Work to start on another Local Plan for St Albans District
Work is to begin this month on a further Local Plan (LP) for the long-term sustainable growth of St Albans District.
St Albans City and District Council is on track to adopt a new LP next month after more than three years of work.
However, during the plan-making process the Government made major changes to national planning policies including the methodology for assessing housing need.
As a consequence, it has now instructed the Council to begin work by the end of June on an LP that conforms to its revised guidelines. The Council is one of 39 local authorities instructed by the Government to do this.
The first stage will be the publication of a timetable, including key dates, with the goal of completing the LP by 2029.
A report on the requirement to start work on a new LP was given to a meeting of the Council’s Planning Policy and Climate Committee on Tuesday 9 June.
Councillor Paul de Kort, the Committee’s Chair and Council Leader, said after the meeting:
It may seem strange that we are embarking on the creation of another Local Plan just as we are due to adopt our first one since 1994 which takes us up to 2041.
However, we have no option but to do this as it is an instruction from central Government.
We were well aware that revisions to national planning policies were on the cards, but it was essential that we continued to work on the LP that we are on track to adopt next month rather than abandon it.
We needed to get this LP in place to deliver more infrastructure, more managed green spaces, more affordable homes, better transport provision and to help protect us from speculative planning applications by developers.
Moreover, if we didn’t push ahead, the Government was threatening to step in and write the LP instead. It was in the best interests of our residents that the LP was produced by locally-elected representatives with a feel for the District rather than distant Whitehall officials.
One other complication is that the Council is scheduled to be abolished in the spring of 2028 and replaced by a new unitary authority before the next new LP can be completed.
Cllr de Kort added: “Again, reorganisation is an issue that is out of our hands. We simply need to get on with the work of devising the next new LP and then hand it over to the new authority to complete.”
The LP scheduled for adoption next month allows for the building of 15,000 new homes in the District at carefully selected sites. This figure conformed to Government guidelines at the time and includes 1,200 social rent properties.
It also provides for £750 million of new infrastructure including eight primary schools, four secondary schools, improvements to public transport, locations for thousands of new jobs, green spaces and health facilities.
Media Contacts: www.stalbans.gov.uk/news-and-whats.