Cllr Stephen Conway, the leader of Wokingham Borough council and the executive member for planning and the local plan, spoke in favour of adopting the new local plan at last week’s full council meeting of Wokingham Borough Council.
He began by saying how drawing up a local plan is an immensely complex and time=consuming process.
He said: “If approved this evening, the new local plan will be subject to a final consultation, and then go on to the government- appointed inspector who will decide on its soundness for adoption,
“It falls to me .. to present the work for which others should be credited, and I want first and foremost to thank the Council officers in the planning department, and other areas of the organisation for their dedicated efforts over many years.
“They undertook the painstaking technical assessments and evidence-gathering for the sites selected and the policies proposed.
“We are lucky in Wokingham to have such high quality offices, and it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with them.”
He noyed how the plan is truly the fruits of work by two different administrations, and I hope councillors will approach it in that spirit, rather than indulge in party political points.
“The new local plan improves, where possible, on the draft we inherited.
“We began a review of Loddon Valley Hall Farm, the principal site in the draft, and other promoted major sites, reassessing each in relation to national and local planning, policies, and technical appraisals undertaken by council officers.
“On those planning grounds, Loddon Valley Hall Farm proved to be the best of the major sites promoted to the Council by landowners.
“We then worked with the principal landowner to produce a scheme, which I hope councillors will find more acceptable than the draft version.
“Loddon Valley Hall Farm now has fewer dwellings but still delivers a new secondary school, primary schools, affordable housing and other infrastructure we require, contrary to what many of us feared.
“It will not increase flood risk, it should indeed reduce it, and it makes possible the creation of a large new country park for the enjoyment of local communities.
“There are also borough-wide benefits.
“The plan includes bold new policies and financial efficiency in new homes and commercial buildings.
“It increases the affordable housing contribution required on the biggest new sites from the current 35% to 40%.
“We will require affordable housing contributions on all developments of five or more dwellings – rather than the ten stipulated in national policy.
“This approach demonstrates the council’s commitment, which I hope is cross party, to provide homes for those for whom market housing is out of reach.”
Noting the objections and demonstrations by some residents, he said: “All local plans involve difficult choices, and I can understand why residents near proposed major developments are dismayed.
!I wish we could devise a local plan that upset noone, but unfortunately that is not possible,
“My hope is that once the decision is made, the uncertainty will end and afected residents will work with the council to make the, development as good as it can be.
“We all, across this chamber, recognise and sympathise with the concerns of those who oppose development, but councillors must also be mindful of the interests of those who struggle, in an area of high prices and high rents, to find a place of their own.
“We need much more affordable housing to meet local needs, and the only way we currently can add affordable housing at scale is through market housing developments.
“I ask all councillors to recognise our collective responsibility to protect the borough from inappropriate, unplanned, and speculative, development, which almost always comes with less infrastructure than planned development.
“Since february 2022, the council has not been, able to, demonstrate a five-year land supply, leaving us exposed to speculative applications that we might refuse locally, but which can be won as appeal because the amount of land with planning permission is running out,
Some appeal inspectors have softened the impact of the lack of a five-year, land, supply in recognition Of past over delivery, but we cannot rely on that continuing.
“Indeed, we can anticipate its ending very soon.
“We can stop the borough’s exposure to inappropriate, speculative development only by agreeing a new local plan.
“The sooner we agree it, the sooner we benefit from the protections and benefits it affords.”
He noted how the new government is proposing significant changes to the planning system,
“Part of the government’s approach is increased housing numbers.
“Wokingham is currently required to ensure the delivery of 748 new homes per year.
“Under the proposed changes, that goes up to 1,308 a year.
“Ministers have recognised the transitional arrangements are necessary to help those councils with a plan at a very advanced stage to adopt it speedily under the current rules,
“Rather than begin afresh under the new rules, these transitional arrangements allow us to continue with the existing numbers if we get that local plan to inspectors for examination no more than a month after the government announces its final decision on changes to the planning system.
“From what the government has told us, that means mid- to late-January,
“if the council does not approve the plan this evening there will be insufficient time to meet the January deadline.
“If we miss the deadline, we must immediately begin work on drawing up another plan that accommodates the higher numbers.
“We have to go back to the beginning again during that period, and that period would be several years required to prepare a new, higher housing numbers plan.
“During that period of several years, we would have no five-year land supply, and we would continue to be exposed to the full effect of speculative development across the borough for this extended period.
“In most cases, we would be powerless to stop it.
“On the other hand, if we approve the plan before you this evening, we will be on the path to a return to protection Of a five-year land supply in the near future.
“We will then have several years of breathing space to prepare a further plan, in line with the new rules, protected from those speculative developments that we judge to be inappropriate, by the shield of an up-to-date plan.
“I hope that even opponents of the new local plan will therefore recognise that delay would be a disastrous mistake.
“The responsible course, which provides us with the best chance to protect the borough from prolonged and intense exposure to speculative development is to prove the new local plan this evening.”
