778 Public Responses to Housing Plan 2036!
In response to HIRA's enquiry of Havant BC Planning Team as to what proportion of the Borough wide responses has come from Hayling Island, David Hayward, Havant BC Planning Officer, informed us that, of the 778 individual responses to the proposed Housing Plan 2036:
there were 1054 individual comments within those responses
209 of those comments relate to development on Hayling island
there are still 90 responses still to analyse.
He also explained that:
"if the Housing Statement does not go forward, I would consider that there would be a higher risk of speculative development getting planning permission (particularly by Inspectors at appeal). Particularly given the fact that the borough does not have a five year housing land supply, under paragraph 40 of the NPPF policies regarding housing supply (the definition of which is quite broad) cannot be given full weight in decision making. So this ultimately means that at least some of the policies in the Adopted Local Plan which currently ‘protect’ the proposed urban extension and strategic sites from development (particularly but not exclusively AL2 and CS17), could not be given full weight.
Obviously at the point where the Local Plan is going through its Examination, an Inspector would be assessing it for legal compliance and soundness and would be able to essentially make changes to the plan. The stop gap that the Government has is Section 146 of the Housing and Planning Act which gives the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government powers to prepare or revise a Local Plan or instruct HBC in relation to the preparation or revision of the Local Plan."
At this point we can all understand that the proposed Housing Plan 2036 is effectively subject to national Government determination. Please note that Alan Mak MP will be speaking at our October 14th Public Meeting and the Head of Havant BC Planning, Andrew Biltcliffe, will also be present to answer questions concerning the Housing Plan 2036. We look forward to seeing you there!
