Agenda item

Recommendations:

 i)               To recommend to Full Council that the Draft Revised Publication Local Plan document at Appendix 1 of this report is approved for consultation in accordance with Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) regulations 2012 (as amended); and

ii)               Delegate to officers the arrangements for the consultation to take place for six weeks between 8 March and 19 April 2024; and 

iii)               Delegate to the Head of Policy and Place and Assistant Director of Planning in consultation with the Executive Member for Open to Business, any minor amendments required to the documentation for typographical, grammatical and factual or Plain English purposes and any amendments required to address issues raised in the final HRA and SA reports to the documents prior to publishing for consultation.   

Considered – A report of the Corporate Director for Community Development setting out the options which have been considered in progressing the Selby District Local Plan and the recommendation to undertake a further consultation on a revised Regulation 19 Publication Local Plan.

Councillor Derek Bastiman introduced the report and welcomed the public participants to the meeting and their submissions, as follows:

1.       Mary McCartney

‘This plan massively reduces the number of affordable homes that could be provided in the Selby area for the next 17 years; that is social housing for rent and vital starter homes to enable people to get on to the home ownership ladder. 

Currently the policy calls for 40% affordable homes on ALL sites. 

There are 39 site allocations in the plan that have a figure for affordable housing, either 5% 10% or 20%. Under this plan a maximum of just 13%  affordable homes will be delivered.

But the big builders, who are looking to develop the 20% sites, will put in a “Viability Assessment” claiming that there are special circumstances, extraordinary financial costs, that mean they will not be able to make a profit if they have to build the 20% affordable homes, and they are very very successful at doing this.

And that will further reduce the number of affordable homes provided over the next 17 years. 

The plan will see around 5,400 homes built. Even if all of the targets on affordable houses were hit, and they will not be, a pathetic 716 affordable homes would be provided. Of that 716 homes, only 25% would be starter homes for first time buyers; a measly 179, about ten a year!

We have a housing crisis. That crisis is not a shortage of executive homes it is a shortage of affordable homes, to rent and to help get people onto the home ownership ladder.

This Plan should be delayed, the 40% affordable homes policy should be retained and the Council should start rigorously opposing the big builders “Viability Assessments”.

Selby needs a Local Plan for the people who need affordable housing not one for big builders and their profits.’

Councillor Derek Bastiman responded that the affordable housing target set within the Local Plan has to be underpinned by evidence. He noted that changed economic circumstances meant that the level of affordable housing that can now be justifiably requested is reduced from that set out in the adopted Core Strategy back in 2013. However, it is considered that the affordable housing levels required as part of the draft plan strike the right balance between meeting the high levels of affordable housing need when tested against viability. He felt the proposals are supported by evidence and should remain within the draft plan and be the subject of further statutory consultation, noting that all comments received during the consultation period will be fully considered and addressed before deciding whether to submit the Revised Publication Local Plan to the Secretary of State for Examination in Public.

2.       Councillor Jeff Bramley – Chair of Hambleton Parish Council

‘Hambleton Parish Council wishes to raise significant concerns regarding the housing growth proposals contained within the revised publication local plan that is before you today for approval for consultation. Hambleton is a rural village with limited services – only a primary school, convenience store and two pubs. It has extremely limited public transport links to areas which provide a greater range of services and employment.

At the beginning of 2018 Hambleton had 845 houses, 221 more have been built, permission for another 20 has been given. A 28% increase. This Revised Plan suggests a further 287 can be accommodated in Hambleton. That’s a 62% increase in 6 years. All these proposed sites already have planning applications in on them, they will be used for housing immediately.

The proposals within the revised local plan would add a further housing site.

Hambleton Parish Council raises further serious concerns about this proposal. Having already raised concerns throughout the various consultation processes about the excessive allocation in Hambleton village, it is outraged to find that ‘Development Limits’ are proposed to be moved for a THIRD time to support yet more development without justification. The first being for 115 homes in 2018 (that do not even appear on your current plan documents), the second at the original Publication Plan consultation where HAMB-F, originally rejected, suddenly appeared for 103 homes and HAMB-N grew in size to include originally rejected land and accommodate 56 homes, and the third being at this Revised Draft where HAMB-A has been tagged on to allow for another 128 dwellings.

The Planning Authority itself refused planning permission on Site HAMB-A in 2017 for the following reasons:

01.  …the scale and location significantly outside of settlement development limits would result in a pattern of growth that is not appropriate to the size and role of Hambleton as a Designated Service Village where Core Strategy Policies define the Spatial Development Strategy. This scale of expansion of Hambleton beyond settlement development limits would undermine the spatial integrity of the development plan and the ability of the Council to deliver a plan-led approach where there are already a scale of extant approvals where further expansion would not result in sustainable patterns of development and would be contrary to Selby District Core Strategy Local Plan Policies SP1, SP2 and SP5 and the sustainable principles of the NPPF.

