Local Plan Rethink Forced Upon Council – Special Open Letter from Julian
October 10, 2014
Dear resident,
I wanted to update you on some of the latest developments with regard to the City of York Council’s Local Plan Publication Draft.
Last night, at a meeting of the Full Council, opposition Councillors from the different parties joined forces to vote through a motion which called for an immediate halt on the forthcoming consultation on the Local Plan. The motion stated that the Plan approved by the Cabinet on 25th September does not accurately reflect the evidence base, has ignored reasonable alternatives and public opinion reflected in the two previous consultations and is not deliverable or sustainable.
As a result of this crucial victory over the Council’s ruling administration and their potentially disastrous Local Plan, Officers have been instructed to prepare a further report on the housing trajectories for the next cross party ‘Local Plan Working Group’ meeting.
It is hoped that this crucial vote and the risk of further defeats in the future, can now be used to leverage concessions from the administration’s Councillors, so that the Working Group can agree on an analysis of the City’s housing needs and use this to inform a new Local Plan, hopefully with significantly reduced allocations. This new Local Plan, if it can be agreed, would then be put again to the Working Group for discussion and recommendation to the Council’s Cabinet. All of this process could see the Local Plan stalled for several months.
This is clearly a positive step forward for those of us who want to see a more sensible and sustainable Local Plan, which will protect our countryside setting whilst meeting the needs of local people, rather than the unrealistic aspirations of our deeply out of touch Council. However, we have not won yet.
While Councillors continue to work towards a compromise, I will continue to work on the basis that the Plan is still proposing the removal of thousands of acres of land from our greenbelt for thousands upon thousands of new homes, as well as Traveller sites, solar farms, potential wind farms and industrial and employment sites.
To my mind, the proposals outlined here on my website are still very much in play and I intend to continue to campaign vigorously against them. To that end, I have organised, in conjunction with community representatives, the following public meetings to raise awareness of the Local Plan and to give local residents the information they need to help fight these potentially disastrous proposals:
9.30am – 11am | Saturday 18th October | Rufforth Community Hall
9.30am – 11am | Saturday 25th October | Naburn Village Hall
The above meetings will particularly focus on the Traveller sites proposed in these communities, but other proposals will certainly also be on the agenda. My team are in the process of organising a series of further public meetings across the constituency and I will keep you updated on any new developments as and when I hear them.
In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further concerns or queries on this or any other issue.
Kind regards
Julian
P. S. If you know of any friends, family or neighbours who might be interested in this information, please forward the email on to them and ask them to email me at Julian.sturdy.mp@parliament.uk with their details to be added to my mailing list.
