Energy minister Andrea Leadsom has refused planning permission for four onshore wind farms and one overhead line project all in Powys, Mid-Wales.
The schemes were considered by a conjoined public inquiry between June 2013 and May 2014. The hearing was the biggest ever held in Wales. The inspector’s recommendations went to the Secretary of State for Energy on 8 December last year.
The only project to get approval involved plans for the repowering of the existing Llandinam wind farm. However, the minister blocked the plans for the overhead power line project the scheme would have required.
The inspector had recommended approval for the repowering scheme, the overhead power line and one of the other new projects, the Carnedd Wen wind farm.
The rejection of plans to build the wind farms in mid Wales was “short sighted” and “hugely disappointing”, the Welsh government’s environment and planning minister Carl Sergeant said.
He warned that communities would stand to lose millions of pounds and energy supply would be put at risk.
As part of plans for further devolution, the Welsh government is set to acquire new planning powers over energy projects up to 350 megawatts in size. All of the schemes determined by the UK energy minister would have been decided by welsh ministers under such a regime.
The decisions are:
- Llanbadarn Fynydd onshore wind farm refused
- Llandinam onshore wind farm repowering consent given
- Llaithddu onshore wind farm refused
- Llanbrynmair onshore wind farm refused
- Carnedd Wen onshore wind farm refused
- Llandinam to Welshpool substation overhead power line connection refused.
The decision letters said the schemes were refused because they were unacceptable in terms of their visual and environmental impact.
Councillor Avril York, Powys Council‘s cabinet member for planning, welcomed the decisions. She said: “The council set out its position that the applications should be refused, given the number, size and impact of these applications and the scale of public opposition. This stance was maintained throughout the public inquiry.”
Roger Milne
A report by RIBA has highlighted client frustrations over the divide between architectural practices with vision and those that can deliver post planning.
The conclusions of the report, ‘Client & Architect: Developing the essential relationship’, are described as “both daunting and exciting” and suggests the profession needs to “adapt to prosper”.
RIBA’s research claims that architects who can design a building from concept through to delivery are so rare that clients claim they are often forced to replace the original practice once planning permission is received.
Many clients said while they would prefer to hire only one firm it was often considered too risky to leave the concept architect in charge of the technical aspects of delivery.
The report claims clients would rather appoint a single practice to take forward the vision from concept to completion. However, RIBA’s research found that clients regard the profession as falling into two broad and separate categories: the concept architect and the technical architect.
It added: “Some clients struggle to find practices that are strong in both categories and commonly feel they have to replace the concept architects with a ‘safer’ pair of hands after stage three.”
“This is based on the perception that the creative flair that makes a good concept architect is an unacceptable risk during technical delivery. In other words, it is a compromise in the face of fear that the value gained with planning permission will be lost through inefficiencies, inaccuracies and waste.”
The 44-page report quoted is the result of a two-year project led by outgoing RIBA president Stephen Hodder. The research involved one-to-one interviews and roundtable discussions with hundreds of clients from many sectors.
Roger Milne
New policies that set the course for development across one of the largest planning authority areas in England are out for consultation now the South Downs National Park Authority has published its so-called preferred options strategy.
The proposed local plan for the park, which covers large parts of Hampshire, East and West Sussex, seeks to put landscapes first while still serving the needs of communities and the local economy.
When the plan is adopted (expected to be in 2017) it will be the first time that a single set of planning policies have been applied across the 1,600 square kilometres area of the UK’s newest national park.
Trevor Beattie, the authority’s chief executive, said: “Our landscapes are the reason the South Downs became a National Park so they must sit at the heart of every planning decision we make.”
The strategy allowed for 4,596 new homes over the next 17 years. Of those, 1,840 would be affordable. The plan identifies 20 potential sites for new development including three strategic brownfield sites: Shoreham Cement Works in Upper Beeding, the former Syngenta site in Fernhurst, and the North Street Quarter and Eastgate area of Lewes.
