Planning Portal Blog

MPs have urged ministers and local council politicians to do more to ensure the public is engaged in devolution proposals, negotiations and outcomes.

That’s the view of the Commons Communities and Local Government Committee which has just published a report on the Government’s devolution legislation and the ground-breaking Manchester deal.

The all-party committee also reviewed the way in which devolution in England is moving ahead in other places such as the Tees Valley, Liverpool, Leeds and Cornwall.

Committee chair Clive Betts MP said: “We believe that the current arrangements should only be a first step towards a much bigger devolution settlement and that devolution should be the default across all Government departments.

“If we are to achieve this local leaders and the Government must make far greater efforts to communicate with and engage the public so they embrace devolution as a positive development too.”

The committee found a significant lack of public consultation and engagement at all stages of the devolution process. MPs urged the Government to publish all information on devolution deals online so the public can access a range of details on the proposals, deals, and negotiations.

The Committee highlighted what the MPs called “a failure to set out clear, measurable objectives for devolution, rushed timetables for negotiation, and a lack of openness about deals.”

The Committee argued that, by the end of this Parliament, the Government and local authorities should move to a position of ‘devolution by right’ with the Government announcing a package of powers on offer to local government.

Meanwhile ministers have announced that the first-ever mayor of Greater Manchester will be elected on Thursday 4 May 2017.

View the press release

Roger Milne

Fees increase on the cards

Communities Secretary Greg Clark has announced he will consult on allowing “well-performing planning departments” to increase their fees in line with inflation.

This move was signalled during his statement to Parliament this week on the provisional settlement for local authorities covering the next financial year.

Increased fees will be sanctioned “providing that the revenue reduces the cross subsidy that the planning function currently gets from Council Tax” explained Clark.

Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “The lack of skills and resources within local authority planning departments is a chronic problem. Allowing well-performing authorities to make inflationary increases to their fees, however, is unlikely to make a huge amount of difference in practice.

“A more decisive move is needed if we are to properly tackle this problem once and for all.”

View the statement to Parliament

View the BPF comments

 

New Homes Bonus pay-outs

The Department for Communities and Local Government has published the full list of final allocations of the New Homes Bonus for the 2016 to 2017 financial year.

The New Homes Bonus is a grant paid by central government to local councils to reflect and incentivise housing growth in their areas. It is currently paid each year for six years.

It is based on the amount of extra Council Tax revenue raised for new-build homes, conversions and long-term empty homes brought back into use. There is also an extra payment for providing affordable homes.

These latest allocations bring the total amount of New Homes Bonus allocated to local councils to over £4.8bn. This rewards delivery of almost one million net additional dwellings, and over 100,000 long-term empty homes brought back into use and over 270,000 affordable homes.

View the policy paper

 

Energy project developments

• Danish power company DONG Energy has confirmed it will go-ahead with its giant Hornsea Project One offshore wind farm, capable of powering well over one million UK homes. It will be located 120 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast and span a huge area of approximately 407 square kilometres. It is set to become (by a considerable margin) the world’s largest offshore wind farm with an array of over 170 turbines, each producing seven megawatts.
• Communities Secretary Greg Clark has agreed with the inspector who held a recovered appeal inquiry and refused permission for a 16 megawatt solar power farm proposed for a green belt location at Upminster, Essex. The London Borough of Havering had earlier rejected the project proposed by Green Switch Developments Ltd. Clark’s decision letter stressed the scheme represented inappropriate development in the green belt.
• Investment group Long Harbour has confirmed it is working up proposals for up to 1,000 new homes, offices and a marina at the site of the former Fawley oil-fired power station on the edge of the New Forest National Park. Long Harbour is acting on behalf of a group of investors who acquired the power station land and surrounding 121 hectare site last year.

 

Lancashire transport strategy

The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has published a strategic transport prospectus which outlines national, regional and local transport priorities designed to boost economic performance and improve connectivity.

The prospectus highlighted that the Government’s proposals for HS2 and HS3 could transform Lancashire’s role as a gateway to the whole of the North while the regeneration of Preston Rail Station could stimulate substantial economic activity across the region.

The prospectus claimed the strategy could create 15,000 net new jobs and would contribute an additional £685m GVA a year to the UK economy.

The publication argued that faster and more frequent journeys between Lancashire’s main conurbations and between Lancashire’s towns and cities to Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, could substantially increase levels of inward investment.

