The only way to describe accurately the joint local plan consultation is as an expensive PR exercise, or put more simply, a ‘faux consultation’.
In the South Hams alone, both the meetings that we have hosted as the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, and those held by the parish councils, have illustrated that the public’s sense of frustration and outrage is only matched by the corresponding display of patronising arrogance of the South Hams District Council representatives.
For example, at the recent Green Park Way, Chillington, council hearing, which approved the building of 65 new houses, residents witnessed the council’s water consultant argue that run-off water would travel upwards against gravity to deny the
real flooding concerns of Chillington and Frogmore.
At Stokenham, the council’s favoured sea-view site to develop is Care Cross Green, which has been bitterly opposed by the parish council and the local community.
An alternative site has been submitted on Holbrook Terrace, which benefits from better highway access and, more importantly, the support of the local neighbourhood.
However, the council’s consultant has not even visited the alternative site, with it being utterly dismissed by his own statutory consultants.
On the majority of local matters, the JLP planners rely only on the council’s statutory consultants, as opposed to “local opinion or experience”.
The 504 houses allocated to Dartington illustrates that the council is laser-focused on big numbers in order to receive its new homes bonus payment.
This is illustrated further by 23 inappropriate housing applications being considered in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The examples are endless, with the council targeting and approving building regardless of local opinion or demand.
It also makes a mockery of the Localism Act of 2011 and shows how this JLP ‘consultation’ is quite meaningless.
The broader question that the JLP fails to answer is the flawed methodology for calculating housing demand.
The council falls back on Office of National Statistics projections, but these figures for the past five years have been sensationally wrong.
The ONS overestimated housing demand in the south west by 23 per cent and underestimated demand in the south east by 63 per cent, yet at no stage does our council challenge these erroneous calculations.
Similarly, the JLP targets 3,000 houses in excess of the central government target, but there is no plan or provision for new doctors’ surgeries, schools or road infrastructure. A point made more poignant by the closing of Dartmouth and Kingswear Community Hospital.
In summary, the veneer of a JLP public consultation, in combination with the changes to the local planning guidelines, will now render the National Planning Policy Framework simply as a developer’s charter.
For the most part, the public is ignored by our national and local politicians. However, with May 4 and June 8 looming, this could be the last opportunity to register your concern and get a more concrete commitment to challenge this ruinous policy for the South Hams.
Justin Haque and Dr Katy Bowen
Start