EARLY ONE MORNING.........................
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Stansted North on Uttlesford District Council and former Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Learn more
by Alan Dean on 31 July, 2015
It is still early days; there is no time to waste; but progress to date and the method being used to produce a fresh Local Plan for Uttlesford looks much better than was experienced before this year.
Gone are private meetings steering the process behind closed doors. So far the approach being followed is deliberative, following a step-by-step approach I unsuccessfully urged Uttlesford to adopt over two years ago. Meetings of the new working group, though it still only offers advice to officers and recommends what the cabinet should agree, continue to be held in public and are broadcast over the internet.
The way we are doing it is more in line with East Herts District Council, which I visited with my recently returned district colleague, Geoffrey Sell, in early 2013. Uttlesford’s newly adopted deliberative process now mirrors the process East Herts has been using for years. If only UDC’s Tory cabinet had listened in 2013; we might not now be starting afresh but have a completed plan! Uttlesford now has a member of staff previously with East Herts, which gives me much encouragement that this plan should not be binned as was the first attempt last December.
For those who knew how it went so wrong last time and can spare the time to read about the new system, it can be found here. Further reading here tells more; it describes how the search for housing and employment locations – assessing broadly which area will be best for development and how many homes might be accommodated in any one area – is just getting underway.
Finally, what will set hares running across Uttlesford; a district map showing very tentative but potential broad areas for new development. Until the analysis of these broad areas of search has been done there will be no talk – I am assured – of specific locations and no jumping the gun as took place over NE Elsenham in 2007. Members have been assured and cabinet members have vowed that this plan will be led by the council and not by developers and landowners. The public will judge whether that was the case in around two years’ time.
Will there be a new settlement(s)? It’s too early to say. Do we know the final number of homes to be planned? No! So this first stage of work is to look at what the district looks like at the present and to get some idea of what options there are.
I am surprised there hasn’t been any visible public reaction to the publication of the map of blue, mauve and green lozenges plus orange blobs a couple of weeks ago. The council will kick off a public consultation soon. That is bound to set hares running; but that’s what the council wants. Better hares a’running than rabbits out of hats!! I want to see no done deals this time round!
3 Comments
A pressing question that needs to be answered: if Andrew Taylor was doing a competent job of preparing the draft local plan, why has it been considered necessary to bring in a new man, Martin Paine?
Uncharitable souls might reply that since Mr Taylor obviously couldn’t run a bath, still less organise a draft local plan, it was sensible and prudent to bring in someone with professional abilities. Unfortunately, that does not explain the past 4 years during which Taylor has exhibited no understanding or capacity to develop a draft plan. The process came to a juddering halt in December 2014 when the inspector called an early halt to the examination of the local plan and made it clear that he was unimpressed.
If Andrew Taylor had any integrity, that would have been his signal to offer his resignation. If John Mitchell was worth tuppence as a chief executive he would have demanded nothing less.
Mr Paine has been recruited from East Herts District Council to fill a gap in the planning policy team left by the sad death of one of the members of that small team. Martin Paine brings with him experience that will, in my opinion, be of great value.
The gap had remained unfilled for several months and I think it overly charitable to describe the authors of the failed draft local plan as a ‘planning policy team’. Given the amount of time and money wasted on a draft plan that was thrown out with embarrassing speed by the inspector it would seem that planning, policy and teamwork were signally absent.
The truth is that the rejected draft plan was a political contrivance that a tiny handful of members put together on the back of an envelope, ignorant of traffic concerns, sustainability and sundry other planning matters and officers chose NOT to advise them that this approach was inappropriate and likely to fail. Indeed senior officers apparently colluded with members to concoct the draft plan and seemed equally shocked when the inspector dismissed it.
We have yet to hear a word of apology for those responsible for wasting over 8 years and £2million so I would argue that they are unlikely to produce a viable replacement plan. The only way forward from a debacle such as occurred last December is to clearly and unambiguously acknowledge errors and seek consensus on how to move forward. It would also have been appropriate for heads to roll, given the scale and cost of the failure.