Road priorities include all the major motorways which traverse Lancashire including specific stretches and junctions of the M6, M61, M65, M66 and M55 plus a potential new River Ribble crossing, to link the Preston Western Distributor and the South Ribble Western Distributor roads.

View the press release

 

Local plan moves

The inspector who examined the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) has concluded that the strategy is sound and can be adopted by the three councils that prepared it: Malvern Hills District Council, Worcester City Council and Wychavon District Council.

The SWDP includes provision for 28,400 new homes and just over 300 hectares of employment land as well as new retail provision focused in Worcester City and the main towns in the period up to 2030.

Brentwood District Council has this week (10 February) started consulting on its draft local plan which includes proposals for nearly 4,000 new homes in the green belt, a series of greenfield urban extensions and a garden village suburb called Dunton Hills which is planned jointly with neighbouring Basildon Council.

The inspector examining Swale Borough Council’s draft local plan has recommended that the Kent planning authority should make provision for 776 new dwellings per annum rather than the 540 dwellings per annum it was proposing due to capacity and viability issues.

The planning inspectors examining Arun District Councils local plan have concluded that the West Sussex planning authority should undertake further work on its strategy on the basis of an objectively assessed housing need of 845 new homes per annum rather than the council’s original figure of 580 dwellings per annum.

View more information on the South Worcestershire Development Plan

View more information on the Brentwood draft Local Development Plan

View more information on the Swale draft Local Plan

View more information on the Arun Local Plan

 

Self and custom build registers

The Department for Communities and Local Government has published draft planning guidance to support authorities in drawing up registers of self and custom house-builders.

The requirement to have such registers when planning for future housing and land use comes into force on 1 April.

The registers are in addition to the measure in the Housing and Planning Bill which will require authorities to ensure they have sufficient shovel ready plots to match the local demand on their register.

Housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis said: “Many other countries have a track record of delivering large numbers of local homes through self-build and we’re determined to ensure self and custom house building grows significantly.”

View the press release

 

Broadband boost

The Government has worked with Openreach (BT’s local access network business) and the Home Builders Federation (HBF) on an agreement which aims to deliver superfast broadband connectivity to new build properties in the UK.

The new deal will see fibre based broadband offered to all new developments either for free or as part of a co-funded initiative. It is estimated that more than half of all new build properties can be connected to fibre broadband free of charge to developers.

As part of the agreement, Openreach is introducing an online planning tool for homebuilders. This will tell them whether properties in a given development can be connected to fibre for free, or if a contribution is needed from the developer to jointly fund the deployment of the local fibre network.

Openreach will make a significant contribution itself before seeking any funds from developers.

View more information

 

London round-up

• Transport for London (TfL) has approved the appointment of 13 major property development companies and consortiums to a development framework which will help the delivery of thousands of homes, offices and retail spaces. The 13 organisations have been selected following a competitive procurement process that saw over 50 companies register an interest in becoming a property partner with TfL.
• London mayor Boris Johnson has begun public consultation on a major package of cycling, pedestrian and road improvements, including reducing through traffic in Regent’s Park, new cycle links between north and south London, a segregated cycle track on the Westway flyover and action to speed up many car journeys on the A40.
• The Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation has started public consultations on its local plan which sets out how the area of west London around the site of the proposed High Speed 2 (HS2) and Crossrail Station and the adjoining Park Royal industrial estate will be regenerated with up to 25,500 new homes and up to 65,000 jobs.
• Trafalgar Place, part of the first phase of the Heygate Estate regeneration at the Elephant and Castle won the Mayor’s Award for Planning Excellence at the 2015/16 London Planning Awards.

 

Welsh round-up

• What Welsh ministers insist is “world-leading legislation” to tackle climate change and manage the country’s natural resources better has just been passed by the National Assembly. Under the new measures Natural Resources Wales (NRW) will have to produce a national plan and more locally-based strategies which will involve joint-working with local authorities. The bill clarifies the law on other regulatory regimes including flood risk management and land drainage.
• The Welsh Government’s chief planner Neil Hemington has written to all the country’s chief planning officers providing guidance on the slew of changes to the development management system due to come into force on 16 March. Relevant subordinate legislation has been laid before the National Assembly. The changes involve procedure, permitted development and use classes, including Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), enforcement and environmental impact assessment regulations.
• The devolved administration has begun consulting on the first stage of preparing the new national land-use development plan, the so-called National Development Framework (NDF).

