Borough council needs to get a move on and complete Local Plan
WHEN I was elected as your MP in December 2019, one of the first things to fall on my desk was local planning, with concerns that LibDem-run Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council were exposing our area to speculative and unsustainable development.
Since then, it has undoubtedly been one of the issues which local people have contacted me about most frequently.
Given that planning is one of the borough council’s key responsibilities, which they were elected to implement, their repeated delays over the last 18 months have been particularly frustrating to see, from both a local, and a national, point of view.
The borough council is responsible for having an up-to-date Local Plan, which is the blueprint for our area for the next 20 years. An updated and complete plan offers the strongest possible legal protection from the possibility of speculative or unsustainable development, which our area does not currently have. Every day which goes by without an updated plan risks exposing our area to inappropriate development.
The Local Plan affects a whole range of areas, including housing, employment, local parks, leisure facilities and health provisions, so it is vital it is completed as soon as possible.
At a council meeting in November, Stuart Bray, leader of the council, acknowledged the Government had already written to him twice over the much-delayed Local Plan to raise their concerns, and that I had also raised my concerns earlier this year.
Given that the borough council has been democratically elected to manage local planning and complete this Local Plan - the momentum must come from it. As a national legislator I have input into national planning policy through voting in Westminster, but ultimately cannot influence the borough council’s work on planning locally, be that in terms of individual planning decisions, or wider local planning policy matters such as the development of the Local Plan.
What I can do, however, is offer to link the borough council with the Government, so that they can receive additional assistance and support. This is something which I have consistently offered to help with since being elected, as well as raising awareness on the dangers of speculative and unsustainable development, and what that would mean for our area.
It has also become apparent from meeting and speaking to constituents that there is a growing backlog with the borough council’s planning department, leading to long delays with decision making. Over half of the planning officers have now left, and there has not been a permanent head of planning for four years. I have met with the Planning Minister on several occasions to raise these concerns with Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council directly at a national level.
To try to help solve this problem, I have also made the case nationally for neighbourhood plans – having one in place can provide additional accountability and effective decision-making right at the heart of our communities, allowing for growth in a way that is sustainable and suitable for our area, complementing Local Plans which are broader and cover a whole area.
Many local groups have done excellent work completing or developing neighbourhood plans, like in Markfield, Burbage, Stoke Golding and Market Bosworth, to name but a few. However, the efforts of these hard-working groups could be put at risk until the borough council completes its Local Plan, which is why I’m so keen to see it completed as soon as possible, giving our area the strongest possible legal protections against speculative and unsustainable development.