Chapman Lily Planning reported on Councillor Walsh’s verbal update to Cabinet at the end of July, where it was purported that discussions between the Council Leader, Cllr Spencer-Flower and Michael Gove, then Secretary of State, had led to agreement on a pilot project – pushing back the timetable for the Local Plan and allowing for flexibility in housing numbers.
On Tuesday a spokesperson, for the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities [“DLUHC”] said that no such an agreement had been made and that Dorset had merely ‘asked’ it if it could change the rules.
A Dorset Council spokesperson has now clarified that its original statement was wrong and blamed ‘human error’. The spokesperson said: ‘We omitted words in the [statement] that talks about the pilot – we should have said “We have asked for” it. It was just human error that this got past the sign-off procedure.’ It is understood that DLUHC objected to Councillor Walsh’s statement, stating: ‘This removes the misunderstanding that we had agreed for Dorset to be a pilot, which is incorrect.’
Dorset Council’s revised statement now reads: ‘We have asked for Dorset to be a pilot for a new national approach to local plans being introduced through revised national policy and legislation.’
Brett Spiller, Director for Chapman Lily Planning commented ‘The error was a significant one, not least in raising public expectations and creating confusion amongst those heavily invested in the Local Plan process. We now have a period of further hiatus, whilst the Council decide what it intends to do in the absence of any agreement or clear support from the Secretary of State. All the time we are left with legacy local plans that are no longer fit for purpose or reflect the future needs of the area, be it well-being, access to nature, the economy, housing and / or infrastructure. We need leadership and for responsibilities to be taken seriously. Planning is never going to be a populous, vote winning issue’.
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