The Planning Inspector has refused a request by the Elmbridge Liberal Democrat and Resident Association Councillors for a 12–15 month timetable to rework the draft Local Plan.
This is likely to either result in the Local Plan being declared "unsound" or the Plan itself having to be withdrawn and rewritten. Dither and delay by the Lib Dem run Council has resulted in this untenable situation which further jeopardises the green belt across the borough.
The 'Local Plan' allows the Council to control where new building can take place around the borough, avoiding a developer free-for-all and offering vital protections for green spaces.
Following two stages of the Examination in Public process of the draft Local Plan, the inspector wrote to Elmbridge Council to say that the plan is ‘unsound’ in its current form. This means that she will not approve the plan without significant changes.
So - after six years of dither and delay by Liberal Democrat run Elmbridge, it is back to the drawing board with regards to producing an acceptable Local Plan.
If the Lib Dems had passed a plan before the change of Government, the annual house building target for Elmbridge would have been 650 houses. Under Labour is likely to be 1,443 houses per year - more than double.
Dither and delay by the Lib Dem run Council has resulted in this untenable situation which further jeopardises the green belt across the borough.