Developer Hallam Land Management has successfully appealed Fylde Borough Council’s failure to determine its application for the demolition of existing buildings and the provision of up to 360 homes on land at Blackfield End Farm, Church Road, Warton, in Lancashire on time.
The case was recovered for determination by the Communities Secretary. The Secretary of State agreed with the inspector who held the inquiry that the scheme should go ahead.
Part of the 13-hectare site for the scheme is in green belt, but the proposals allocated to this part of the project were as open space rather than built development.
The appeal site includes land on each side of Church Road which abuts the northern edge of the built-up area of Warton. The adjacent part of the settlement is predominantly residential. But the scheme will be close to extensive aircraft manufacturing works operated by BAE Systems.
These facilities are at Warton Aerodrome which is part of the Lancashire Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Enterprise Zone.
Clark’s decision letter said that “although the proposed development would represent an extension of the built up area [of Warton], it represents a sustainable form of development which will provide much-needed housing and which accords with the policies of the National Planning Policy framework taken as a whole”.
He agreed with the inspector that the scheme did not represent premature development in respect of both the emerging local plan and neighbourhood plan. Clark also acknowledged that the planning authority did not have a five-year supply of housing land.
The decision letter noted that the local authority and developer had agreed to revise the structure of the section 106 agreement in respect of education provision in response to new rules restricting the use of pooled infrastructure contributions.
Roger Milne
Communities Secretary Greg Clark and the Planning Inspectorate have confirmed that ambitious proposals for a so-called “International Advanced Manufacturing Plant“ near Sunderland in north east England can be handled under the Planning Act 2008 regime for nationally significant infrastructure projects.
The scheme is earmarked for 150 hectares of land to the north of the existing Nissan car plant to the west of the A19 and the south of the A184. Sunderland City Council and South Tyneside Council are working in partnership to deliver the scheme
The project is the first ‘business or commercial project’, where the uses include industrial, storage or distribution, office and research and development floor space, to be designated under the NSIP consenting regime since the range of qualifying schemes was expanded in 2013.
The only other business or commercial project to be permitted to use the regime to date is the proposed London Paramount entertainment resort in north Kent.
Global engineering, design and planning consultancy Arup is responsible for the preparation of an Area Action Plan for the site to set the planning policy framework and to secure consent for the development. Arup is also advising on master planning and environmental impact assessment. The Arup team includes Urbed, BNP Paribas, legal firm Pinsent Masons and communications specialist Local Dialogue.
Clark’s decision letter said the proposal “would be likely to have a significant economic impact, be important in driving growth in the economy and would have an impact on an area wider than a single local authority area… the substantial size of the proposal is relevant to my decision that this project is of national significance”.
The SoS added that the scheme “would benefit from the single authorisation process offered by the Planning Act 2008 regime.”
Roger Milne
A presumption against unconventional oil and gas extraction – a move which means an effective ban on fracking – and a retail development policy firmly rooted in the notion of “town centres first” are highlighted in Northern Ireland’s latest Strategic Planning Policy Statement (SPPS).
The document, the equivalent of England’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was formally published this week by Environment Minister Mark H Durkan.
The SPPS consolidates 20 separate planning policies running to 800 pages into one document. This provides the policy on key issues such as town centres and retail development, building in the countryside, creating and enhancing shared space, tourism, telecommunications and housing.
For the first time the policy rules out unconventional hydrocarbon extraction, often referred to as fracking. This would only change in the future if the Department of the Environment is satisfied that there is sufficient and robust evidence on all environmental impacts of fracking.
Durkan said: “I believe this is a sensible and reasonable approach.”
He added: “Publishing the SPPS unlocks development potential, supports job creation and will aid economic recovery but not at the expense of our planet, environment and people.”
The minister stressed that the new SPPS would enable councils to be flexible in bringing forward planning policy tailored to local circumstances through their new Local Development Plans.
In a separate move, Durkan last week announced that proposals for a controversial multi-million pound waste recycling and energy from waste facility on the edge of Belfast had been blocked against the recommendation of officials.
Arc 21, which represents a number of councils and the Becon Consortium, had proposed a £250m waste facility in the Hightown Quarry on the Boghill Road in Newtownabbey.
The plan faced huge public opposition with residents close to the site arguing the proposed location for the facility was inappropriate.
Refusal of planning permission leaves the councils with a problem of how to deal with their waste and how to meet EU targets on recycling.
View the Strategic Planning Policy Statement
Roger Milne
Backbench MPs have heavily criticised the Government over its high-profile public sector land disposal programme.
