Category Archives: Local Planning
The CPRE parse Boles
It seems that the Campaign to Protect Rural England does not share Nick Herbert’s benign interpretation of what the minister said. The West Sussex County Times reports:
A ‘huge solar farm’ could be built in the South Downs if national parks were made to promote economic growth, warned the Sussex-Horsham district chair of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
The chair, Dr Roger Smith, said: “Even under the present regulations, the South Downs is subject to the threat of a huge solar farm development.
“This is the kind of development that could be pushed through if National Parks were given a duty to promote economic growth.”
Parsing the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Nick Herbert has told the West Sussex County Times :
We are not going to see house building all over the South Downs National Park, and the Minister [Nick Boles] did not say that there should be a relaxation of planning controls in parks, as press reports implied. He said that the parks should not become museums, and I agree with him about that.
I also agree with what the minister said about the need to express localism more fully in parks. I have always warned about the democratic deficit in national parks, which was reflected in the controversy over the South Downs National Park’s decision over to allow a travellers site at Crossbush.
It was the backbench MP who moved the debate [Simon Hart] who suggested that the duty to conserve parks should no longer be given primacy over the duty to secure economic well-being. The minister did not endorse this view, and it is not Government policy.
Village Action Plan – August 2013
You can download the Village Action Plan – August 2013 version by clicking the link below.
“One law for them” [update]
Trevor Beattie admitted the wrong tiles had been used on the roof. .. He said: “The tiles used on the roof of Capron House were not those specified in the planning consent. We have therefore asked that the tiles are replaced with those we initially specified, as soon as possible, at no additional cost to the SDNPA and no delay to the project.”
Rampion wind farm now in doubt?
The Independent reports:
Plans for future wind farms in Britain could be in jeopardy after a United Nations legal tribunal ruled that the UK Government acted illegally by denying the public decision-making powers over their approval and the “necessary information” over their benefits or adverse effects.
The new ruling, agreed by a United Nations committee in Geneva, calls into question the legal validity of any further planning consent for all future wind-farm developments based on current policy, both onshore and offshore.
But this news does not seem to have reached the SDNPA and WSCC who are in dispute over who should sign off on the plans. The SDNPA, in particular, seems reluctant to approve the current plans on the grounds that they will cause “irreversible damage”. The Argus reports:
Keith Read, deputy director of planning for the South Downs National Park, said: “The SDNPA has significant concerns regarding proposals to build up to 175 wind turbines off the Sussex Coast. The plans would result in up to 420,000m² of disturbance to the national park’s landscapes, including some very sensitive areas such as the Bronze Age monument at Tottington Mount. We have submitted our concerns to the Planning Inspectorate regarding the proposed construction methods for the 14km of cable that would go through the national park.”
[Updated 29th August 2013]
“One law for them”
[A] condition imposed with planning permission requiring existing tiles to be reused was lifted. New tiles have instead been used to reroof the historic building .. Town councillor Colin Hughes hit out as members of the planning committee debated an application from the national park to ‘discharge’ another planning condition governing external insulation and lime render for the 1930s wing of the building. “I am concerned that the new tiles make Capron House look like a new housing development and I wonder what has happened to the original tiles. I don’t believe the South Downs National Park should be judge and jury over its own planning application – the plans they set themselves to achieve originally. I find it difficult that the national park can discharge obligations that it set itself in its original plans – obligations which presumably they felt desirable for this type of building in the first place. They lose credibility in terms of applications which come before them from developers in the future. It seems there is one law for them and one for everyone else.” .. The application to discharge condition seven governing the insulation and render was the fourth similar application to go before town councillors.
More news from Fernhurst
“This is, I surmise, the biggest decision yet to be faced by the SDNPA and especially its planning committee. It is one they fail at their peril and at the peril longer term, of all life in the South Downs National Park – fauna and flora, visitors and residents, both animal and human.” [Norman Hodgson]
Happy Jack
