Dear Supporters
Don't forget to submit your questions to the Councillors for the public Q and A session of the Wirral West Constituency Committee meeting at St Chads Church Hall Roslin Road Irby at 7pm on Thursday 14th March.
Questions should be sent to bryngriffiths@wirral.gov.uk by 4pm on Wednesday 13th
We need to inundate them with questions - please do not leave it to others they may be leaving it to you!
You may have seen todays Wirral Globe article in which Councillor George Davies says that "As we go through the process of developing the Local Plan we are becoming more convinced it is possible to develop even more brownfield sites".
Hmmm is there an election coming or something?
There is no requirement to build on ANY Green belt land.
In a recent letter to Phil Davies the Secretary of State for Housing said "I must be clear that the standard method for assessing housing need does not produce a housing target. Authorities should make a realistic assessment of the number of homes their communities need as the starting point in the process. Once this has been established, planning to meet that need will require consideration of land availability, relevant constraints (i.e. Green Belt) and whether the need is more appropriately met in neighbouring areas".
In a recent parliamentary debate Housing Minister Kit Malthouse said that the governments "targets" were not "mandatory". "Any inspector will accept a properly evidenced and assessed variation from that target". "If, for example, you have constraints like Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or Green Belt then an inspector should accept that".
They are not being forced to build on any Green Belt land. If there is not enough Brown Field sites, (and arguably there are plenty) then they simply need to say that land constraints (i.e. Green Belt) is preventing them meeting the housing need calculation and set the "target" accordingly.
Please come to the Wirral West Constituency Committee meeting this Thursday and ask the Councillors why the Barrister being employed by the Council to help prepare the Local Plan (at a reported cost of £135,000) is not preparing a "properly evidenced and assessed variation" from the "target" - if it is something that a Local Plan inspector will accept?
Thank you for your support and we hope to see you at the meeting.
https://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=692&MId=7465&Ver=4