One of our current projects is a land holding which was an anomaly in the greenbelt – The clients land was crazily designated Greenbelt over a decade ago.
We coordinated the promotion of the site through the Planning process on behalf of the land owner.
Initial meetings with planning were positive with some planning gain to the community. Local Councillors understood the situation and were generally supportive.
It has taken well over 5 years for the Local Development Plan to evolve . The Inquiry Reporter’s decision on the Local Development Plan is now in and the site is now allocated for development it is still not adopted at the time of writing.
A Planning application would have been made 2-3 years ago but Planning dogma, red tape, Local Development Plan delays and also the time that the Inquiry Reporter takes to make a decision made it difficult for the house builder purchaser to make a planning application. The Reporter has recommended a new Local Development Plan be brought forward quickly as there is a significant housing land shortfall. Why didn’t he approve more land released in this Plan ?
It’s quite astonishing that scores of families should now be in a home but the onerous planning process has delayed the building of homes and is blind to the housing need and also the very significant knock on effect on the local economy with the construction of homes.
