THE COUNCIL is setting aside £630,000 to provide legal support to residents fighting planning appeals.
In recent years, property developers have placed speculative housing applications before Wokingham Borough Council on land that is outside of the Local Plan Update – a document outlining sites that have been identified as suitable for housing.
When the planning committee rejects the schemes, the developers are entitled to appeal to the Government’s planning inspectorate.
Earlier this autumn, council leader, Cllr John Halsall, had pledged to invest in the best possible team to fight these legal challenges. Now more details have emerged.
Two weeks ago, it was revealed that Sasha White QC of Landmark Chambers would defend the council over plans to build houses on Woodcray Meadows, off Finchampstead Road.
And at a paper to be considered by the council’s Executive – its ruling body – tonight, there will be a vote to set aside money for the next three financial years.
In the current year to April 2020, there would be £100,000 set aside for each of the following plans: Finchampstead Road, Hare Hatch, Nine Mile Ride, Cutbush Lane. A plan to build on Ravenswood would be defended for £70,000, and the Coombes would set £50,000 set aside. A further £110,000 is earmarked for workload pressure and retention of counsel.
For the 2020/21 financial year, £320,000 is being set aside, and for 2021/22, there would be £170,000 set aside.
The documents note: “For 2020/21 onwards, the appeals are not yet known with the exception of a likely Cemex appeal. In the absence of an up to date local plan, it is expected that the number of appeals will continue to be high and additional funding will need to be considered during the 2020/21 budget setting.”
Cllr John Kaiser, the deputy leader of the council, said: “We’ve got a number of high profile appeals coming up, We’re putting the in the supplementary budget the money to enable us to fight these inappropriate and unsustainable developments using the best legal counsel we can.”
He said that the planning system, which enables developers to launch appeals when planning committees have turned them down, was “an unfortunate set of circumstances”.
“It’s a pretty one-sided system,” he continued. “If we refuse, it goes to appeal that’s it. The only thing we can do is a judicial review, but that wouldn’t necessarily change the outcome, so I’m not happy about it – it’s the residents’ money, but we’re doing this to protect residents.
“We’re not talking about one or two residents, as you can see in our consultation, we had nearly 50,000 sign up, and we’ve had at least four petitions [presented to council]. That’s a clear message.”
There has been criticism that some of these petitions were ignored by the council leadership.
“There has been some change in the administration, indicated by the fact that we actually went to consultation [with the residents],” Cllr Kaiser said.
“I don’t like spending that £630,000 [on planning appeals], it’s money that we could be spending on our services for the vulnerable, but at the end of the day, it is something that the residents have asked us to do to the best of our ability.”
Commenting on the decision, Cllr Lindsay Ferris, Liberal Democrat councillor for Twyford said: “Councils across the country are now in an environment where developers largely have the upper hand. A number of developers have tried to use the system over the past few years. They have for example put in multiple applications, appealed at every opportunity leading to multi appeals on the same site, often despite local resident and Council objections.
“The planning process is now so much in favour of the developer that local residents views are often pushed aside and we end up getting ignored by the powers that be.
“In my view the planning process needs to be better balanced so that local residents’ serious views are taken account of and developments are not just pushed through irrespective of local people’s views and concerns.
“This is an important area that needs to be changed to the benefit of local residents.
“It is particularly important in the Wokingham area as if the proposed/predicted number of homes does come to being, then the character of this area will be changed forever. There needs to be change and change now.”
