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Some Personal Observations on the current situation
At the present time, the Localism Bill has been through the House of Commons and has
reached the committee stage in the House of Lords. It's a very wide-ranging Bill and
there have been numerous proposed amendments, additions and subtractions, so it is by
no means clear what the detailed provisions will be by the time it becomes law.
What exactly is Localism, bearing in mind that the Bill contains 146 new Central
Government powers? It contains various sections covering such items as the New Homes
Bonus and the abolition of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), but Part 5 is
the main one dealing with planning. It includes as its main topics, regional planning,
a stronger duty to consult, neighbourhood planning, financial considerations,
pre-application consultation, community assets, referenda and predetermination, a
presumption in favour of sustainable development and the national policy framework.
There has been much discussion about the opportunities civic societies may have to be
involved in the preparation of neighbourhood plans. For a group to be eligible it must
have a minimum of 21 members although, in rural areas, it is anticipated that parish
councils would be the appropriate body. The group also has to be approved and supported
by the local council. The procedure includes a number of stages, including a
comprehensive survey of the area, because the document has to be evidence-based.
Any proposal has to conform to the Local Development Framework (LDF), it cannot put forward
a reduced level of development compared with the LDF, and it will have to be subject to
an independent inquiry and be approved by a local referendum with a minimum of 50%
respondents in favour. Clearly this work will attract considerable costs.
A grant of £20,000 has been made available to each of a number of vanguard or pilot
schemes that have been announced. Three of those in the north-west are Cockermouth,
Hoylake and Devonshire Park in Birkenhead, all of which already had a partnership in
place between a community group and the local authority. In Cockermouth, it was the
local civic society that had initiated a scheme for restoring Main Street after the
floods of November 2009; in Hoylake there was a group working on a project to improve
the village centre and, in Devonshire Park, there was a residents' association
concerned because large Victorian and Edwardian houses were being converted into flats
that were changing both the character and social mix of the area.
Another opportunity which the Bill incorporates is the right for communities to acquire
assets. This is not as straightforward as it might appear, as the first step is for
groups to identify what they consider to be community assets. These could range from
playing fields to a corner shop, school, even a pub. If the owner of a community asset
wishes to sell it, the community has to be given six weeks' notice, during which time
it has to decide whether it wishes to acquire the asset. If it does so, it then has
three months in which to put together a bid. During this period, the owner of the
property is not allowed to sell it and, even at the end of the period, the group's bid
may not be successful because it could be sold to someone else for a higher figure.
A further proposal is the replacement of all existing Planning Policy Guidance notes
PPGs) by a National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which is intended to be a slim
concise document. The principle underlying this policy is that there should be a
presumption in favour of sustainable development. It envisages that local authorities
will plan positively for new development and approve new individual proposals wherever
possible and, where they accord with statutory plans, this should be done without delay.
However, where a plan is absent, silent, indeterminate or relevant policies are out
of date, permission must be granted. The implications of this are obvious, given
that only about 20% of the country is covered by up to date plans.
These thoughts are based on the information obtained from seminars and professional
publications and are an attempt to interpret the evolving situation. They should
therefore be viewed as possible outcomes rather than definitive statements....
Over the years there have been many challenges to the interpretation of existing
planning legislation which has only been resolved in court. With the multiplicity of
changes in the new proposals, there is bound to be much uncertainty and resultant
litigation which could provide a field day for lawyers.
Peter Colley
Chairman
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