The influential Commons Public Accounts Committee has published a report which accuses the administration of failing to collect information on the actual number of houses built or under construction as a result of the programme.
The Department of Communities and Local Government has claimed that by the end of March 2015, the Government had disposed of land with capacity for an estimated 109,950 homes, across 942 sites.
The biggest contributors were the Ministry of Defence (around 39,000 homes), the Homes and Communities Agency (around 21,000, on behalf of the DCLG) and the Department of Health (around 15,000.
But the all-party committee complained that the DCLG was unable to demonstrate whether the programme had succeeded in addressing the housing shortage or achieving value for money.
The Department had also not assessed the proceeds from land sold, or whether the parcels of land were sold at market value, the MPs said.
“Instead, it chose to focus only on a notional number for ‘potential’ capacity for building houses on the land sold by individual departments in order to determine ‘success’,” the PAC said.
The committee noted that the DCLG had also counted towards the programmer’s target the capacity of land sold before the programme had even started.
“It did not collect basic information necessary to oversee the programme effectively and, where it did collect programme-level data, there were omissions and inconsistencies, the report said.
Committee chair Meg Hillier MP said: “The Government should be embarrassed by the failings uncovered by the PAC’s inquiry into land disposal. Its entire approach has been wishful thinking dressed up as public policy.”
The Labour MP added: “The Government has no record of how many homes have been built or are under construction. It has no record of sale proceeds, nor their value in relation to prevailing market prices.”
Roger Milne
Latest UK house-building figures
House building activity in the UK this year is set to top levels seen during 2014, according to new figures just released by the NHBC.
The new home registrations statistics reveal an increase of 11 per cent for the rolling quarter June to August, compared to the same period last year. A total of 40,101 new homes were registered in the UK during this period, up on the 36,149 new homes registered in the previous year.
The private sector increased by 12 per cent during this period (30,210 in 2015; 27,072 last year), with the public sector increasing by nine per cent from last year (9,891 in 2015; 9,077 last year).
However, registrations for August were down marginally by 6 per cent (10,362 compared to 11,037 last year) the first time since January that figures fell below last year’s respective monthly totals.
For the month, the private sector was marginally down by 1 per cent (8,401 in 2015, 8,476 August 2014), with the public sector down 23 per cent (1,961 versus 2,561 last August); this decrease follows six consecutive months of growth when compared to last year for the public sector.
Go-ahead for huge Loughborough housing scheme
Outline proposals for a 3,200-home sustainable urban extension on 465 hectares of mainly farmland west of Loughborough and close to the M1 have been approved by Charnwood Borough Council.
Developers William Davis and Persimmon Homes scheme also includes 16 hectares of employment land, retail and business units, two primary schools, sites for gypsies and travellers, open spaces including allotments, improvements to junction 23 of the M1 and the restoration of Garendon Park.
The site was identified for development under the Leicestershire District Council’s draft Core Strategy which has just been confirmed as “sound” by a planning inspector and will be formally approved by the local authority shortly.
View more information on the development
Party conferences prioritise housing
The Labour Party’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to start a “new, very large council house building programme” that would pay for itself. Housing would be a priority of any incoming Labour administration he promised in his first party conference speech as leader.
Meanwhile in his first party conference speech as Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said that the Liberal Democrats would build ten new garden cities, including five major new settlements along a garden cities railway between Oxford and Cambridge and confirmed the party’s target of 300,000 new homes to be built annually.
Cardiff city centre progress
Legal and General has signed a deal to back the £400m redevelopment of Cardiff city centre. The move represents one of the biggest-ever property deals in Wales.
The move sees the financial services giant taking a major stake in Cardiff’s Central Square project (which involves the redevelopment of over 92,903 square metres of the capital) transforming the area around the city’s station into a thriving business district.
The deal struck between the property investment arm of L&G and developer Rightacres Property includes the proposed new headquarters for BBC Cymru Wales at the heart of Central Square, the completion of the No 1 Central Square building, the proposed No 2 Central Square office scheme.
Also involved is the Interchange development, which as well as serving as the location for a new bus station and transport hub, involves plans for new office space, a 150-bedroom hotel and 200 private flats.
Energy project round-up
- Electricity generation giant Drax Power has said it will not continue with plans to develop the White Rose carbon capture and storage (CCS) project beyond the initial development phase, blaming the Government’s shift in energy policy. The project involves proposals for a 400 megawatt commercial-scale coal-fired plant fitted with CCS technology. There is now a big question mark whether the scheme will climb off the drawing board.
