Support

Representation ID: 56442

Received: 29/08/2013

Respondent: Bloor Homes

Agent: Marrons Planning

The Council's development strategy and proposals within RDS1, RDS2 and RDS3 will fail to be effective and sound unless the proposed housing allocated to the villages is delivered.

It is noted at paragraph 4.3.16 that the Council intends to allocate specific sites adjacent to the relevant villages, including those within the Green Belt, within its draft Plan. Endorse this approach as it is critical to the soundness of the plan that these sites are allocated in order to demonstrate the plan is deliverable in accordance with the Framework, and to enable these sites to come forward in a timely manner through the plan period.

It is also essential therefore that when determining the choice of allocation of housing to the villages significant weight is attached to the availability of suitable land for development, particularly land that is being promoted by a developer or house builder who is able to clearly demonstrate to the Council its ability to deliver the housing required within the plan period.

By way of example, a large rural village may have a range of services and facilities, be accessible to the main towns, and have its own ambitions to grow. However, if there are no suitable sites that are available and evidenced as being able to be developed within the plan period, the village or its allocation will not contribute towards delivering the strategy to meet the housing need.

The draft Settlement Hierarchy Report and the proposals that currently flow from it within the Strategy do not have regard in detail to land availability and suitability, although it is acknowledged at paragraph 4.3.15 that the Council are currently undertaking detailed assessments of potentially suitable sites that will inform further iterations of the Report and the content of the draft Plan.

In preparing its draft Plan, the Council must ensure that the settlement hierarchy chosen does not constrain the potential of suitable and available sites in sustainable locations from being developed to meet the housing need. The availability and accessibility of existing services today is an indication of whether a village can be regarded as sustainable in transport terms, however, the scale of growth appropriate to allocate to the village must be led by the suitability of land available and its relationship to the size and character of the existing settlement. This is particularly important given one of the purposes of allocating housing to the villages is to make a difference to rural service provision by improving or sustaining services over the plan period.

Considers the output from this further detailed work will be a critical component in determining the scale of housing growth allocated to the villages, and urge the Council to review a fresh its proposals' present arbitrary groupings of settlements and apportionment of growth as referred to in the Settlement Hierarchy Report (Draft) following the completion of this further work.