Last December, the Planning Inspector assigned to the emerging Local Plan sent his initial questions to Basildon Council as a result of studying the documentation the Council submitted in March 2019.
The questions can be found here;
Inspectors_Initial_Questions_(IIQs)_to_Basildon_Council_on_the_Basildon_Borough_Local_Plan_-.pdf
This is part of the formal process leading to the Planning Inspector holding the much delayed examination in public to determine if the plan is sound and can be adopted.
The questions can be found here;
Inspectors_Initial_Questions_(IIQs)_to_Basildon_Council_on_the_Basildon_Borough_Local_Plan_-.pdf
This is part of the formal process leading to the Planning Inspector holding the much delayed examination in public to determine if the plan is sound and can be adopted.
Last week, Basildon Council's response was made public and can be found here;
Response_to_the_Inspectors_Initial_Questions_on_the_Basildon_Local_Plan_2014-2034.pdf
Response_to_the_Inspectors_Initial_Questions_on_the_Basildon_Local_Plan_2014-2034.pdf
We have taken a look at the response and much of the content comes as no surprise.
Wading through the copious technical detail it is clear that the Council is still hanging on to some of the worst aspects of the Local Plan and the very questionable justifications they provided for the housing numbers and site selection. Elements of which we believe make the plan unsound.
They also continue to dig themselves into a hole over why they did not show a greater degree of creativity and cooperation with Brentwood Council over the Dunton Garden Village proposal, something that Brentwood Council is pressing ahead with regardless.
And throughout their response they are trying to get the Basildon town centre regeneration with 4,000 dwellings retrospectively included as a panacea to many of the problems with the submitted Local Plan. But with no suggestion of removing housing elsewhere or reducing the amount of Green Belt that will be lost. The 4,000 will simply top up the already excessive numbers.
Looking at how the examinations are progressing for the Brentwood and Castle Point Local Plans we believe it is inevitable that the inspector will have many more questions for Basildon Council and it could be a few more months before the examination hearings take place. Castle Point Council have been given 2 months to answer 359 questions, many of which we believe are pertinent to the Basildon Local Plan. The examination hearings for the Brentwood plan started recently after months of work answering the inspectors queries.
This year could therefore be important in determining what the final Local Plan for Basildon will look like after more than 2 years waiting. We will be make representations at the examination hearings and will continue to do what we can to minimise the impact on Billericay.
We will provide further updates in due course.
Wading through the copious technical detail it is clear that the Council is still hanging on to some of the worst aspects of the Local Plan and the very questionable justifications they provided for the housing numbers and site selection. Elements of which we believe make the plan unsound.
They also continue to dig themselves into a hole over why they did not show a greater degree of creativity and cooperation with Brentwood Council over the Dunton Garden Village proposal, something that Brentwood Council is pressing ahead with regardless.
And throughout their response they are trying to get the Basildon town centre regeneration with 4,000 dwellings retrospectively included as a panacea to many of the problems with the submitted Local Plan. But with no suggestion of removing housing elsewhere or reducing the amount of Green Belt that will be lost. The 4,000 will simply top up the already excessive numbers.
Looking at how the examinations are progressing for the Brentwood and Castle Point Local Plans we believe it is inevitable that the inspector will have many more questions for Basildon Council and it could be a few more months before the examination hearings take place. Castle Point Council have been given 2 months to answer 359 questions, many of which we believe are pertinent to the Basildon Local Plan. The examination hearings for the Brentwood plan started recently after months of work answering the inspectors queries.
This year could therefore be important in determining what the final Local Plan for Basildon will look like after more than 2 years waiting. We will be make representations at the examination hearings and will continue to do what we can to minimise the impact on Billericay.
We will provide further updates in due course.