- Communities Secretary Greg Clark has refused planning permission for a four-turbine eight megawatt wind farm on arable land at Thorney near Peterborough which the city council was about to approve last year before it’s call-in by the then Communities Secretary Sir Eric Pickles. The scheme, proposed by REG Windpower Ltd, was recommended for approval by the inspector who held a public inquiry earlier this year’. Clark rejected this advice arguing that the planning impacts identified by the affected local community had not been addressed, citing visual and residential amenity concerns. The SoS insisted the scheme was being refused because it fell foul of the Government’s written ministerial statement of 18 June 2015 which said wind farms needed to demonstrate community backing.
- End of an era as the iconic twin chimney stacks of Cockenzie power station in East Lothian were blown up and part of the main building at the Didcot power plant complex in Oxfordshire was demolished.
London round-up
- London Mayor Boris Johnson has called in two contentious schemes in the capital. They are the £800m Bishopsgate Goods Yard mixed-use scheme proposed by developers Hammerson and Ballymore which is being considered by Hackney and Tower Hamlet Councils. He has also intervened over British Land’s planning application for Blossom Street, a 32,516 square metre mixed-use scheme on the City fringe, which was rejected by Tower Hamlet councillors against the advice of officers.
- Planning and transport consultancy Arup has been appointed to help the pedestrian safety pilot scheme in south west London’s Tooting town centre. Arup will support Transport for London and Wandsworth Council to deliver a transport strategy and action plan to address pedestrian safety and to increase the level of walking in the area.
- The planning application for the Somerleyton Road scheme that would bring three hundred new homes, a theatre, chef school, children’s nursery and new business opportunities to Brixton in South London has been submitted to Lambeth Council which is closely involved in the new neighbourhood project.
- The Thames garden bridge project is looking increasingly unlikely now Lambeth Council has pulled out of negotiations for some of the land needed for the scheme, already under fire because of spiralling costs.
Brighton and Hove Albion’s new development goals
Leading Championship football club Brighton and Hove Albion is hoping to build a 150-room hotel as well as a cancer treatment centre next to its stadium.
The club said the complex at the Amex stadium would boost the local economy by £6m and create more than 80 jobs. The hotel would provide accommodation for fans as well as visitors to the nearby University of Sussex.
Before going ahead, the scheme would need to be approved by the club’s board and Brighton and Sussex University Hospital NHS Trust as well as the two planning authorities involved, Brighton and Hove City Council and neighbouring Lewes District Council.
Green light for Kent out of town retail park extension
Ashford Borough Council has approved plans to expand an out-of-town retail park known as the Ashford Designer Outlet Centre.
The 9290 square metre extension will add 40 new stores, six restaurants and cafes as well as creating up to an additional 700 jobs. The plans include the largest vertical ‘green wall’ to be built in the UK. The existing outlet has 90 stores and currently attracts nearly three million visitors a year.
Legal round-up
- The Department for Communities and Local Government has been given permission to appeal last month’s High Court ruling in favour of West Berkshire District Council and Reading Borough Council over the affordable homes threshold.
- A riverside hotel and leisure club has decided to mount a legal challenge to Richmond Council’s decision last week to approve a hydro-power scheme on the River Thames in south west London at Teddington weir.
- Friends of the Earth NI is taking the Department of the Environment to court over what it claims is a failure to protect Lough Neagh from the activities of sand dredging.
- A High Court judge has refused to grant permission for a judicial review challenge over the Forest of Dean District Council’s grant of planning permission to the Homes and Communities Agency for a major mixed-use regeneration project. At issue was the impact of the residential-led scheme on the local bat population.
New EA chief executive named
Sir James Bevan, a 56-year old career diplomat, has been named as the next Chief Executive of the Environment Agency.
Sir James is currently the UK’s High Commissioner to India. He was appointed to the top job at the agency after a competitive recruitment process and will take up the post at the end of November.
He replaces Paul Leinster, who left the EA last week after 17 years with the green regulator. David Rooke, the agency’s current executive director for flood risk management, will act as chief executive until Sir James takes up his new role.
Roger Milne
Welsh Government increased its application fees on the 1st October 2015.
Applications submitted after the 30th September 2015 will incur the higher fees.
All Welsh fees have been updated except the fees for ‘Approval of details reserved by a condition’. There are also some minor issues with the exemptions and reductions. We are in the process of updating our system to reflect these changes. In the interim, please contact the authority to ensure you pay the correct fee.
The number of planning applications submitted through the Planning Portal continue to grow faster than the overall number of applications.
