News Round-Up - 8 August 2007
New Thames bridge plan goes to a second inquiry
Proposals for a new road bridge over the River Thames between Beckton and Thamesmead in the Thames Gateway housing growth area will have to be reassessed at a second public inquiry, Communities secretary Hazel Blears has decided.
In a decision letter she said the first hearing had failed to provide adequate information about the impact of traffic and regeneration on existing communities.
Linking Newham and Greenwich in east London, the £385 million bridge is a key element in plans to regenerate a 40-mile-wide area of the capital, Essex and Kent.
London mayor Ken Livingstone and the planning authorities most directly affected have voiced concern at the delay to the project but environmentalists and Green councillors on the London Assembly have welcomed Blears' decision.
Read the decision letter (PDF, 76Kb)
St Helen's scheme go-ahead
After a call-in, Communities secretary Hazel Blears has allowed a mainly residential mixed use redevelopment on a 52 hectare site in St Helens. The £140 million scheme will transform an area of derelict and partly contaminated land at Moss Nook, Sutton. The decision letter made it clear that the loss of existing playing fields would be mitigated by the provision of alternative sporting facilities.
Elephant and Castle regeneration milestone
Southwark Council has chosen a consortium of Lend Lease, First Base and Oakmayne as its development partner for the £1.5 billion transformation of London's Elephant and Castle area into a thriving centre comprising housing, shops, parks and gardens. The project represents the capital's largest ever development by a single borough and covers some 170 acres in and around the existing 1960s shopping centre and linked high-rise housing.
Read the Southwark council press release
Land use statistics
Latest Government land use statistics indicate that 74 per cent of new dwellings built in England during 2006 were on previously-developed land, including conversions. This compares with 77 per cent a year earlier. The average density was 41 dwellings per hectare, a slight increase on the 40 per hectare figure recorded a year earlier.
Read Land Use Change in England: Residential Development to 2006 (PDF, 176Kb)
Tougher building control enforcement
The Government has begun consulting on proposals designed to strengthen the powers available to local authorities to tackle illegal or botched construction. Under new plans the time limit in which a prosecution could be brought could be extended from six months as at present to two years.
HiP move
The Government's new requirement for a Home Information Pack for all home sales of properties with four or more bedrooms came into force on 1 August.
Eco-home not green enough
A ten-year battle to obtain planning permission for an 'eco-home' at Brithdir Mawr near Newport in Pembrokeshire has taken a new twist now the round house has been refused retrospective planning permission by the local planning authority.
The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park has refused the single-room home (dubbed the Hobbit House by locals), based on a Celtic layout, on the grounds it did not meet the Park's recently approved Low Impact Development Policy. The planning authority wants the building demolished but the owner has signalled his intention to appeal to the Welsh Assembly Government.
Read the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority news release
Four Scottish strategic planning authorities mooted
Scottish planning minister Stewart Stevenson has announced proposals to create four new strategic development planning authorities for the country's largest city regions in and around Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The proposed new authorities would produce new strategic development plans that would replace existing structure plans.
Read the Scottish Executive news release
Bungalow demolished after enforcement action
A bungalow built without planning permission at Cookstown in Northern Ireland has been demolished following enforcement action by the Planning Service. Had the owner, who unsuccessfully applied for retrospective planning permission, not complied he would have faced a maximum fine of £30,000.
Read the Planning Service press release
Service families' conversion allowed
Councillors at Mole Valley District Council went against the advice of officials and have approved plans to convert a seven-bedroom house in Ashtead, Surrey, into a facility for a services personnel charity.
The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association applied to convert the dwelling so it can be used by relatives of people being treated at the nearby Headley Court rehabilitation Centre near Epsom.
Some residents had objected to the scheme and council planners said the proposals would adversely impact the quiet, peaceful nature of the existing area.
However, members voted unanimously to back the conversion work which was the subject of huge media interest and a Downing Street petition signed by more than 43,000 people.
More information from Mole Valley District Council website
Firing range move rejected
Members of Denbighshire Council have narrowly voted to reject plans by North Wales Police to use a firing range located in a disused quarry on bank holidays and at weekends.
The police wanted to amend an existing condition of the permission so classroom sessions and team-building exercises could take place on non-weekdays.
Planning officials had recommended approval but councillors refused the application over which some residents had noise concerns.
Back in business
The Belfast Planning Office of the Planning Services at Bedford House has been re-opened to the public after a fire last month.
UK's biggest energy crop plan
ScottishPower has announced plans for the UK's largest energy crop scheme which could use around 12 per cent of Scotland's total agricultural land for cereal crops and willow coppice which will be burned in the company's two coal-fired power stations to produce electricity.
Planning Inspectorate directors
The Government and the Welsh Assembly Government have announced two new non-executive directors for the Planning Inspectorate and the reappointment of Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation as a non-executive director.
The two new directors are Deep Sagar, a board member of the Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation and a member of the Casino Advisory Panel and Jane Earl, a former local authority chief executive and interim chief executive of the Rich Mix Arts Centre.
Capital community land trust
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has announced that the London Development Agency is working with Tower Hamlets Council to establish a housing-led scheme involving 100 affordable homes using the community land trust model. This will be the first time such an initiative has been developed in the capital.
Flood protection
Proposals to spend £16 million on additional flood prevention measures at Forres in Morayshire have been approved by Michael Russell, the Scottish minister for the environment.
Top Tory wants more homes
Former Conservative environment secretary John Gummer MP has argued that the Government's latest target for new housing provision is too small and should be increased from 240,000 annually by 2016 to 300,000 every year "as soon as possible".
The former cabinet minister who is chairing one of the party's major policy reviews called for the bigger target in his weekly column in the Estates Gazette (28 July).
Roger Milne
3 August 2007
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