Dismay at review rejection
10:01am Wed Jul 28, 2010
The home building strategy for the area should have been reviewed by Newark and Sherwood District Council after the change of Government, according to Southwell Town Council.
The district council drew up its Core Strategy Document in response to the previous Government’s decision to set quotas for the number of new homes to be built during the next 15 years.
A total of 14,800 homes were earmarked for the district including an allocation of 294 for Southwell.
However, the new Government has scrapped the housing targets.
Mr Brendan Haigh, chairman of the town council’s planning committee, said the decision should have given the district council time to reconsider the number of houses it wanted to build.
He put forward a motion that the town council should contact the district to say it regretted that the district council did not take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the Government to pause, reflect and to change, if needs be, the current document.
A town councillor, Mr Malcolm Rose, thought it was alarming that the district council had not paused to review the figure.
Mr Peter Pay thought Southwell had a fair allocation of houses for a town of its size.
He said there needed to be a framework so developers did not try to build on all of the land that had been judged to be suitable for development by the district council’s Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment.
Council leader Mr Peter Harris said they had asked the district council if there would be any phasing to the development but had not received an effective answer.
He said the district council had not taken into account feedback it had received from residents and the town council when the document went out for consultation.