DCLG this week published their total applications figures based on LPA’s quarterly PS1 and PS2 returns.
According to DCLG’s figures, 123,543 applications were submitted to English planning authorities between April and June. Separately, 7,397 applications were submitted to Welsh LPAs in the same period. This gives us a total of 130,940 applications for the three-month period.
Compared to the same quarter last year, this means the total number of applications submitted grew by 0.6 per cent – while the number of applications submitted via the Planning Portal increased by 12.8 per cent compared to 2014.
The Government has clarified the planning regime for shale gas applications and outlined the circumstances which could trigger ministerial intervention.
The administration has also set out the criteria for identifying under-performing planning authorities in respect of shale gas exploration and development schemes.
This will be separate from the existing statutory system for identifying under-performing local authorities. It will be similar but non-statutory.
Under these new arrangements a table setting out local planning authority performance on speed of decision making, specifically on onshore oil and gas applications, will be added to DCLG’s quarterly planning application statistical release, starting with the one published this week.
The measure of speed of decision making and the assessment period will be the same as those set out for major development. The same threshold will also apply for the identification of local planning authority underperformance in respect of its oil and gas applications as for the designation of underperformance in respect of major development, currently 50 per cent or fewer applications being made within the statutory determination period or such extended period as has been agreed in writing by the applicant.
Ministers will identify any underperforming local planning authorities in respect of oil and gas applications annually, in the final quarter of each calendar year. Where a local planning authority is identified as underperforming in respect of planning applications for oil and gas, it will remain as such for a period of one year.
In a Parliamentary statement Communities Secretary Greg Clark also confirmed that his call-in powers would be amended to specifically cover onshore oil and gas application appeals.
Roger Milne
Ministers should consult on bringing large-scale housing schemes within the Planning Act 2008 regime for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), a report commissioned by law firm Bond Dickinson and planning consultants Quod has urged.
The report, based on the views of housing and planning experts in both the public and private sectors, claimed that use of the NSIP regime could harness the power of the private sector and “relieve hard-pressed local authority budgets”.
Less than half the estimated 240,000 new homes needed each year were completed in 2014, and the last six years had seen the lowest level of house building since the Second World War, it added.
The report insisted that there was widespread support for creating new settlements on the scale of the post-war New Towns to address the housing crisis.
However, it argued that this was unlikely to happen without policy and legislation that overcame the current barriers to bringing forward large-scale housing and mixed use projects within the current planning system.
The report noted recent research suggesting that only 25 per cent of local planning authorities had a local plan which had been adopted as sound since the publication of the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012.
The NSIP regime’s advantages included fixed timescales for decision-making, a single consenting process that includes compulsory purchase, and the confidence provided by the upfront establishment of need.
Other ways of delivering large-scale housing were reviewed for the report, including existing mechanisms such as Urban Development Corporations, updated New Towns legislation, the use of expanded Local Development Orders, some form of deregulated New Homes Zone, and new proposals such as garden city commissions. However all of these “rely on the public sector to rise to the challenge,” argued the report.
Quod director John Rhodes, who was last week appointed by the Government to chair a panel examining ways to streamline local plans, said: “Remedying the chronic under-provision of housing should be an economic and a social priority.
“At present, however, developers are denied access to the national infrastructure planning process for housing proposals and thereby denied the use of the single most effective regime for delivering development.
“With appropriate safeguards in place, the use of the NSIP regime would transform the ability of the private sector to make a meaningful contribution to the national housing crisis.”
Roger Milne
Police are investigating allegations that the chairman of a Staffordshire council’s planning committee abused his position.
Michael Worthington, chairman of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s planning committee, was caught on camera saying he was “under instructions” to vote a certain way. He denies being influenced to approve a planning application.
His comments were made after the planning committee he chaired voted in favour of a planning application for up to 10 new homes on the site of Endon Riding School near the village of Endon which is six miles north-east of Stoke-on-Trent. Officers had recommended the scheme should be rejected.
Campaign group the Whiston Action Group passed their allegations to police and wrote to the Prime Minister calling for a public inquiry.
Staffordshire Police confirmed it had received “an allegation of ‘misfeasance in public office’ and the matter has been passed to our investigative services for them to review.”
Mark Trillo, executive director and monitoring officer at the local authority, said: “The council has received complaints in relation to this planning application and these complaints are now being considered in accordance with the council’s procedures.
“In the meantime, given the issues that have been raised, the application was reconsidered at the planning applications committee last Thursday”. It was refused.
View the story on the BBC news website
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 