Significant new housing development is expected with 700 homes in Petersfield (Hampshire), some 835 homes in Lewes (East Sussex) and around 150 homes in Petworth (West Sussex).
View more information on the consultation
Roger Milne
Salford City Council has given the go ahead for nearly 2,000 new homes. Seven developments, including one dubbed the biggest residential development in the north-west of England, have been given the green light to meet demand for new homes in the city.
It brings the total number of homes granted planning permission to over 17,800 as part of an estimated £3.5bn worth of investment planned for the city over the next 10 years.
By the end of March this year, planning permission had been granted for just fewer than 3,000 houses and almost 11,000 flats in the city.
The schemes just given approval by the city’s planning panel include four 26-storey buildings at Salford Quays which will provide 1,100 new flats into the area, the development on land off Michigan Avenue including space for shops and/or community facilities and a 300 student flat scheme across two blocks of eight and 12 storeys on the site of the Bupa car park off King William Street, Salford Quays.
Approval was also given for a six-storey, 145,000-square-foot new office for BUPA on a site known as The Regent, next to Dock 9 and the Erie Basin. Around 2,000 staff will relocate from the company’s current offices in the Anchorage and Victoria buildings, protecting and creating new jobs in the area. Construction is expected to start next year.
Bloor Homes will also provide 179 two to four bedroom houses, including 36 affordable homes at Burgess Farm, Worsley, in addition to another major scheme by Redrow Homes which has already started on site.
Meanwhile, a Bellway Homes scheme will provide 140 new homes in Monton at the former Mitchell Shackleton Vulcan engineering works. On the former Vita site, Seaford Road, Rock Asset Management is to deliver 80 new homes.
Roger Milne
At least £60bn of central government spending should be devolved to local areas over the next five years, council leaders have urged.
That call came as cities and county areas across the country submitted a series of proposals designed to meet the administration’s devolution initiative.
Local areas are calling for greater local powers and funding for skills, housing, transport and health and social care as well as infrastructure.
Deals already submitted and offers being finalised include:
- Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, which involves a call for 10-year transport settlement and fully devolved housing investment
- Gloucestershire – proposals for control of all health care budgets, fully integrated health and social care and a single vision for health and wellbeing for the county
- Liverpool city region, which wants the retention of 100 per cent of business rates income and the ability to franchise all local bus services
- Leicester and Leicestershire, which has made a case for the devolution of funding and ability to commission skills programmes locally
- Hampshire, South Hampshire, Isle of Wight, which want further investment in world-class marine and aerospace clusters and university research centres.
The Local Government Association, which speaks for more than 370 councils in England and Wales, is now urging George Osborne to match this ambition and use the Spending Review to devolve, or hand greater local control over, at least £60bn worth of funding down to local areas.
It argues that taking decisions closer to where people live can achieve up to £20bn in potential public sector savings as well as creating at least £80bn in economic growth and 700,000 new jobs.
Councillor Gary Porter, LGA chairman, said: “It is time to spend smarter on infrastructure to get maximum value from every public pound.
“This starts with a much more effective and efficient approach to investing in local growth and regeneration.
“With devolved decision making and funding, local areas can also better gear the skills system to tackle unemployment and underemployment and close skills gaps.”
Roger Milne
The first steps towards releasing Birmingham city centre’s massive Wholesale Markets site for redevelopment have been taken following planning approval for a new home for the facility.
IM Properties has been granted planning permission to build a new 6.8-hectare development, including a 20,856-square metre warehouse containing 78 business units, along with sprinkler tents, a pump house and a 450-space car park at The Hub, in Witton.
The relocation of the Wholesale Markets, the largest combined wholesale food market in the UK, from its existing home on Pershore Street will clear the way for the city council to begin delivery of its £500m, 14-hectare mixed-use Smithfield Development.