 

Oxford JV

Oxford City Council and Nuffield College have formed a joint venture company to bring together the land in the Oxpens area in preparation for a comprehensive redevelopment of the site in a £200m mixed-use scheme.

Following this historic deal, Oxford’s West End is set to be transformed into a new neighbourhood with between 300 and 500 new homes, together with offices and commercial space for the many new and growing enterprises which want to locate in the heart of the city and near good rail links.

The JV has acquired government-owned land which will be used alongside land owned by the city council.

View more information

 

Reading redevelopment

RFC Prop Co Ltd, a partly-owned subsidiary of Reading Football Club, has submitted a planning application to Reading Borough Council for a mixed-use development known as Royal Elm Park next to the existing Madejski Stadium.

The proposals includes an ice rink, a convention centre, 600 new homes, a hotel, a new public square and 2,000 square metres of new retail, leisure and restaurant facilities.

View more information

 

Legal round-up

• A campaigner has secured an interim High Court injunction prohibiting the felling of further street trees in Sheffield by the city council or its contractor Amey as part of the controversial ‘Streets Ahead’ project.
• Heritage campaigners fighting to block the £35m redevelopment of Liverpool’s Lime Street area have submitted a new legal challenge to the scheme.

 

Roger Milne

Ministers have promised further devolution deals in addition to the seven already agreed across the country as the Government’s flagship Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill received the Royal Assent.

The Northern Powerhouse has been leading the way following the trailblazing Greater Manchester deal, and subsequent deals in Liverpool City Region, Tees Valley, the North East and Sheffield City Region.

Local leaders in five northern areas will now see new powers handed to them from Westminster, alongside their counterparts in the West Midlands and Cornwall.

The Act will:

• Pave the way for elected mayors to cover and chair a combined authority area
• Allow the radical devolution of functions, including transport, health, skills, planning and job support
• Enable the creation of sub-national transport bodies which will advise the government on strategic schemes and investment priorities in their own area.

The Government has also announced a separate Aberdeen city region deal.   It involves a fund of up to £250m and will again see equal funding committed by the UK and Scottish governments.

In a related move the Scottish Government said it would invest, over the same five to 10-year time span as the City Region deal, an additional £254m for north-east Scotland’s infrastructure.

This will target the delivery of improved transport links and digital connectivity as well as aiding local housing programmes by unlocking development sites at the request of local authorities and supporting the provision of affordable housing.

View the press release

 

Roger Milne

Outline proposals for a residential-led mixed use urban extension in south west Taunton  in the Comeytrowe/Trull area involving up to 2,000 new homes, some 25 per cent of which will be affordable,  have been approved by Taunton Deane Borough Council.

The scheme is in line with the planning authority’s approved Core Strategy. The proposals also involve up to 5.25-hectares of employment land, a new primary school and local centre as well as a “park and bus” facility and a spine road. The project has been developed by a consortium which includes Taylor Wimpey UK, Mactaggart & Mickel Ltd, Bovis Homes Ltd and Summerfield Developments.

The development is conditional on a phasing and place-making strategy from the developers as well as a neighbourhood master plan and design guide for the project.

Among the conditions are that no phase of the development shall be occupied or brought into use until the part of the spine road that provides access to that phase has been constructed.

The outline permission also makes it clear that no more than 350 dwellings shall be occupied on the development site as a whole before the primary school and pre-school facility have been built.

The scheme has been in the planning stage for three years. The next stage will see the plans being refined at workshops with community groups before the developers seek full planning permission.

View more information on the Taunton and Deane Borough Council website, application number 42/14/0069.

 

Roger Milne

Harborough District Council planning committee has agreed detailed plans for a 100,844 square metre storage and distribution centre with offices on land adjoining and linked to the Magna Park complex in Leicestershire which is the largest distribution park in Europe.

The application is now subject to a potential call in by the Secretary of State. The scheme, submitted by IDI Gazeley Ltd, relates to land at Mere Lane, Bittesby.  The project also involves the upgrading of the A5 to dual carriageway, creation of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and associated infrastructure and landscaping works

The existing Magna Park facility is a 202-hectare warehousing and logistic centre located near Lutterworth. It was constructed on the site of a former airfield, RAF Bitteswell.

It is considered to be a pioneer of large distribution centres in the UK and  is located in an area of land bounded by the M1, M6 and M69 motorways which is known as the ‘Golden Triangle’ because of  its logistically favourable location.

