By Cllr Stephen Conway
A great deal of misinformation circulated during the recent elections about the Local Plan, the set of documents establishing the framework for development planning for the 15 years following its adoption.
Forming a new Local Plan – which sets out housing plans for a defined period – is a complicated and lengthy process and should not be seen as an opportunity to trawl for votes by making undeliverable promises.
There needs to be more honesty about what is, and is not, possible.
The housing targets that the Local Plan must meet are not set locally.
The government insists that councils calculate the number according to their rules, so the government sets the number, not the council.
When the Conservatives lost control of Wokingham Borough Council in May 2022, they left the new Liberal Democrat-led administration a draft Local Plan which committed the council to housing locations, commitments that severely limited the new administration’s room for manoeuvre.
This is because once a site is in a draft Local Plan, there is a presumption that the land can be developed. Removing a site normally requires the agreement of landowners.
Despite identifying sites, the draft Local Plan was far from ready to go to the next stages of the protracted process.
Much work remained to be done. Between then and now, our professional planning officers have developed new policies on energy-efficient homes, protected green spaces, and areas of landscape importance.
These new policies will improve considerably on the draft Local Plan that we inherited from the Conservatives.
Our officers are still working on viability calculations on the level of infrastructure contribution we can require of developers. These calculations need to satisfy a government-appointed planning inspector at the public enquiry which finally decides on the ‘soundness’ of the Local Plan.
These developer contributions – such as highways and environmental improvements, school places, and affordable housing – are vital if we are to cope with the scale of new development that government is obliging us to take.
The public enquiry is the crucial test for any Local Plan. It gives all involved, including developers whose proposed sites have been excluded from the Plan, the opportunity to argue their case.
They usually employ top-notch barristers to present their arguments.
We must, therefore, make sure that the new Local Plan is as good as it can be.
It must be based on planning considerations only; if the inspector concludes that it has been influenced by political rather than planning arguments, he or she is likely to declare it ‘unsound’ and require the work to be redone.
This would involve a long delay, during which the borough would be dangerously exposed to speculative planning applications, which, even if refused locally, would probably be granted on appeal.
I hope the opposition will finally recognise that playing politics with the Local Plan is a dangerous game, in which all parts of the borough could end up the loser.
Now is the time for all local councillors to take their responsibilities seriously and play the difficult hand that the planning system deals us with honesty and integrity.
Cllr Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council and ward member for Twyford, Ruscombe and Hurst
