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THE PRIME MINISTER has been accused of refusing to respond to councils’ requests over land supply issues and now there is a rallying call for action being issued.
Members of Wokingham Town Council’s planning committee said it had written to Theresa May – whose constituency falls within a large part of Wokingham borough – and not had a response as we had gone to press.
It is concerned over the way in which Wokingham Borough Council is losing planning appeals on speculative developments that have been turned down by the planning committee. Last month, the council lost an appeal over a SANG (an area of green space) on Finchampstead Road and also an appeal over homes in Swallowfield.
The planning inspectorate’s report said that: “The council had confirmed that it is unable to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites”. But the council has argued that it has given planning permission for more than enough homes – at last week’s council meeting it was revealed that it had given permission for almost seven years worth of homes.
In recent months, members of Wokingham Borough Council’s ruling body, the Executive, have met with Mrs May to air their views, but they feel that they have been ignored.
Now, a number of parish councils have written to either Mrs May or Sajid Javid, the secretary of state for communities. And the six unitary authorities in Berkshire, including Wokingham Borough Council have also sent missives to the Government but Cllr Lee said they’ve received either standard responses or no responses at all.
As a result, tensions are reaching boiling point and some members of Wokingham Town Council’s planning committee met informally with The Wokingham Paper to issue a cry to residents to come and lend their support in the fight against overdevelopment – and more housing – of the borough.
It wants residents to come along to its next planning meeting, which will take place on Tuesday, March 13, in Wokingham Town Hall. The show of support will send a message to the Government over residents’ frustrations as well as council ones.
Its immediate focus is on the appeal over the proposed SANG on Finchampstead Road.
Speaking in a personal capacity, Cllr Andrew Waters said: “It is vital that we support the borough council in fighting this application with every means its disposal. If the inspector finds in favour of the developer, as we fear they will, we must stand behind the borough in making an appeal to the High Court for a judicial review of the decision, despite the considerable cost it will bring on the public purse.
“Failure in our endeavours to fight this appeal will send a clear message to every speculative developer in the country that they can come to Wokingham and build where and when they wish.”
He added that while there had been some support from Wokingham MP John Redwood, the response from Mrs May had been disappointing.
“As a committee, we have written to the Prime Minister, Theresa May, who is also a local MP representing this borough asking her for her support to protect our community from uncontrolled development and, thus far, she has refused to reply to us.
“We would urgently call on all local MPs representing Wokingham borough to raise the matter of our broken and undemocratic planning system on the floor of the House of Commons so as to gain support for a private members bill which would once again place planning decisions back in the hands of locally elected Governments.”
His views were echoed by Cllr David Lee, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Strategic Planning and Highways of Wokingham Borough Council.
He said that while there had been meetings with Theresa May, they were hearing her say one thing to residents about protecting the green belt and another in parliament about the need to build new homes.
Cllr Lee admitted to The Wokingham Paper of being a frustrated Conservative, as the borough has set aside areas for housing projects but is still losing planning appeals. The council has approved enough housing to meet its five year land supply requirements, and having to defend itself to the planning inspectorate.
“We are being challenged for something we cannot control,” he said of the council losing housing appeals. “We do everything and more than we’re asked to do,” he added of the council’s policy towards Government housing targets.
“Yet we get penalised.
“There has been no response to letters sent out by six unitary authorities in Berkshire. There’s been no response from the Secretary of State to a report submitted by John Redwood.
“Some parish councils have had responses, but they’re the same old responses by some stupid civil servant.”
And Cllr Lee echoed views of other local leaders The Wokingham Paper has spoken to this week. “We want residents to write to our four MPs,” he said.
We contacted Theresa May for a statement, but it was not possible to do so as went to press.
We understand that councils will receive responses shortly.
Since this article appeared in The Wokingham Paper last Thursday, councils have received responses and Sajid Javid has given an interview to The Sunday Times.