Two further applications for the same site have also been submitted which would increase the overall size of the Magna Park by 550,000 square metres if approved.

View more information on the IDI Gazeley website

 

Roger Milne

MPs have confirmed that planning issues will be central to the inquiry announced last week by the Commons Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee into future flood prevention in England. This investigation follows severe flooding earlier this winter.

The committee noted that flooding had affected many communities across the UK, costing more than £5bn and disrupting thousands of peoples’ lives and businesses. Record rainfall was recorded in some areas and the consequent floods overwhelmed defences.

Among the topics the committee wants to concentrate on are issues to do with the efficacy and accuracy of Environment Agency and Met Office  models  that predict rainfall patterns and flood risk.

Also under scrutiny will be infrastructure policy: How adequately do defences protect communities and agricultural land from floods and do current funding arrangements target spending in the right way?

In respect of planning the MPs have made it clear they want to investigate how well planning policies ensure new buildings are not put in areas of high flood risk or where they would increase risk to others.

Also on the agenda is how well new developments are incorporating sustainable drainage and flood-resilient buildings.

As part of this inquiry MPs will also look at flood insurance as the new Flood Re scheme is due to come into operation in April.

View the press release

 

Roger Milne

The chair of the influential Commons Treasury Committee has taken the unusual step of urging Chancellor George Osborne to clarify key aspects of the Government’s economic case for the expansion of the UK’s airport capacity in South East England.

Andrew Tyrie MP has written to Osborne complaining that the economic case advanced by the independent Airports Commission in its main report published last year was “opaque in a number of respects”.

The Conservative backbencher has also grumbled that a series of 14 detailed parliamentary questions about aspects of the economic case tabled in November last year remained largely unanswered.

Tyrie’s letter to Osborne said: “The decision on airport capacity is crucial for the future of the British economy. It therefore cannot be left to the Department for Transport and you will need to take the lead. The Airports Commission did not publish the information that I have requested in their final report, nor in any of the supporting documents.”

Tyrie added: “A decision as controversial as this, one that has bedeviled past Governments, in one way or another, for decades, requires as much transparency as reasonably possible for the basis of the decision.

“There is no excuse for not providing it. So this work needs to be done, and published, as soon as possible, and at least three months before any decision is taken.”

View more information

 

Roger Milne

Public land prospectus

The Government has published details of 242 hectares of surplus public sector land as part of its drive to deliver tens of thousands of new homes and boost local growth.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has more than 80 public land sites for sale and will bring a further 40 more sites to market over the next 18 months. It is estimated these sites will support more than 5,000 homes as well as land for industry and business. Over 20 per cent of the sites already have outline or detailed planning permission.

The Land Development and Disposal Plan  also sets out some key principles of land disposal, which followed a review of the HCA’s processes and were developed in cooperation with the Home Builders Federation and its members.

In a separate but related development the London Land Commission has published the first ever comprehensive register of public land in London, listing 40,000 sites across the capital with the capacity to deliver a minimum of 130,000 homes.

View the press release

 

LGA warns of loss of 80,000 council houses by 2020

More than 80,000 council homes could be lost as a result of the Government’s Right to Buy policies by 2020, the Local Government Association has warned.

Meanwhile the Department for Communities and Local Government has released its latest local authority housing statistics in England covering the year ending March 2015.

These showed that councils owned 1.64 million dwellings on 1 April 2015, a decrease of 1.5 per cent from the previous year as a result of Right to Buy sales and large-scale voluntary transfer of local authority stock to so-called Private Registered Providers.

Local authority landlords in England made 127,300 lettings during 2014-15. This was a decrease of 11 per cent compared with the 142,900 lettings made in 2013-14, and follows a general decrease from 326,600 in 2000-01.

The average local authority social rent in England in 2014-15 was £85.89 per week. This is four per cent higher than in 2013-14, when the average local authority social rent in England was £82.44.

There were 1.24 million households on local authority waiting lists on 1 April 2015, a decrease of 9 per cent on the 1.37 million on 1 April 2014.

View the housing statistics

 

Seven more neighbourhood plans pass muster

A clutch of seven neighbourhood plans passed muster last week after local polls. Two were in East Staffordshire, two in West Lindsey, Lincolnshire, one in the Lake District and one was for an area involving two parishes in Mid-Sussex. The other was in Daventry.

