Shropshire Council withdraws the draft Local Plan in a shock move that has profound implications for every part of Shropshire.
Bombshell as council withdraws Shropshire local plan after inspectors’ verdict
Shropshire star
I am still digesting the news that Shropshire Council has withdrawn their draft local plan. It leaves me angry about this profoundly bad news for Shropshire and local communities. I will be updating this post as I digest the fallout. Welcome to the Wild West.
Planning Inspectors recently gave Shropshire Council a six-month deadline to fix the draft plan. However, they have rejected Shropshire Council’s proposal to fix the draft plan as ‘overly ambitious’. Instead, the Inspectors suggested that Shropshire Council withdraw the draft plan to avoid further costly public expense if they forced the Inspectors to reject the plan formally.
After a short reflection, Shropshire Council decided to withdraw its local plan just after the Conservative Council Leader announced that she wouldn’t be standing for election again in May. Several other Conservative Councillors have also decided not to stand again.
Read the Inspector’s letter suggesting withdrawal
Now that Shropshire Council has withdrawn its draft plan, it will have to start over, which will take a lot of time and expense. The draft local plan has already taken nine years to get to this point. In the meantime, this leaves Shropshire with no five-year land supply. How long the vacuum lasts is anyone’s guess, but Shropshire Liberal Democrats will be working tirelessly to resolve this as soon as possible.
This is disastrous news for Shropshire and terrible news more locally
There is now no 5-year land supply, with no prospect of securing that any time soon. This means that it is now open season for development in Shropshire. Communities across Shropshire will now face unplanned, uncontrolled, and potentially unwanted or unneeded development. Shropshire Council will not have the policies in place to ensure that development is appropriate for communities and will not be able to resist development.
This is the second time on the Conservative’s watch that they have exposed Shropshire to uncontrolled development due to a lack of land supply.
At face value, this might sound like good news if you think throwing numbers at the housing crisis is a good idea, but it isn’t. Quite frankly, this is an unmitigated disaster for Shropshire. Heads should roll for this. In May, the Conservative Administration faces electors, but they shouldn’t wait and should resign immediately. The least they can do now is save residents paying them for 2 months. But they won’t, and they will milk every last drop from residents. Many Shropshire Conservatives are bowing out to avoid facing the music or rebranding themselves in a shallow attempt at self-preservation.
Since 2017, I have been battling to toughen up the planning framework locally as a better defence against inappropriate development and in support of what Whittington, West Felton, Park Hall and Babbinswood needed through housing surveys and talking to residents. The Conservatives particularly let down West Felton residents with a large increase in the size of the village. I pushed for a Conservation Area on West Felton parish council and worked hard to secure it. I immediately moved for a Neighbourhood Plan for the parish. Sadly, some parish council members have been determined to kick that can down the road, aiming to derail a Neighbourhood Plan at every step, despite all the objective evidence showing it was a good idea and the parish needed it. It is a massive frustration for me that they have also let the parish get caught with its pants down. A Neighbourhood Plan would have helped avoid the clear and present danger the withdrawn plan now exposes the parish to. Regaining control of planning, community-led housing, and Neighbourhood Plans will be a high priority for me should I get elected on May 1st.
For example, suppose there is a need for 80 dwellings in a village with good infrastructure and the next-door village needs none with poor infrastructure. Without a sound local plan, developers can apply for and get permission for 800 houses where none is required, completely ignoring the village in need that has the infrastructure to support growth. Madness. This happened last time there was no land supply. It will now happen again, but it will be far worse. This problem will take time to fix… time that developers will thrive in.
This is very bad news for Whittington, West Felton, Babbinswood, Park Hall, and surrounding hamlets. Premium market housing will sprout up, ignoring any need for more affordable housing, more school places, or traffic safety improvements. Without a local plan there are no affordable housing targets, no design or placement policies, and Shropshire Council will have no leverage.
Shropshire has been caught with its pants down, and the Conservatives were warned. Instead, they ploughed on with a hasty and unsound plan with the absurd notion it would secure a 5-year land supply. The protracted plan review process was massively under-resourced, leading to increasing delays. Instead, they have brought about the very ruin they sought to avoid through incompetence and ignorance. At the July 2021 full council meeting Liberal Democrats proposed a delay to address concerns about the plan. The Conservatives rejected the amendment, ignoring the many strong consultation responses from across the county. The planning inspectors pulled up the local plan before the latest hearings, where many more of these concerns would have been aired at a site-by-site level.
National and local housing targets define the local 5-year land supply. This is considered a sustainable level, based on need, to shape housing growth strategically. If the level is met, then planners have more power to turn down applications. If the level isn’t met, more appropriate applications are allowed to bring up the numbers. If applications are refused developers can appeal based upon unmet supply. When there is no target, developers can argue for a site, while planners can’t defend against inappropriate development.
A robust planning policy framework supports well-designed development that fulfils much necessary growth and protects communities from unwanted, unnecessary or unwarranted development. At a strategic level, Shropshire Council’s job is to implement the National Planning Policy Framework within a local context. Neighbourhood Plans can give more local shape to development and the need for Shropshire’s Local Plan by setting out local priorities. As many consultees, public and my own comments showed, Shropshire’s draft plan was not sound. This has been borne out by the planning inspectors’ hearings, correspondence and recommendations.
Update March 11th: At last night’s West Felton Parish Councillor meeting, I persuaded members to make more progress towards developing a Neighbourhood Plan for West Felton. I am grateful to all members who recognised the parish’s vulnerable position and voted unanimously to start the next step. The chair will appeal for volunteers in the next parish magazine and at the Annual Parish meeting. Should I win the election in May, I will work hard with both Whittington Parish Council and West Felton Parish Council to get Neighbourhood Plans in place as soon as possible. A good Neighbourhood Plan is now the best backstop against inappropriate development in the parishes.
