Whist we are all familiar with delays in publishing local plan progress, Winchester City Council has actually brought forward the council meeting from 30th September to 28th August. That meeting will decide whether it consults on its latest version of its Local plan. The plan is designed to guide development in Winchester District through to 2040, and the consultation will last for 6 weeks.
At its Cabinet meeting on 19th August, it was made clear to councillors that there were two options; The first was to pause work on the existing local plan and start to consider how it would be amended to accommodate the new housing requirements in the proposed changes to the NPPF. Officers explained that the government suggests that if this approach is adopted the work would have to be completed within 18 months. It is entirely uncertain if this would be possible because in reality it would mean something like a complete re-write of the draft local plan and much of the evidence base. During the period of this work the Council would be without an up to date local plan and, in accordance with policy of the NPPF be required to apply a tilted planning balance when deciding any application. Officers advised that this would mean it would be very difficult to resist speculative applications from developers and would lead to a period of “planning by appeal” over which the council would have little control. The second alternative was to ensure that this plan is submitted to the government for examination very quickly, before the draft NPPF is published as settled policy. This would mean that once the Local Plan was adopted, probably early next year Winchester City Council would be required immediately to begin work on a new local plan that meets the new housing requirements.
Director Brett Spiller commented; “This shows the stark choice some Councils have at this stage of their local plan preparation. Even if approved for consultation at their meeting on the 28th August, it is clear that work will need to commence on a new local plan, in the new year, using the revised method of calculating housing need”.