The NPs which all secured a vote of over 50 per cent in turnouts of between 26 and 41 per cent were:  Tatenill and Rangemore, Stretton, Caistor, Nettleham, Coniston, Lindfield and Lindfield Rural and West Haddon.

 

Winchester redevelopment scheme ditched

Winchester City Council has decided to end its deal with TH Real Estate to redevelop the Silver Hill area of the Hampshire city.

Notice to terminate the £150m scheme is likely to be issued immediately after the council’s next Cabinet meeting on 10 February.

Council leader Stephen Godfrey said: “I am disappointed that TH Real Estate appears unable to go unconditional with the scheme, although they do still have a few more days. It is time to draw a line under this scheme, pause for breath and consider afresh how best to regenerate this important site.”

The area known as Silver Hill covers an area of approximately 2.3 hectares of central Winchester. It includes the bus station, Friarsgate medical centre, Kings Walk and the Friarsgate car park amongst other elements.

View the news story

 

Think-tank report urges new strategy to reverse environmental decline

A new government strategy is needed to reverse the decline of the UK’s natural environment, according to a report published by think tank Green Alliance.

The report called for a strategy combining the strengths of traditional nature conservation with the more recently developed approach centred on natural capital.

Natural capital involves valuing the benefits society receives from natural assets like soil and water. In contrast, nature conservation recognises the intrinsic value of the environment and seeks to protect it from the negative impacts of the economy.

The report argued that an aligned approach could use natural capital accounting and market-based policies to support companies in reducing their environmental impacts, working alongside traditional conservation instruments such as regulation, grants and the creation of nature reserves.

The report said the natural capital approach could drive new business investment to protect and maintain natural assets like soil and water. But the think-tank acknowledged that the case for business investment was weaker with assets like biodiversity, which benefit society at large.

The report said the scale of environmental decline required “the restoration of natural systems at landscape scale. Nature conservation approaches will often be the cheapest and most effective way to deliver this.

View the press release

 

Four wind and solar power projects blocked

Communities secretary Greg Clark has agreed with the planning inspector who held a recovered appeal inquiry into proposals for a 16 megawatt solar power facility on 32 hectares of farm land at Steyning, West Sussex and rejected the scheme, originally refused by Horsham District Council.

The decision letter concluded that Huddlerstone Farm Solar Park Ltd’s appeal should be dismissed, citing the project’s “unforgiving utilitarian aspect”.

In a separate recovered appeal determined by the SoS, Clark has dismissed proposals for a 2.1 megawatt solar power facility earmarked for 4.6 hectare site next to an existing larger solar power project at Penryn originally refused by Cornwall Council. His stance echoed the recommendation of the planning inspector who considered the case.

In respect of another renewable energy project Clark has agreed with the inspector who held an inquiry into a recovered appeal for a four-turbine on-shore wind farm at a Somerset quarry originally rejected by Mendip District Council.

The SoS noted that the scheme would harm the setting of heritage assets and had generated considerable community opposition whose concerns had not been met.

Broadview Energy Ltd’s proposals for six wind turbines near Charminster has been rejected by West Dorset District Council.

View the recovered appeal: Huddlestone Farm, Horsham Road, Steyning, West Sussex

View the recovered appeal: Butteriss Farm, Edgcumbe, Penryn, Cornwall

View the Recovered appeal: land adjacent to Torr Works Somerset

 

Go ahead for improved A190 junction near Wallsend

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has approved a development consent order (DCO) to construct a new section of highway and make improvements to the existing A19 trunk road in North Tyneside between the A19/A193 Wallsend and A19/A191 Holystone Junctions. The scheme will also include improvements to the A19/A1058 Coast Road junction.

The project is designed to relieve congestion and improve safety at the junction. McLoughlin agreed with the Planning Inspectorate that the project would support economic activity and growth.

 

Bournemouth airport growth prospects

The Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership has launched an economic growth plan focused on employment and development around Bournemouth Airport.

Almost £40m secured by Dorset LEP, as part of the Dorset Growth Deal, is funding a series of transport and infrastructure investments.

Over the next four years the projects and schemes will transform accessibility to and around Bournemouth Airport through extensive transport improvements and release up to 60-hectares of prime, flexible employment land for high-quality new business premises at the Aviation Business Park.

The strategy will also deliver around 350 new homes of which up to 50 per cent will be affordable and increase broadband capacity to Bournemouth Airport and the Aviation Business Park.