The Hub is situated on Nobel Way, close to Witton train station and is well connected to the national road network with Junction 6 of the M6 and the A38 both within a 10-minute drive time. Birmingham city centre is only two and a half miles away.
In a separate move, developer Westleigh Partnerships has been refused permission to put housing next door to the new market site.
The company had wanted to use a plot off Wellhead Lane, bordered by the rail line, but the planning committee thought it would be too noisy, too cramped and the site best suited for industrial uses only.
Roger Milne
Migration figures cast doubt on housing projections
Official figures showing a surge in net migration to the UK cast further doubt on the robustness of key household projections used by councils to assess their area’s housing need, Planning Magazine reported last week.
Concerns have resurfaced about the reliability of the government projections used by councils to help assess housing need, with recent official figures showing that net international migration to the UK has hit record levels.
Commentators say the new figures are evidence that the housing shortfall is worsening more quickly than expected, and some councils may need to look to increase their housing numbers locally.
Simon Coop, planning director at consultancy Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners is reported as warning
that councils who relied on the projections risked an under-provision of housing need in their area.
Neighbourhood plans in Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire make waves
Communities secretary Greg Clark has intervened over plans by developer Bellway Homes for 130 homes in Buckinghamshire, which Aylesbury Vale District Council planning officers had recommended for approval despite a conflict with the emerging neighbourhood plan.
The SoS has been asked to intervene over the permission given for the £70m “remodelling” of a shopping centre in Milton Keynes which will add some 100,000 square feet of floor space to the facility.
The planning authority has approved proposals from Intu to include new shops and a five-screen cinema in its Midsummer Place centre. But the town council says the scheme contradicts the local neighbourhood plan and wants the decision “called in” by the government.
Meanwhile Cherwell District Council in Oxfordshire has announced that the Hook Norton Neighbourhood Plan has successfully passed the referendum stage. Some 568 residents voted in favour of the strategy with 16 against the plan on a 34 per cent turn-out.
View more information on the Midsummer Place Centre
View more information on the Hook Norton Neighbourhood Plan
Developer wins appeal over Swansea retail park conditions
A planning inspector has overturned a decision by Swansea City Council to limit Hammerson’s redevelopment of its Parc Tawe shopping centre.
The developer was given permission for a £10m upgrade for the retail park last August but the council imposed 35 conditions, including the ban on approaching major retailers, which it said was needed to protect its own plans for the city centre.
But a planning inspector has overturned that ban, along with other conditions restricting the size of units which it said was unreasonable.
View more information on the Parc Tawe development on the Hammerson website
London round-up
- Proposals have been submitted to Westminster City Council to increase the height of the grade-II listed Millbank Tower in central London and convert it from office use to residential use. The owners of the Millbank complex, Basio Holdings Ltd, want to increase the height of the existing 32-storey tower and the neighbouring nine-storey ‘Y Building’ by three floors. The tower would contain 215 new one to four bedroom flats under the proposals and the Y Building, which is also currently in office use, would be converted into a 195-bed hotel.
- London mayor Boris Johnson has sent a 30-page dossier to MPs and peers attacking the Airport Commission’s recommendation to expand Heathrow Airport. He claimed building a third runway at Heathrow meant “investing in decline”.
- Camden Council has slammed the latest proposals for a regenerated Euston station as not ambitious enough. HS2 has revealed £2bn plans to extend Euston station to accommodate platforms for high-speed services to Birmingham and the North. The plans, which will now be considered by Parliament, will see up to 11 new platforms built in a bolt-on building to the west of the existing Euston station.
- The YMCA is putting the final touches to new affordable housing scheme in Mitcham south-west London involving single units costing £30,000 each which can be stacked and moved about where needed’
Legal round-up
- A Camden nightclub has won its court battle to prevent the pub next to it from being turned into flats. Koko, at 1A Camden High Street, appealed to the High Court after Camden Council approved plans to turn the Hope and Anchor pub into eight flats. The High Court judge who heard the case ruled that councillors had been “significantly misled” by planning officers.
