Harborough Local Plan 2011-2031, Proposed Submission

Object

Representation ID: 7400

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

The Duty to Cooperate statement published alongside the Proposed Submission Plan refers to a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which is being prepared by the Leicester and Leicestershire authorities and is likely to be completed in January 2018. With unmet need having already been identified within the HMA, the distribution of this unmet need will need to be addressed through both the SGP and updated MOU. There are therefore still considerable
uncertainties regarding the distribution of housing growth across the HMA and Harborough District Council may still be required to accommodate a proportion of the identified unmet housing need.
As the Harborough District Plan is being advanced before these issues have been fully resolved, this is considered to be an unsound basis upon which to prepare the Harborough District Local Plan.

Object

Representation ID: 7403

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Gladman consider that Objective 1 should be reworded slightly to state that the Local Plan will meet the housing needs of the district in full and meet a proportion of the identified unmet housing needs of the HMA as a whole.

Support

Representation ID: 7404

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Gladman support the Harborough Local Plan Vision and in particular the statement that in 2031 residents will benefit from increased access to suitable housing, a wider range of local skilled jobs and high quality services and facilities.
Gladman also support the main focus for development being the market towns, the settlements near the edge of Leicester, Broughton Astley and the rural centres.

Support

Representation ID: 7406

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Gladman support the Spatial Strategy as set out in Policy SS1 including the identification of Fleckney as a Rural Centre and Great Bowden as a Selected Rural Village which will be one of the main focuses for rural development.

Support

Representation ID: 7407

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Gladman consider the Local Plan to be justified in identifying land to deliver a minimum of 12,800 dwellings in order to provide a 15% contingency in the supply of housing land in order to allow for possible future circumstances affect the supply of housing in the district.
Gladman have some concerns with the Local Plan providing about 790 dwellings on non-allocated sites or sites to be allocated in Neighbourhood Plans as there is no guarantee that this source of housing land supply will actually be delivered. In order to ensure that the Local Plan is actually deliverable. The Council will need robust evidence to prove that this source of supply will come forward within the plan period.

Support

Representation ID: 7408

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Gladman are fully supportive of the inclusion of the policy on Sustainable Development. The ethos of sustainable development is key to assessing planning proposals, it is the golden thread running through the NPPF.

Object

Representation ID: 7411

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Whilst Gladman support in principle Policy GD2, we object to criterion (a) which sets an arbitrary target for growth in individual settlements based upon the proposal not cumulatively leading to the housing requirement set out in the Local Plan being exceeded by more than 10%. Criterion is unnecessary and contrary to NPPF as it artificially restricts potentially sustainable development from coming forward. The remaining criteria in Policy GD2 provide sufficient protection against unsustainable development including ensuring that the proposal reflects the size of settlement concerned and level of service provision within (criterion (b))and that it respects the form and character of settlement (criterion (c)).

Support

Representation ID: 7412

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Clause (b) of Policy GD5 sets out that proposals should avoid the loss of features of landscape, townscape, historic/heritage, wildlife or geological importance. Whilst this is understandable, it should be recognised that any adverse impacts that a proposal has on these issues should be factored into the planning balance when making a decision rather than it being a sole reason for refusing any application.

Object

Representation ID: 7414

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Green wedges within Leicester and Leicestershire are a strategic issue to be considered through the Duty to Cooperate and the Strategic Growth Plan to ensure that development needs can be met in full across the HMA.
Green wedge designations are not referred to in national policy, however they are not in of themselves inconsistent with the Framework. Notwithstanding this, the
boundaries of green wedges are often historic in nature due to them having been formulated alongside the now outdated evidence of development needs that underpinned previous local plans.

Object

Representation ID: 7416

Received: 16/11/2017

Respondent: Gladman Developments

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Gladman have some concerns with Policy GD8 and in particular with criterion e(ii). This criterion relates to noise, pollution etc. not having an adverse impact on amenity. This is considered to be contrary to guidance set out in the Framework as paragraph 109 refers specifically to development not causing unacceptable risk or being affected by unacceptable levels of soil, air, water or noise pollution. Criterion e(ii) of Policy GD8 should therefore be reworded to reflect this guidance.