Rushcliffe Core Strategy Review 2013: What It Means For Us
A Radcliffe Community Group Report
Debate and discussion emerging from Rushcliffe Borough
Council’s meeting of Thurs, 12th December 2013, outlines the
conflicting opinions surrounding the council member’s own views on the adoption
of Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Core Strategy document. This document, in
principle, sets out to define and determine the nature of Rushcliffe Borough
Council’s future plans for development across Rushcliffe. This discussion, which resulted in the Rushcliffe
Borough Council adoption of the Core Strategy 2013, is publically available in
an online recording which is available for six months on the Rushcliffe Borough
Council’s website here.
Rushcliffe’s Embarrassing Position and the Not So Fresh Approach
We aim to reproduce some of that discussion for you in this
report, and to place it within a context that is meaningful for members of the
Radcliffe on Trent community. Rushcliffe Borough Council, had to revise their
initial Core Strategy, The Fresh Approach,
as it was turned down by government inspectors due to insufficient plans to
accommodate the local housing needs, as identified and defined by central
government. As such, Rushcliffe Borough Council sought to produce the revised Rushcliffe
Core Strategy document as a means of addressing this issue and identifying where
the additional housing should go.
By not having an agreed upon plan for Rushcliffe, Rushcliffe
Borough Council found themselves in the embarrassing position of facing the
loss of the right to make their own local decisions on where housing
development should take place. In this situation, Rushcliffe Borough Council
faced having the power to make decisions on planning issues revoked by
government, instead to have these decisions made outside of the local borough,
by central government officers. So the development of the Rushcliffe Core
Strategy instead acts as the remedy to this predicament, and one in which the
council have been forced into a position to act fast, in order to ensure that
they have a plan in place to accommodate the demand from central government to
build 13, 860 new homes in Rushcliffe by 2026.
This Core Strategy document represents not only an account
of the demands that are being made by central government, but also Rushcliffe
Borough Council’s plans for addressing those demands. At the Rushcliffe Core
Strategy Meeting of 12th December 2013, Rushcliffe Borough Council
members voted to accept the modifications of the Rushcliffe Core Strategy document,
which will now be prepared for review by the government appointed planning
inspector.
The Rushcliffe Core Strategy document is available for
consultation here, while the full recording of the Council meeting of 12th
Dec 2013 can be accessed until June 2014 here.
Keeping the Power of Planning Decisions Local: Plan Led Not Developer Led
While not all members of the Rushcliffe Borough Council were
in agreement with the fine detail of the proposals being made, there was a marked
desire to ensure that the power for planning decisions be retained by
Rushcliffe Borough Council. This was seen as a key concern in the revision of
the core strategy; to ensure that planning control remained within the power of
Rushcliffe Borough Council and not central government office. Here Cllr Neil
Clarke maintained that the decisions to build on brownfield and greenbelt land
had not been taken lightly, while Cllr Bell reinforced that an acceptance of
the plan would ensure that future developments within Rushcliffe would be ‘plan
led and not developer led’.
Many Rushcliffe councillors highlighted how these decisions
were not popular, but they did recognise that the council were left in a
position that left them with no other choice available, were they to retain the
power to control future development from within the Borough.
The Value of Viability? Targets vs. Requirements of Affordable Housing
Within that, there were concerns raised over the ongoing
debate over the meaning of the word ‘viability’ within the context of planning development,
and many including Cllrs Davidson and Boote maintained that Rushcliffe Borough Council
should demand that future planning development should ensure that developers
embed provision for a minimum of 40% of affordable housing within built-up
areas and 30% of affordable housing further afield. While the current phrasing requires
that ‘up to’ a stated amount of affordable housing be submitted as a part of
the development process, this then becomes subject to reinterpretation and is
frequently renegotiated by developers as a part of that planning submission
process. This currently works in favour of the developers who, once planning
permission is granted, have a tendency to renegotiate the percentage of
affordable home provision.
‘The creep is in the favour of developers’
On this note Cllr Davidson identified how such caveats
enable developers to ‘dilute the requirements’, highlighting how as a result of
this, the recent development in Bingham saw a reduction to 20% of affordable
housing, rather than the originally specified 30%. Setting the minimum
requirements as a target, rather than
a requirement was similarly raised by
Cllr Jones, maintaining that ‘The creep is in the favour of developers’. Cllr
Boote went on to highlight the importance of such provision in order to ensure
that there was adequate provision to protect the future for young people, while
Cllrs Mallender reinforce the need for affordable retirement housing to free up
larger dwellings. On this note, Cllr Abbey argued for the need to support the 40%
minimum requirements for affordable homes in West Bridgford, but not for the
reduction to 30% outside of West Bridgford, stating that there is a need to
appeal to both young families, as well as elderly people. Instead, he makes the
argument that these requirements need to meet local needs.