02. The scale and location of development outside of defined settlement development limits would be detrimental to the amenities of residents in the vicinity of the site and thus contrary to Selby District Local Plan Policy ENV1…

The Decision Notice also recognizes the harm the development would cause to the Grade II listed building in the vicinity and goes on to state:

The proposal would not improve the economic, social and environmental conditions of the area

There were no amendments to the scheme, or conditions which could reasonably have been imposed, which could have made the development acceptable.

At the Selby and Ainsty Area Committee meeting on 19th January, the members were told that the four new site allocations in the Revised Publication Plan had not been previously included for reasons that had now been ‘addressed and overcome’. Hambleton Parish Council want to know how the above reasons for refusal of development given previously, have now been ‘addressed and overcome’ enough for this site to be included in the Revised Plan; and can the Executive, and the Planning Authority understand how proposing to change Development Limits yet again undermines the whole concept of having Development Limits to protect our rural villages? Can the Executive and the Planning Authority also see how continuing to allow developments of this size, as would happen in Hambleton on approval of this Revised Plan, means our community will have grown by 62% without any infrastructure or amenities upgrades? This is not sustainable growth, it is reckless.

The Parish Council urges the Executive to direct officers to remove the proposed housing allocations in Hambleton and not to approve the current plan for consultation.’

In response, Councillor Derek Bastiman noted that the level and distribution of new development across the Plan Area is set out in the spatial strategy of the emerging Local Plan and is underpinned by a Settlement Hierarchy. Furthermore, the hierarchy and the allocations to deliver the planned level of growth is underpinned by detailed evidence, set out in the supporting background papers. 

He also believed that the housing allocations for Hambleton are supported by evidence, should remain within the draft plan and be the subject of further statutory consultation. All comments received during the consultation period will be fully considered and addressed before deciding whether to submit the plan to examination.

In a supplementary statement, Councillor Bramley noted that Hambleton is a small village and would like to remain so.

Councillor John McCartney then addressed the Executive, feeling that the Council was being dictated to by housing developers on the viability of the prescribed affordability rate. He emphasised that the Local Plan was so important as it would be referred to for the next 16 years to help shape the growth of the former Selby district area.

He felt young people living in Selby aspiring to get on the housing ladder were unable to do so in the district. He raised the case of a young resident who was struggling to buy a first home in Selby where they were born and brought up, because of the lack of affordable starter homes in the area. Instead, they have now bought a home in Tingley, West Yorkshire and are commuting back to work in the Selby district. He felt that the comparison in the draft plan of the affordable housing rates in Selby to the rest of North Yorkshire was grotesque given its unique characteristics. He suggested in Selby Town, a huge number of houses would be delivered, of which only 5% would be required to be affordable home and only 25% of those affordable dwellings must be First Homes. He also gave an example of a piece of land identified in the current Local Plan for housing, that was the subject of a planning application in November 2023 for just 11 affordable houses. As a new Unitary Council, he had hoped that we could take on the viability assessments from the big builders, but felt sadly it isn’t.

In response, Councillor Derek Bastiman felt that the comments raised could be fed into the Local Development Plan Working Group and determined by the Inspector at the point of the examination in public.

Councillor Melanie Davis began her remarks by declaring a non-pecuniary interest as Chair of a charity that has a piece of land located in the Selby urban area settlement (SELB-BZ) and as the owner of a second home that is let on the open market, with council tax paid by the tenant. She supported the comments made by the public speakers and Councillor John McCartney, as well as noting the meeting of the Area Constituency Committee concerning this item. On particular concern was the lack of key infrastructure and facilities included as part of new housing developments. She also conceded that the 40% affordable housing target set out in the 2013 Core Strategy was always an aspiration, but hoped during the consultation period that there would be time to reconsider what the affordable housing target should be in the draft Local Plan. She also understood the rationale for not delaying the implementation of the Selby Local Plan, and the importance of having one in place

On Heronby, she felt that a new settlement was a better deliverable solution, where it is much easier to build new infrastructure with a new settlement, rather than bolting on to existing developments, but understood the reasons for removing it from the draft Plan.

In response, Councillor Derek Bastiman took onboard the comments made and urged Councillor Melanie Davis and all members of the Selby & Ainsty Area Constituency Committee to feed into the consultation. He looked forward to receiving all comments on the document during the consultation period.

Councillor Simon Myers assured those present that he would study the targets for affordable housing as the relevant Executive member and consult and comment accordingly.

Resolved -

i)        To recommend to Full Council that the Draft Revised Publication Local Plan document at Appendix 1 of this report is approved for consultation in accordance with Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) regulations 2012 (as amended); and

ii)       Delegate to officers the arrangements for the consultation to take place for six weeks between 8 March and 19 April 2024; and

iii)      Delegate to the Head of Policy and Place and Assistant Director of Planning in consultation with the Executive Member for Open to Business, any minor amendments required to the documentation for typographical, grammatical and factual or Plain English purposes and any amendments required to address issues raised in the final HRA and SA reports to the documents prior to publishing for consultation.