Lest readers conclude that the DCP Blog’s new year resolution to be cheerfully optimistic about the future of town planning in a difficult political context didn’t last five minutes, we ought to make clear that this Blog is about an actual road to nowhere. In a recent appeal case the creation of an access road to a potential housing site in Bedfordshire was granted planning permission despite the council’s objection on the grounds of prematurity (DCS Number 400-020-519).
Monthly Archives: January 2019
News from PlanningResource
- Damehood awarded to prominent planner January 4, 2019Alison Nimmo, the chief executive of the Crown Estate, which manages lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the crown, has been appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the New Year's Honours list.
- High Court appoints Nathalie Lieven QC January 4, 2019Prominent planning lawyer Nathalie Lieven QC has been appointed as a High Court justice.
- Councils told to appoint 'physical activity champions' to inform planning policy January 4, 2019Local authorities should recruit senior staff members who can ensure planning policies will encourage physical activity, according to a report by the government-backed non-departmental public body responsible for public health guidance published today.
- The implications of the SoS's rejection of an estate regeneration on grounds of social housing loss January 3, 2019The decision by housing secretary James Brokenshire to refuse plans for an estate regeneration scheme in west London is an important marker for the way social housing is valued in such renewal schemes, practitioners and politicians have claimed.
- How councils can detect phony consultation responses January 3, 2019A council's claims that letters purportedly from the public supporting a housing scheme were fake raises questions about how planning authorities can prevent such malpractice.
- Multiple occupations crackdown proposed in Bracknell neighbourhood plan January 3, 2019A local authority in Berkshire has approved for consultation a neighbourhood plan which includes restrictions on houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and measures to ensure sprinklers are fitted in high rise developments.
- Surrey council submits plan with housing target of less than half the standard method figure January 3, 2019A Surrey council will produce 'robust evidence' to defend its draft local plan's proposed 6,056-home housing target, which is less than half that produced using the government's standard method for assessing housing need, the local authority has said as it agreed to submit the document for examination.
- Inspector backs 140 homes on unallocated site on "infill" grounds January 3, 2019A planning inspector has granted outline permission for 140 homes in a South Oxfordshire village after he concluded that, although on an unallocated site, the scheme would constitute 'infill' development as permitted by local planning policy, including an adopted neighbourhood plan.
- Plans approved for ten hectare East Sussex solar farm January 3, 2019Plans have been approved for a solar farm on 10.4-hectares of agricultural land in East Sussex, in line with a recommendation from planners who concluded that the scheme accorded with local and national planning policy and would not result in adverse visual impacts on the surrounding area.
- African government 'to move two million people as climate change bites' January 3, 2019Reports that a self-declared African state is planning to 'shift much of its population to the coast as grazing land fails' in the face of climate change features in today's newspaper round-up.