News round-up 19 June 2008
Local plan progress
Latest figures from the Planning Inspectorate indicate that eight per cent of councils have had their core strategies approved, four years after the introduction of the new local development plan regime.
The new Planning Policy Statement 12 on local spatial plans means that local plans - which collectively map out the future development of the whole country - must now be more firmly based on a shared vision created with the involvement of public agencies, businesses, voluntary groups and local people.
Councils and their partners will agree these local priorities through close engagement including public meetings, resident's panels, consultations and online forums to produce a Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) and an LDF Core Strategy.
So far 29 core strategies have been found sound. To date eight core strategies have been adjudged to be "unsound" and planning authorities have withdrawn 18.
Currently the Inspectorate is processing 25 core strategies and anticipates that by 2010 some 56 per cent of authorities should have core strategies in place. A total of nine authorities have completed their entire Local Development Framework 'package'.
Property search working group
Communities and local Government has set up a working group to take forward the recommendations of a report from Ted Beardsall, deputy chief executive of the Land Registry, which looked at current problems with local property searches and leasehold information.
Access the report and working group information.
Green power plant
Helius Energy has been granted consent by energy minister Malcolm Wicks to build a 65-megawatt, biomass-fuelled power station at Stallingborough on the south side of the Humber estuary.
Sheffield regeneration plan
British Land has submitted its River Don District master plan for an area south and east of the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield. The proposals include up to 1,300 new homes, flats, some 1.2m sq ft of offices, a hotel, a neighborhood centre and a linear park.
Go to the British Land River Don District application web pages.
Turbine breakthrough
The Government and the wind power industry have reached a landmark agreement which should lessen the aviation and radar objections to new wind farms. A Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed between the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory reform, the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Transport, the Civil Aviation Authority, NATS and the British Wind Energy Association.
They have agreed to explore innovative technological solutions including radio absorbent wind turbine technology and to make use of a web-based screening tool to help speed-up the early stages of planning.
Six more 'at risk' sites identified
English Heritage has confirmed it has added six buildings and landscapes to its 'at risk' register which is due to be published next month.
The additions include Uxbridge Lido in west London, Lowther Castle and Birkrigg Stone Circle, both in Cumbria, and the Newbury battlefield, an important Civil War site. Part of Pindale lead mine in Derbyshire and the Salcombe Cannon site, off the coast of Devon, are also now included. For the first time the at risk register will cover Grade II listed buildings as well as maritime wrecks.
Read the news release on Heritage at Risk.
Lap dancing clubs face new controls
The Government has signalled that it plans to change the rules surrounding lap-dancing clubs to make it easier for local communities to object to proposals.
A large number of MPs have signed a Commons Early Day Motion calling for action and Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods has introduced a 10-minute rule Bill to tighten up the licensing of 'sex-encounter establishments'.
Liverpool shops revamp approved
Land Securities' proposed revamp of the St John’s Centre, Liverpool's largest covered shopping mall, have been given the green light. The company's plans include two-storey malls, more natural light for shoppers, and a new food terrace overlooking Clayton Square, which Land Securities also owns.
Hull swing bridge approved
Plans for a new £6.6m swing footbridge across the River Hull have been approved by the Department for Transport.
Minister lets fly over green group barrage opposition
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks has taken a side-swipe at environmental groups – and singled out the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds – over opposition to renewable energy schemes like the proposed Severn barrage.
Wicks told the Parliamentary Welsh Grand Committee: "It is the duty of a sensible NGO supported by the public that occasionally they say yes to projects and are not always seeking the comfort zone of saying no to a barrage, no to a wind farm, no to this, no to that."
He told Welsh MPs that the scheme would be dropped if it failed environmental and economic tests.
Earls Court all-change
Ambitious proposals for a mixed-use scheme which would mean the levelling of the existing Earls Court conference centre in west London and the provision of up to 20m sq ft of new development, including homes, offices and retail use, is being worked up by Capital & Counties for a 70 acre site bounded by North End Road and Lillie Road.
Opencast protest
Environmental protestors have occupied part of a Derbyshire site scheduled to become an opencast mine. UK Coal is planning to develop the opencast site at Ripley.
Roger Milne
19 June 2008
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