Borough councillors have warned that neighbourhood plans are being undermined as plans for a 75-home development in Clapham were approved.
Last night (Thursday), the chair of Bedford Borough Council’s Planning Committee (12 February) raised fresh concerns that neighbourhood development plans are being sidelined in the planning system.
This was during a debate on the scheme at the rear of homes on Milton Road (25/00973/MAO).
Planning officers recommended that the application be approved, despite objections from Clapham Parish Council, which argued the site lay outside the village’s settlement boundary and conflicted with the neighbourhood plan.
Increasing frustration
The planning officer, Lauren Witherick, said: “The planning balance shows the benefits of the development significantly and to mostly outweigh the adverse impacts and as such is recommended that planning commission is granted.”
At the meeting, the committee chair, cllr Jonathan Abbott (Lib Dem, Clapham and Oakley), said residents and parish councils were increasingly frustrated that neighbourhood plans appeared to carry limited weight.
“Once again, we have a neighbourhood development plan which feels to the residents and the parish councils has not particularly been taken into consideration,” he said.
“I appreciate we have the NPPF [National Planning Policy Framework] and have the tilted balance, but it is disappointing.
“This makes all the villages in North Bedfordshire very, very nervous. It makes parish councils who haven’t yet got a neighbourhood plan wonder why they should even bother doing one.
“There are some benefits… but what is the purpose of doing it until we get to the point where we have a local plan in place?” he said.
Five-year housing supply
The committee heard that the Borough Council cannot demonstrate a five-year housing supply; at the time the report was written, it was 3.35 years.
The “tilted balance” is the national planning rule that, when a council cannot show a five-year supply of housing land, planning decisions are weighted in favour of approving new homes unless the harm clearly outweighs the benefits.
Cllr Dylan Simmons (Conservative, Bromham) echoed the concern, warning that the neighbourhood planning process was being “almost fatally undermined”.
“A neighbourhood development plan is not a simple document to write,” he said, “[Parish councils] are now asking me, why should we bother if these plans are going to get ignored, thrown out.
“We need to, as a committee and as a borough, to be much stronger in defending our residents.
“Ensuring that they do not ‘get done to’… to make sure they have faith in this planning system that the planning system works for them rather than just using them as disposable tools,” he said.
Despite the objections, members voted to grant outline permission, subject to a legal agreement and planning conditions.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
