19 Dec 2023
The man in charge of ensuring St Albans finally has its long-awaited Local Plan in place has defended the authority after it was publicly criticised by Minister Michael Gove.
The Levelling-Up Secretary told the Commons he will “call out” local authorities that fail to publish their future development plans, threatening intervention if necessary.
He said seven councils who had failed to adopt a Local Plan – including St Albans – would need to provide a Plan timetable within 12 weeks.
SADC leader Cllr Chris White, who also heads the district’s planning committee, appeared on today’s BBC Radio 4 World At One show to talk to presenter Sarah Montague about being “named and shamed” by Michael Gove.
He said: “I think if someone’s going to slag you off by Twitter and in a speech it would have been nice to be informed in advance. But I think we have some fairly straightforward answers to this. His department is fully aware of our timetable for submitting a Plan. Now, obviously, if his officials haven’t passed these details on to him, we’re happy to send them to him direct. But we have a timetable, it’s in the public domain, his officials are happy with it.
“We are no more happy with not having an up-to-date Local Plan in place than he is, or indeed our residents or developers. But to be singled out as if we’re sort of deliberately doing this is a bit much, to say the least.”
Sarah said having listened to Mr Gove’s speech the presumption was that SADC just hadn’t got its act together because there was no Local Plan in place.
“It’s not a side issue for this council, it’s the number one issue. It has its own committee, we’re in the middle of a consultation. Quite a lot of people kept saying to us, you should delay this consultation because of what Michael Gove is saying about housing numbers. But we took the view that we will proceed at the fastest possible speed in the existing regulations because we get the powers of the Secretary of State. So to suggest somehow we are sitting on our backsides, not doing anything, and indeed ignoring what he’s saying, is, as I say, a bit much. We are going full pelt and we will be producing the next stage of our consultation in the middle of next year.”
Sarah asked if he was suggesting SADC was going as fast as the government will allow, to which Cllr White responded: “Well yes, I mean it’s not a quick process. You have to produce a document, you then have to send it to various consultees, not just the public but for instance the county council, who then respond. The county council response to our Local Plan was actually longer than the plan itself. We have to wade through all these technical responses about education and highways and so forth. We’re happy to do so, but there is a limited resource.
“The MP for St Albans wrote to Mr Gove and said, ”Can this council and others like it have additional resources to speed up Local Plan making?’ And his department’s response was, no you can’t.”
In her letter, Daisy Cooper told Mr Gove: “In response for a recent call for sites, a whopping 200 sites were put forward by developers… As a result, St Albans planning department has estimated that the additional cost that is required to fund the necessary planning consultants and expertise is around £150,000 for the next two years.
“For SADC to implement the Local Plan in time, they need to ensure that a comprehensive and diligent planning survey is carried out in the area. Currently they are endeavouring to do so with the limited resources available but additional funding for this specific purpose would be game-changing to allow the Plan to progress in a timely manner.”
Continuing his World At One interview, Cllr White said there was no problem in producing a timetable for their Local Plan within the period specified: “We can do that probably tomorrow afternoon. I mean, the timetable is there in public domain, so there’s no additional work to be done there, we’ve been very, very careful.”
Unveiling a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) Mr Gove also effectively watered down housing targets by saying figures were “advisory” rather than binding.
He also said local authorities will not have to set aside Green Belt land to meet future housing need if any development would significantly damage the character of their area.
Cllr White said the government had imposed high housing targets on St Albans, and Mr Gove’s suggestion that this did not necessarily mean building on the Green Belt was unfeasible: “For a place like St Albans, other sites are also in the Green Belt. So that is a bit crass. Or we go high rise and build 20-storey blocks like what we’re starting to see in parts of Hertfordshire, I don’t think that’s what [Mr Gove[ wants and it’s certainly not what’s wanted by local people. So frankly a massively unhelpful intervention, preferably for people who are getting on with it with limited resources which they refuse to top up.
“We are building a lot [of homes] already, All sorts of places are allocated and more places are being allocated under the draft Local Plan.”
But the response to Mr Gove’s announcement about Green Belt housing has been welcomed in other quarters.
Harpenden Tory Parliamentary candidate Nigel Gardner begged SADC to use their new powers to save local Green Belt.
“I call on the Lib Dem council – frankly I beg them – to use their new rights, and do what’s right.
“Please scrap your plans to build thousands of houses on the Green Belt around Harpenden, Redbourn and Wheathampstead – and save our countryside and access to our local public services
“This announcement is great news for the people of Harpenden and their descendants. Whatever your politics, it means we can leave what’s left of our Green Belt countyside to future generations. I’ve seen us lose too much of it in my lifetime.”
Gee Smeadley, spokesperson for CLASH – the campaign group fighting to save north St Albans from development – said; “We welcome enhanced Green Belt protections in the new NPPF. Green Belt is vital for healthy cities, providing our clean air, clean water and food. As well has health and recreation activities.
“We have always strongly contested the ‘housing need’ figures calculated by a spurious method with an outdated set of data from 2014.
“Make no mistake, our area is in high demand by speculative developers due to the high developed land values and repeated inappropriate applications have put huge strain on local communities as the proposals fail deliver the infrastructure needed, such as safe roads for all users.
“The devil will be in the detail of the new NPPF, which we will be closely reviewing.
“St Albans district council needs to deliver both a timely Local Plan and a sound Plan. The reason we are in this situation and have been called out by central Government, is because the two previous failed Plans. There are worrying signs that the current Plan is also on track to being found unsound and the status quo allowing speculative developers to build on Green Belt will remain.”
