Dear Supporters,
IMPORTANT - PLEASE EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS TO THE COUNCIL – TEMPLATE EMAIL INCLUDED BELOW – IT TAKES JUST A FEW MINUTES
Wirral Council are currently consulting on 4 new “evidence based documents” in support of the Local Plan. The Consultation finishes on 24th July 2020 at 5pm.
It is very important that as many people as possible comment on one of these evidenced based documents in particular – “H6 Exploring the Computation of Housing Need in Wirral in 2020” – commissioned by the Council from Liverpool University.
The report is related to the inflated ‘Housing Need’ figure of 12,000 (calculated by using the “Standard Methodology”) and is arguably the most important because, if the figure is substantially reduced, there can be no justification whatsoever for considering ANY Green Belt Release, and local concerns over particular sites and other aspects should fall away.
The Wirral Green Space Alliance have serious concerns about the content of this University Report which concludes that Wirral DOES NOT have “Exceptional Local Circumstances” to justify a using an alternative approach to calculating housing need, rather than using the Standard Methodology.
The University comes to this conclusion by looking at JUST ONE FACTOR in its search for exceptional circumstances. It has simply compared population statistics and demographics with other Local Planning Authorities. i.e it has simply looked at the data which is input into the “Standard Method”
The University has failed to consider many other factors which could be deemed to be “Exceptional Circumstances”. The study has completed excluded the ‘exceptional circumstances’ of Wirral both in terms of scale of need and opportunity: it has some of the most deprived communities but also has some of the greatest extent of 'brownfield' land in the Country, vacant and convertible land and buildings, inactive and underactive Dockland, an undeveloped and attractive Waterfront, and more. But these factors have not been deemed worthy of study as ‘exceptional circumstances’ by the Council / University
The sheer difference between the 12,000 figure and the much lower range calculated using official local and correct national data with a recognised methodology in itself can be an ‘exceptional circumstance’ (as per legal advice).
Please will you send your comments on the University Report to the Forward Planning Team at localplan@wirral.gov.uk stating your name and address and stating the you are responding to the consultation on “H6 Exploring the Computation of Housing Need in Wirral in 2020”. (You simply have to email, you DO NOT have to use the online portal)
The report can be read via the following link:
A Template email is included below – please insert your own details and amend as you see fit.
Please also copy your local Councillors into your email to ensure that all Councillors are aware of the issue.
Thank you for your help and support, it really is important that as many people as possible comment on this report!
TEMPLATE EXAMPLE EMAIL – email to localplan@wirral.gov.uk:
“To The Forward Planning Team
Response to Consultation on report “H6 Exploring the Computation of Housing Need in Wirral in 2020” by Liverpool University
Dear Sirs, I would like to register my comments on the above report.
I believe that this report is flawed for the following reasons:
The report does not make comparisons of different methodologies for computing Housing Need on the Wirral. It only focuses on one method i.e “The Standard Methodology”
The report seeks to answer the question “are there exceptional circumstances on the Wirral?” The University comes to it’s conclusion by looking at JUST ONE FACTOR in its search for exceptional circumstances. It has simply compared population statistics and demographics with other Local Planning Authorities. i.e it has simply looked at the data which is input into the “Standard Method”
The University has failed to consider many other factors which could be deemed to be “Exceptional Circumstances”. The study has completed excluded the ‘exceptional circumstances’ of Wirral both in terms of scale of need and opportunity: it has some of the most deprived communities but also some of the greatest extent of 'brownfield' land in the Country, vacant and convertible land and buildings, inactive and underactive Dockland, an undeveloped and attractive Waterfront, and more. But these factors have not been deemed worthy of study as ‘exceptional circumstances’ by the Council / University
The sheer difference between the 12,000 figure (calculated by the Standard Methodology)and the much lower range calculated using official local and correct national data with a recognised methodology, in itself, can be an ‘exceptional circumstance’ (as per legal advice), but this has not been recognised in the report.
The Council has confirmed that there are sufficient Brownfield sites (but they need to clear constraints and secure funding) and that it now wishes to avoid ANY Green Belt Release. In these circumstances, I believe that this University Report should not have restricted the search for ‘exceptional circumstances’ (to facilitate a lower additional Housing Supply target and concentration on Regeneration) to just one aspect, the narrowest of factors, namely ‘Standard Method’ variables and inputs?
This University Report also does not explain why earlier University Reports HAD concluded that a ‘local assessment of housing need’ was very much lower than 12,000.
I believe that the following circumstances should also be explored as an “exceptional circumstance”…
****Insert here”
((but could include the Climate Emergency, COVID 19 and the likely economic recession, the shortage of green spaces as highlighted by the COVID 19 lockdown, the amount of Brownfield sites on the Wirral especially in the Dockland Areas, the social deprivation in the North and East of the Borough, Wirral Waters which already has planning permission for 13000 houses and is one of the largest Brownfield sites in the Country, the number of vacant houses and convertible premises on the Wirral etc.
Kind regards
****Insert name and address here and state that you are a resident”