Janice Small & Cllr Margaret Bates: Regional planning to be abolished and is welcomed across Spen Valley
PPC for Batley and Spen, Janice Small and Cllr Margaret Bates have been concerned about the housing numbers proposed for the Kirklees area and welcome the Conservatives’ new planning policy.
They have campaigned for the right homes in the right places, decided by locally elected representatives, not by Whitehall diktats or unelected regional quangos and to protect the precious Green Belt.
A Conservative Government will abolish the bureaucratic and undemocratic tier of regional planning. This will include the abolition of the Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) and the Regional Planning Bodies, the abolition of national and regional building targets, as well as the cancellation of the Labour Government’s plans to move the regional housing and planning powers to Regional Development Agencies and Regional Leaders’ Boards.
Hence, even before primary legislation is passed, local authorities will have the ability to put the brakes on elements of Regional Spatial Strategies which they find undesirable (for example, Green Belt reviews imposed on them by the RSS).
Local authorities will be able to review their Local Development Frameworks to undo unwanted planning policies which the Regional Spatial Strategies had imposed upon them.
Such an approach should be taken in the context of the broader reforms outlined in our recent green papers to encourage more sustainable housing. These include allowing councils to keep the proceeds of council tax and business rate receipt growth from new development, the creation of new Local Housing Trusts to promote the construction of local housing for members of the local community, and freeing up more public sector brownfield land for redevelopment.
Janice said: “At last we have commonsense for planning. Even more pleasing is that we will not pay a penny of compensation to speculative developers as a consequence to changes in planning policy. Notwithstanding, we cannot reverse any individual planning application that has been granted in full following all due process and a fair hearing.
“A couple of weeks ago I attended the Cleckheaton planning meeting where officers and councillors were ‘consulting’ with local people. The truth is that the officers have to go through the motion of ‘consultation’ with the cost of time and money, people’s frustrated anger while not being able to decide on anything because there is a general election looming and because of the changing political colours at Kirklees.
“We have too many empty homes as it is. Our Green Belt is our children’s future, our green lungs and an essential boundary to stop towns and villages merging into never ending concrete creep and development on the cheap”.
Cllr Margaret Bates added, “ The overwhelming reaction from residents in my ward of Liversedge and Gomersal is “Say No to the Concrete Creep”, especially on Green Belt land, whilst most people realise the area they live in will have to accommodate some future house building, they feel there are already enough properties at this time empty, and land that is an eyesore should be used rather than green belt”. ENDS
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