All May Not Yet Be Lost For Those Opposing Ash Development
Published on: 30 Sep, 2013
Updated on: 1 Oct, 2013
The controversial decision to approve a planning application for 400 new houses in Ash, made in an extraordinary council meeting on Tuesday, September 24, might yet be overturned.
A council spokesperson said: “The application is being considered by DCLG [Department for Communities and Local Government] to see whether the Secretary of State [Eric Pickles] wishes to call-in the application for determination. The DCLG has not made a decision yet. If the application is called in, it is likely that an inquiry will be held. ”
Although there has been a full council resolution to grant permission for the application, the decision cannot be issued until the Section 106 has been finalised.
Section 106 arrangements are legally binding obligations that are attached to a piece of land and are registered as local land charges against that piece of land. Planning obligations enable a council to secure contributions to services, infrastructure and amenities in order to support and facilitate a proposed development.
The council spokesperson said: “This [the decision whether or not to call the application in] is likely to take a few months, by which time we should have DCLG’s decision about the call-in.”
According to the DCLG website:
“The Secretary of State has the power to take over (‘call in’) planning applications rather than letting the local authority decide. The Secretary of State will normally only do this if the application conflicts with national policy in important ways, or is nationally significant. The Secretary of State has to take published government policy into account when deciding whether or not to call in a planning application, and when making the decision.
“If the Secretary of State decides to call in a planning application, an inspector is appointed to carry out an inquiry into the proposal. The Secretary of State has to take the inspector’s findings into account when making the decision.”
Trevor Harris
September 30, 2013 at 10:06 am
All is not lost even if the call in fails. It must be remembered that the council has only approved outline planning. The developer now has to submit the details. Ash residents will certainly make thier views known.
It has become clear that the planning rules do not take resident’s views into sufficient consideration. The committee relies too much on “expert opinion”. The problem is that the experts are often not given sufficient information to make a correct assessment.