Object
Harborough Local Plan 2011-2031, Proposed Submission
Representation ID: 5811
Received: 30/10/2017
Respondent: Mr Paul Johnson
Legally compliant? No
Sound? No
Duty to co-operate? Yes
The size of a settlement in terms of the number of households has no bearing whatsoever on its sustainability if the level of services within or nearby it (as per the Framework) to indicate the development is otherwise sustainable. In the absence of any specific justification or evidence to say that the number of households has any practical bearing or other constraint to housing delivery, it is unclear why this is being heralded as an additional barrier to housing delivery - so not being positively prepared as a result.
We Object to the criteria for defining Other Villages and Rural Settlements - see table D.23.
It is unclear why the size of a settlement in terms of household numbers has any bearing whatsoever in terms of its sustainability, as set out and defined in the Framework. This policy is currently unjustified and without evidential basis accordingly.
Previous versions of this policy i.e. the currently adopted Core Strategy had a very similar policy considering sustainability of settlements by way of the number and nature of services contained therein or nearby, but there is nothing regarding the size of the settlement to further restrict housing delivery.
If a settlement has a suitable range of services to meet day to day or wider needs, why, purely as a function of its scale, does this render it less sustainable in planning terms, This does not make logical sense, Further this policy as drafted acts as a barrier to housing delivery in otherwise sustainable locations (as per the Framework definition) as a result.