- A High Court judge has upheld a judicial review challenge by a campaigner over an inspector’s refusal of an application to register land in Exeter as a town green.
- A campaign group is looking to raise £20,000 through crowd funding to support a judicial review challenge to the government’s new policy on fracking.
- The owners of five burger vans have mounted a legal challenge over North Lanarkshire Council’s imposition of a 250 metre exclusion zone around schools.
Power plans
- The owners of Eggborough Power Station have said the coal-fired plant located near Selby, north Yorkshire will stop generating power in March 2016, subject to consultations with staff and “government bodies”.
- Nottingham City Council has launched what it says is the first local authority energy company in the UK.
Charity claims new Traveller and Gypsy policy will backfire
New planning policy affecting Traveller pitches and sites could force thousands of Gypsies and Travellers back onto the road, an influential Gypsy and Traveller campaign charity has warned.
That’s the view of London-based organisation Traveller Movement Resource. It says the new policy could prompt a massive increase in the number of unauthorised roadside camps. It argued that the new policy was unlawful and discriminatory and would be challenged in the High Court.
Transport highlights
- A fourth tram line in Nottingham would cost up to £168m, a study has said. Last week,trams began running on the £570m extensions to Clifton and Chilwell – eight months late. The £70,000 feasibility study looked at a route under the M1 to Giltbrook Retail Park, via Kimberley, with a possible extension into Derbyshire.
- Ministers have formally granted planning permission for the use of Manston Airport in Kent as a lorry park as part of Operation Stack. The temporary planning will last for nine months.
Taunton redevelopment
A fresh set of plans to regenerate the derelict cattle market site in Taunton into a shopping and leisure complex have been unveiled by developer St Modwen. Part of the Firepool site, which is by the River Tone, has already been developed with flats and offices. A new hotel, shops and restaurants are proposed.
View more information on the Firepool development
Warwickshire snubs west Midlands CBO
Warwickshire county councillors have voted against joining the West Midlands Combined Authority. But they have decided to continue to explore a closer working relationship between the council and Coventry. Seven authorities (Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton) want more devolved powers from the government.
Go ahead for 550-home Bury St Edmunds scheme
Proposals for more than 500 new homes at Bury St Edmunds, west Suffolk, have been approved by St Edmundsbury Council. Taylor Wimpey has obtained detailed planning consent for 100 homes, including 30 affordable, and outline planning permission for 400 more on land off Mount Road at Moreton Hall, The 22 hectare development site is bounded by the Ipswich to Peterborough train line to the north.
Maidenhead makeover
A £230m major regeneration project for Maidenhead town centre has been given the green light. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has granted planning permission for the Landing development earmarked for the Broadway.
Under the plans shops, offices, restaurants, up to 225 flats and a central public space will be built at King Street and Queen Street. It is due for completion in 2019 in time for the new Crossrail services.
Northamptonshire’s Rushden Lakes scheme expands
A £140m shopping and leisure complex in Northamptonshire is to be larger than first proposed. LXB Retail Properties, which is developing the Rushden Lakes project, has won permission for a new hotel and leisure club on the site. The expanded scheme given the go-ahead by East Northamptonshire District Council last week also increases retail space by around three per cent.
RTPI CPD move
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has reviewed the content of its continuous professional development (CPD) programme which now reflects eight areas of knowledge and skills which takes on board housing and public health priorities.
Trudi Elliott, Chief Executive of the RTPI, said: “We provide an extensive high quality CPD program that is constantly refined to ensure it addresses the most urgent and topical needs. These priorities for focus were identified following extensive engagement with members and will give planners a sharper focus for their professional development, and help maintain the standards of the profession.”
