On Thursday night the Planning Policy committee met as part of its normal quarterly cycle. Normally we don't get many (any) members of the public turning up. However the public gallery on this occasion if not packed was definitely busier than normal. Their interest had been sparked by the agenda item concerning the Council's proposal to carry out a Strategical Housing Land Availability Assessment or SHLAA (pronounced Shlar). This piece of work, mandated by central government, is necessary to see whether we need to identify sites for housing development, and if so to hep inform the assessment as to where. The catch is that it is a consultative process and allows developers to suggest sites too.
Understandably there was concern that having fought off Developers attempt to develop Green Belt land in the Core Strategy they might be able to get back in the game via this process. However, the discussion at the meeting provided much in way of reassurance. The Director of Planning confirmed that we would be able to resist attempts to build on strategic gaps between settlements (the whole raison d'etre of the green belt) and on isolated plots. It is also appeared clear that should we need to allocated specific sites, then it is highly likely there would be more than enough brownfield plots available to meet the long term allocation of the District.
So all in all, while this process is important, it is highly unlikely that any green-belt land will be impacted.
