Advice re Objecting to new housing Estate

planning_officer

Cknocker wrote: »

The problem is TOB that for a long time there were not enough developments getting planning permission due to over strict planning guidelines, as a result the government has eased what is acceptable, so something that was not acceptable 5 years ago could now be considered acceptable.

The Government has changed 'permitted development' for householders, which has nothing to do with a new housing estate. Central Government has not changed anything about any existing Local Plans, because they can't! If the Local Plan is the same now as it was 5 years ago then any development now should be considered against exactly the same policies as 5 years ago. I would be a bit worried if the Council are thinking of approving this simply to meet housing targets - they have to decide it on 'proper' planning grounds, and that simply isn't one of them!

Cknocker

Sorry PO, the point I am making is this: -

I am assuming the South West is not the only area that has had a regional spatial strategy drawn up, which is driving the Area Action Plans and LDPs. These new plans have not been adopted yet down here, but are due to be in the next few months, that is not stopping planning applications being referred to the RSS and AAP.

SO yes plans are being passed that are not in the LDP if they are in the RSS and the emerging AAP. Saying that it s further complicated by the fact that the AAP was adopted two years ago and then had to be chucked in the bin folowing a high court challenge?

planning_officer

Yes true, in the South East the SE Plan was adopted in May and does contain housing targets for each area, which are then filtered down to each district - however, each district is supposed to have identified a 15 year supply of housing land, to meet the annual targets specified in the SE Plan - which most have, to my knowledge. So, at least around here any speculative applications that come in that are for sites which are not already identified can be legitimately refused on planning grounds, without the developer/planning agent arguing that the land is needed for housing (or if they do, it's a fruitless argument!).