbay – one of the largest regeneration projects in the south of England – has been approved by Plymouth’s planners.
Millbay’s lead developer English Cities Fund (ECf) submitted the outline planning application for the regeneration area to update and replace the current master plan, which was granted outline planning permission by Plymouth City Council in 2008.
Focussed around the historic former docks built by the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Millbay scheme offers residential, leisure, business and retail development, as well as public spaces and direct access to the waterfront.
The revised outline planning application involves up to 600 new homes, 12,500 square metres of offices and 8,600 square metres of retail/ leisure space, a hotel and a multi-storey car park together with associated engineering works, highway improvements, public realm and landscaping.
Luton cinema conversion blow
Proposals to partially convert an iconic art deco cinema into a church have been rejected by Luton Borough Council.
It had received a planning application to refurbish the front section of the ABC cinema in George Street, which would have been sublet to a Pentecostal church.
Applicants Fenton Property Management indicated that the old cinema’s screens would have been left untouched and sealed off from the rest of the building.
A council spokesperson said: “It is considered that the granting of a temporary consent for use of the site for a place of worship would not facilitate the redevelopment of this prominent site within the central shopping area as the predominant activities of a use of this kind would take place outside the core shopping and leisure times and therefore it fails to contribute to the regeneration of the town centre in the short term.”
Ipswich screen boost
A new 16-screen cinema looks set to be built in Ipswich’s Buttermarket centre alongside proposals for six new restaurants and a gym.
The new owners of the shopping centre, Capital and Regional, who are in partnership with the Drum Property Group, have applied to Ipswich Borough Council to amend the planning consent that was granted two years ago for Vue Cinemas to create a nine-screen multiplex in the centre.
That scheme fell by the wayside after Vue was unable to press ahead with the project and the centre was sold.
House builder says election is slowing down new home approvals
Persimmon Group Chairman Nicholas Wrigley has highlighted “increasing difficulties” in obtaining planning consents for sites as May’s General Election approaches.
In a trading update, Wrigley said: “while we would expect such delays to be short term in nature, they are hindering the expansion in the number of active outlets required by the house-building industry to support an increase in the volume of newly built homes delivered to the market.”
View the full Persimmon PLC trading update
Tewkesbury mulls premature site work
Tewkesbury Borough Council has confirmed it is investigating reports that house-builder Redrow Homes has jumped the gun on preliminary site work for a proposed residential development of more than 300 dwellings at Leckhampton Gloucestershire for which it has not yet obtained planning approval.
Beech tree is the tops
A beech tree on the South Downs has been named the tallest native tree in Britain. The 44-metre tree has been growing in Newtimber Woods on the National Trust’s Devil’s Dyke Estate in West Sussex.
The tree thought to be almost 200 years old was found to be the tallest by Owen Johnson from the Tree Register.
A 61-metre Douglas fir, in Cragside, Northumberland, holds the title of the tallest non-native species in Britain.
Roger Milne
Further to my blog post from last week, we have now published the PDF forms for the new prior notification types.
Please note that the forms will not be available on the online application system, fee calculator or paper form chooser. This means the forms will not carry any specific LPA logos or branding.
Planning Portal Blog 