Examination in Public  Of the Local Plan                       Reconvenes

On the 29th and 30 of January The EIP adjourned last April gets back to work. The Inspector “now wishes to resume Stage 1 of the examination in order to review and assess the work undertaken by the Council before deciding whether to proceed to stage 2”.

A NEWLY FORMED ACTION GROUP

DSS, KER and Eastington Parish Council have joined forces with Stonehouse Town Council, Standish Parish Council under the banner of the Strategic Planning Alliance (SPA)

How many houses do we need?

SDC commissioned, after the Inspectors Initial Conclusions in June last year, a second Objectively Assessed Housing Need (OAHN). SDC believed that the first OAHN did not state enough houses in the plan. This new OAHN prepared by a second management Consultant, Neil MacDonald (NMcD), raises the number of houses required in the planning period (2006 – 2031) from the previous OAHN. The number has risen from 9, 500 to 11,200. To understand the  scale of building Stonehouse has about 3500 homes. It would appear that an OAHN can realise any answer the SDC wishes.

SDC plans for more commuters

To achieve this remarkable change between 2 OAHNs, NMcD has had to employ much imagination and invention and very limited amounts of evidence. In addition he has introduced a new policy for SDC to provide an additional 800 houses for commuters, which very conveniently matches the reintroduction of the WoS site which in the last consultation was to provide houses for local jobs.

The Law and the Evidence

We have received definitive advice from 2 barristers that there are a number of significant breeches in the Consultative process required of SDC. These opinions have been ignored by SDC.

We provided irrefutable evidence from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that NMcD’s creative approach to inflating the housing need was simply wrong. SDC’s response was to state that NMcD “believes” he is right. It appears that it is for the Inspector to determine whether “Beliefs” or evidence prevails.

SDC Planning for an urban Sprawl

There is no doubt that SDC have our parish in their sights. Plans are being developed for a Retail Park and a football Stadium between the “Starbucks” roundabout and the Motorway on the right hand side of the A 419.

A new site was introduced in the December 9th Council meeting of “M5 Catchment North of Eastington for 700 houses” (not pursued at this stage) this in addition to the Bath Road plans. It seems inevitable should we lose the WoS battle Eastington and Stonehouse, will, over the next 20 years become a large urban sprawl.

What will be the Outcome

On the 29th January the SPA team will include a Barrister, Planning Consultant and Statistician. We believe we have a good chance of coming out of this round with a positive outcome for our communities. Equally there are those in SDC who believe that as long as the NUMBER is big enough the Inspector will just accept it with the evidence base just taking a back seat. We will know the answer to that in February. What is certain is that there will be another round of consultation on whatever changes survive the Inspector. For that we will need all the help we can get. Please let us know if you are prepared to support this fight for the future of our Parish.

Daniel James

For all the details of the new Local Plan and the SPA submission to the Inspector go to

 https://strategicplanningalliance.wordpress.com/spa-to-eip/

Strategic Planning Alliance