The goal posts keep moving

LAST week, Rossendale MP Jake Berry called on the council to scrap plans for a traveller site near Futures Park in Bacup.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have signed a petition opposing the site.

It’s important to be fair to the council here – they are not choosing to build a traveller site, they are obligated by government to find a site which could be used for a traveller site if it was required.

The Local Plan is a document the government requires, and within the Local Plan the council must provide many locations for many things government demands, including thousands of new homes and, as it turns out, a traveller site.

If the council doesn’t provide a Local Plan, the government will do it for the council.

The theory is that local decision-making is best. The problem for Rossendale council is that the goal posts keep moving.

After Mr Berry joined them in appealing for a lower housing target, it was pulled down to around 3,000.

Now it appears Mr Berry feels the traveller site demand can be challenged too.

The council in the past has also been caught out by the government’s changing view of windfarms – the Tories have gone from offering financial incentives for providing windfarms via new taxes to stopping the expansion development at Scout Moor in its tracks.

Wouldn’t it be better for Mr Berry and the council to ignore all the guidance in the Local Plan, come up with their own plan, and take that to government?

For the council to have any chance of delivering a Local Plan, it needs to know what the rules are.