Westminster Hall
[…]
Fiona Bruce (Congleton)
(Con): We need a planning system that
puts local communities first. Local people, not developers, are the most
important voice in how our towns and villages grow and develop. Government
Ministers understand that now more than ever before, as I know from the many
meetings that I have had with the Minister who is here today—I thank him for
his patience in that regard. Indeed, I also thank his predecessor and his
predecessor’s predecessor, because the issues that have been challenging my
constituency regarding unsuitable planning applications have persisted for
years.
Although I believe that Ministers
now understand the concerns and pressures in my constituency, sadly the
Planning Inspectorate does not. Too many decisions have been made that have had
a negative impact on my constituents. I will give just two examples.
First, in Sandbach now we have
consents for hundreds of houses on the wrong side of the town. That will mean
that hundreds of families have to commute and travel through the town to get
to, for example, the M6, which is on the other side of the town, and Crewe
station, which is not that far away from the town. The impact on the local road
network alone will be major. Secondly, in Congleton, the staff of more than one
school are saying to me that because of the hundreds of properties that are
being built or will be built, there is now a severe challenge for school
places. Yet the appropriate forethought and foresight has not been put into the
impact that the developments, once they are consented to, will have on local
school places.
Those are just two of many
examples I could give, so I concur with many of the concerns that my hon.
Friend the Member for The Cotswolds (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) expressed in his
excellent speech and the suggestions that he made. As the Minister is aware, I
and many residents in the Congleton constituency have spent an inordinate
amount of energy, time and expense opposing innumerable inappropriate planning
applications. That time, energy and expense could have been better applied to
far greater benefit for our local communities.
My hon. Friend is right—without a
local plan in place, local people are at the mercy of developers. I would add
that they are also at the mercy of the Planning Inspectorate, because
developers know only too well what good chances they have on appeal. That is
why on 26 January I supported a new clause that my right hon. Friend the Member
for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) tabled to the Infrastructure Bill,
the aim of which was to give local communities greater control over planning by
abolishing the Planning Inspectorate. After all, Ministers are Ministers and
planning inspectors are officials. The Minister on that occasion—the Minister
of State, Department for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for South
Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes)—said in response that the Government would
issue new planning guidance to address the problems. He said to my right hon.
Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs:
“New guidance will be issued that is stronger and more effective,
that defends the interests of local authorities and that prevents the problems
he has set out.”––[Official Report,26 January 2015; Vol. 591, c.
644.]
I hope that new guidance would
prevent the kind of problems that I have just referred to. I also hope that the
Minister who is here today will take the opportunity to clarify what progress
has been made on the new guidance and when it will be issued. Perhaps that is
something that the written ministerial statement that will be issued later
today will refer to.
I said that I believe the
Government now better understand that we need a planning system that puts local
people first, and I want to express my thanks to Ministers and the Secretary of
State for issuing an article 25 notice just two weeks ago regarding two
applications for developments of well over 200 houses at a site on Padgbury
lane in Congleton. I believe that fear of the costs of an appeal to the
Planning Inspectorate led local council officers to recommend approval of
completely inappropriate applications. I also believe that it was the article
25 notice, for which I again thank Ministers, that strengthened councillors’
hands to go against that recommendation and refuse those applications.
The sword of Damocles of the
expense of an appeal should not have resulted in a completely inappropriate
recommendation by planning officers. Those applications are in the wrong place
and should not be allowed to go forward, but of course developers do not go
away. What is happening now is exactly what hon. Members have referred to
today. There are multiple applications for that site at Padgbury lane, which is
why I have now had to write to the Secretary of State to ask him to recover two
further appeals relating to the same site. I hope that the Secretary of State
and the Housing Minister, who is here today, will take a similarly robust view
when considering that request.
I also have to make a similar
request for the call-in of an application for more than 100 houses in the
village of Goostrey. The Minister and I have had correspondence about Goostrey
before. It is adjacent to Jodrell Bank, which is now leading on the
international Square Kilometre Array project and co-ordinating countries across
the globe. The UK is taking a leading role in the project, and the UK
Government have invested tens of millions of pounds in it. It is absolutely
critical that the functioning of the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank is not
affected by inappropriate housing developments nearby. Incidentally, that was
why Manchester university, which oversees the work, moved its work from the
centre of Manchester to Cheshire; it was to ensure that the telescope would not
be interfered with by such developments. This is a national issue, and I hope
that Ministers will receive my request for a call-in of the application for
more than 100 houses in the small village of Goostrey and ensure that that
application is roundly rejected.
It is of great concern to
residents that, as I have said, they continuously have to put huge amounts of
time, energy and resources, and worry, into having to deal with inappropriate
applications. We need a system that properly respects the views of local
people, not one that pays lip service to localism. We need a plan-led system,
and I am delighted that Ministers are now encouraging neighbourhood plans; in
east Cheshire alone, 14 are being brought forward. I am also delighted that
those plans are increasingly being taken account of. However, I support the
view of my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds: their impact needs to be
strengthened, particularly where the principal council
has still not got its local plan in place. We need to ensure that
we have such strengthened support for neighbourhood plans.
The mentor-led system that my
hon. Friend talked about is an excellent suggestion. After I took leaders of
Cheshire East council to meet Ministers some years ago to ask for assistance
with the development of the local plan, those Ministers allocated a retired
planning inspector to work with the council and help it develop its plan.
Sadly, the plan that was formalised as a result of that joint working was not
accepted and is now in suspension. If we are to have a mentor-led system, it
must be robust and must work.
[…]
The Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local
Government (Brandon Lewis):
…Some of my hon. Friends have given examples of frustrations that
they have encountered in putting plans in place. It has been a pleasure to hear
my hon. Friends talk about some of the issues in their areas. Cheshire East was
mentioned, which I visited in a previous capacity, to attend a public meeting
on planning. It was a wonderful experience, as
it always is when I visit the constituency of my hon. Friend the
Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) with her. However, I have to say that
Cheshire East is an example of somewhere local people are quite right to be
frustrated and irritated at the behaviour of their council and its failure to
deliver a local plan.
My hon. Friend touched on the fact that Cheshire East council had
the support of a retired inspector whom we sent in to work with it. I wish that
the council had listened to the advice so that the plan was in a better place.
I understand the frustration of residents, bearing in mind that they can look
only next door to another local authority that, in the same time frame, has
delivered its plan sound and finished. There is no excuse for Cheshire East’s
failure thus far.
…My
hon. Friend the Member for Congleton asked about guidance. In terms of time
lines, any guidance we put out will be in the next few weeks, so she can have
some confidence that it is relatively imminent; she was quite right.