Accounting for the Impact Upon the A52 and Commuting Corridor
When considering the wider impact upon local communities,
many councillors raised their concerns over the failure to take into the
account the impact upon the ever increasing traffic on the A52. Cllr Jones in
particular expressed concerns over the scale of these huge developments and, at
that time, the lack of extensive report from the Highways Agency, with little beyond
the recognition that there will be a significant increase in traffic and journey
times. Here Cllr Jones noted that the A52 was frequently at a standstill,
expressing pity for our community, as the ‘Radcliffe on Trent citizens with the
A52 that runs through the middle.’ In failing to address the highway infrastructure
issues, he claims that many of these problems are left unresolved, and become exacerbated by
plans to move shops and essential services to non-central positions, which
result in an inevitable increase in the uptake of car journeys.
Greenbelt Review Scheduled for 2014?
Other Councillors raised concerns over the devastating impact
that these housing developments will have upon the Greenbelt around Rushcliffe
and the direct impact that will be felt by the wildlife, flora and fauna within
the region. Cllr Mason referred to the Core Strategy document as a ‘sad
compromise’ highlighting that while it is not the plan that they would like,
but that they do need to have a plan. Addressing how the ongoing review has
caused much concern within the villages being affected, he draws attention to
the concerns raised in light of the associated encroachment upon the
countryside. Here he identified how the Local Plan Part 2, which is scheduled
for later in 2014, would be the point at which the Greenbelt boundaries will be
redrawn for the villages. This, of course, is an area that we are continuing to
keep an eye on. As yet we have not received any clear guidance about when this
will take place and the extent to which there will be a large and open public
consultation, as has already been experienced by our neighbours in Gamston, Tollerton
and Clifton.
However, while not all councillors were in immediate
agreement with the specific detail contained within the Core Strategy document,
Cllr Neil Clarke argued that Rushcliffe’s Borough Councillors should not be
aiming to make commercial decisions, but rather should be working with the developers
to ensure that the plan works, warning that otherwise the developers would have
free reign and the council will be left without any control at all. Reinforcing
how, while not everyone is happy about the plan, he asked Rushcliffe Borough
Council members to recognise that they must act to ensure that they do have a local plan.
Commitment to Build A Minimum of 400 Houses In or Adjoining Radcliffe on Trent
While the report that we have produced here is designed to
give our community members an overview of some of the key issues that were
discussed, the documentation and recording of the meeting itself is available
for your individual perusal on the Rushcliffe Borough Council website. At
present, Rushcliffe Borough Council have committed to build ‘a minimum of 400
homes’ which are ‘in or adjoining Radcliffe on Trent’ as a part of their Core
Strategy Local Plan. As yet, these sites are undecided, so we need to ensure
that we continue to be informed about changes that are planned for our
community in order that we can all participate in that discussion and ensure
that our voice gets heard.
However, with that in mind, Cllr Vennett-Smith issued a very
real warning that seems pertinent to a small community like ours. While we are
fuelled by our commitment to seeing a brighter future for our village and we
are blessed to have an active community spirit, in which we are all willing to share
and participate in the journey that we have embarked upon together, he warns
that ‘Over time people get fed up and forget what they are fighting for.’ We
hope that this site will act as a reminder of that initial call to action and
give us the impetus and strength to continue to fight with the same courage and
resilience that we began with.
We have achieved an awful lot in six months and long may
that continue. We will continue to press for further information over the consultation
process for the forthcoming Greenbelt review and keep you updated with
developments as we hear about them. At present, we are led to believe that this
will be around May/ June 2014, but we are still waiting to receive clearer
guidance on when this will occur and whether there will be a public consultation
as a part of this process.
Over the course of the last week, we have been in contact
with the Highways Agency and we have been reassured that they are conducting a
review of the A52 and the impact that these developments will have upon the already
heavily congested traffic around our village. Presently, they are not able to
discuss the details of the two ongoing planning applications with us (for the
Shelford Road site and the RSPCA site), however they are a part of the consultation
process and will be offering their recommendations as a part of the ongoing planning
application process to Rushcliffe Borough Council.
This Rushcliffe Core Strategy document is produced in full for ease of access below:
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