The LEP is overseeing the programme in collaboration with Aviation Business Park, Bournemouth Borough Council, Bournemouth University, Christchurch and East Dorset Councils, Dorset County Council and the Manchester Airports Group.

View the press release

 

London round-up

• US property developer Greystar Europe Holdings has announced the acquisition of a 10-hectare site at Greenford in west London formerly owned by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmith Kline and J Lyons & Co. The developer is planning the UK’s largest purpose-built rented housing scheme as well as homes for sale, employment and retail space and community use.
• Developers have withdrawn plans for a 254 metre tower in west London dubbed the “Paddington Shard”. Irvine Sellar (the developer behind the 306 metre Shard in Southwark) used the same architect, Renzo Piano, to design the 72-storey skyscraper earmarked for the site of a currently derelict Royal Mail building next to the London rail terminus. Westminster City Council said Sellar was reconsidering the plans following concerns raised by campaigners and Historic England.
• Crossrail has got the green light for a new office development above Farringdon Crossrail station, following an appeal.
• Islington Council has expressed concern after Mayor Boris Johnson intervened to “call in” a planning application that could see an 11-storey building dominating one of London’s most historic burial grounds (Bunhill Fields) in City Road. William Blake and Daniel Defoe are buried there.
• Developers are deliberately paying too much for land to escape affordable housing obligations, the London Assembly planning committee has warned.
• Developers who put in residential planning applications that don’t meet the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s affordable housing target of at least 35 per cent will have to supply fully public, unredacted viability assessments under a policy which has just come into force.

 

Welsh mash-up

• The first minister has apologised to Assembly Members after a report from the National Assembly for Wales Public Accounts Committee said taxpayers had lost tens of millions of pounds over the sale of publicly-owned land. The committee said there were fundamental flaws in the way the Fund was managed, overseen and advised which cost Welsh taxpayers tens of millions of pounds. RIFW was set up as an arms-length body by the Welsh Government to sell off land around Wales including in North Wales, Monmouthshire and Cardiff and use the money, in conjunction with European funding, to reinvest in areas in need of regeneration.
• A new service to help social enterprises and SMEs across Wales develop their own renewable energy schemes has been launched by planning and natural resources minister Carl Sargeant.
• City Councillors formally approved the Cardiff Local Development Plan (LDP) last week.

 

Leaked letter moots NSIP status for fracking

A leaked letter obtained by Friends of the Earth and published in the Sunday Telegraph appears to confirm that ministers have actively considered fracking applications under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime.

Communities Secretary Greg Clark, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd and Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss all backed the idea, apparently.

View the news story

 

Welsh Streets initiative

An initiative which could lead to the regeneration of the Welsh Streets area of Toxteth has been unveiled by Liverpool City Council.

The council’s Cabinet is being asked to approve plans to enter a six month exclusivity agreement with specialist development company PlaceFirst which will draw up a new master plan and submitting a planning application.

The company has a track record in converting 19th century housing into high quality homes that meet modern standards whilst retaining their original character and layout.

 

Stoke spending spree

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has announced a proposed package of capital investment totalling £470m including spending on private rented accommodation,  affordable homes and the refurbishment of historic buildings in the city centre.

Also planned is expenditure on infrastructure in the Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone and on brownfield sites to make them suitable for development under the government’s Houisng Zone initiative.

View the press release

 

Dorset’s ‘Woodhenge’ approved

A wooden replica of Stonehenge, dubbed Woodhenge, which was built without planning permission, has been allowed to stay now Purbeck District Council has granted it retrospective planning permission.

 

Legal round-up

• Campaigners battling to prevent London’s historic Norton Folgate site in Spitalfields being redeveloped with corporate office towers have been given permission to mount a High Court challenge over the consent granted by Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
• A further legal challenge is being considered by the owners of Skelmersdale Concourse Shopping Centre after the High Court ruled in favour of West Lancashire Borough Council in a judicial review that was raised after the council granted approval for a rival town centre development.

 

Top job moves

• Phil Roberts, Swansea City Council’s corporate director of place, whose responsibilities include economic regeneration and planning, will become the authority’s interim chief executive in May.
• RIBA chief executive Harry Rich has quit the organisation after six years at the helm. Alan Vallance (interim director of finance and operations) has assumed the chief executive duties.

 

Roger Milne