Consultation on revised Welsh retail advice
The Welsh government has started consulting a range of changes to Planning Policy Wales (PPW) and Technical Advice Note 4 (TAN4) as part of a bid to ensure that town centres get as much help as possible to thrive in a rapidly changing retail environment.
Its proposed changes to chapter 10 of PPW and the revised version of TAN4 follow recommendations of a review by consultant Genecon last year.
View information on the consultation
Giant Liver Bird proposed for Liverpool
A giant 100 metre Liver Bird could be built on the banks of the River Mersey as part of a Liverpool architect’s proposals for a development called: Homecoming – The Statue of Liverpool. He explained the landmark could be used for shopping or perhaps student accommodation.
Roger Milne
I was interested to read the news last week that the LGA has pushed Government for the deregulation of planning fees in England.
We’ve been here before – the Government considered the proposals a couple of years ago but this time the push is coming from local authorities.
English LPAs have urged ministers to let them set their own fees for planning applications to ensure councils are properly funded and to reduce the burden on taxpayers.
The Planning Portal will be able to support this model of fee payment and let LPAs configure their fee calculators on a council-by-council basis.
I was interested to hear the thoughts of both LPAs and professional applicants on the proposals and how the change would affect your organisation/business, your customers and your working practices.
I’d also be interested to understand whether LPAs would be keen to introduce fees for application and consent types that require processing but currently have no fee attached, such as applications for trees or listed buildings.
Comments are now closed on this article – thank you for your feedback.
The Government has revised its special planning policy for travellers. From this week it will only apply to those “who lead a genuine travelling lifestyle”.
Ministers insisted this would mean that any application for a permanent site, including caravan sites, by someone who does not travel will be considered in the same way as an application from the so-called settled population.
The policy, drawn up by the Department for Communities and Local Government stated that if a local planning authority cannot demonstrate an up–to-date five-year supply of deliverable sites, this should be a significant material consideration in any subsequent planning decision when considering applications for the grant of temporary planning permission for traveller pitches.
However, there will be exceptions, designed to buttress the protection of green belt land and sites in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and land designated as local green space or protected under the EC’s Birds and Habitat directives.
The policy states that inappropriate development is harmful to the green belt and should not be approved, except in very special circumstances.
DCLG claims the new policy made clear the need to ensure fairness in the system, with planning policy reflecting the requirement that caravan sites should be made available for those who travel permanently.
Communities Secretary Greg Clark said: “I’m determined to ensure fairness in the planning system, so everyone abides by the same rules.
“This new policy strengthens the hand of councils to tackle unauthorised development in their area, ensures all communities are treated equally and that the protection of the green belt is enforceable.”
Planning minister Brandon Lewis added: “Unauthorised traveller sites can blight communities, causing misery for their neighbours and creating resentment that planning rules don’t seem to be applied fairly.”
View the government news story
Access the full ‘Planning Policy for traveller sites’
Roger Milne
English local authorities have urged ministers for the right to set their own planning charges as part of a submission by the Local Government Association (LGA) ahead of November’s spending review. This is widely expected to contain £20bn in government funding cuts.
The council body argued that introducing locally-set planning fees would “ensure effective, responsive and fully funded council planning services, removing the burden from taxpayers who currently subsidise 30 per cent of total costs”.
The LGA submission also made a case for the removal of the current national exemptions to s106 contributions and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charges. The association said it wanted the present policy to be replaced with “a more robust and transparent local viability assessment process”.
The submission argued for the simplifying of CIL regulations and guidance and the removal of the restriction on pooling s106 contributions for strategic sites identified in local plans.
In addition, the councils’ organisation has called for assurances that local areas can use the local growth fund to support local housing and infrastructure investment strategies.
The LGA submission also insisted that local planning authorities should have the power to ensure developers prioritise brownfield sites. It has highlighted the need for councils to be able to have a say over new development on all brownfield land and proposals to convert offices to homes.
Read the LGA report ‘Spending Smarter: A Shared Commitment’
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 