Core Strategy Examination will continue, inspector rules
Archived press release
Date Published: 23/02/10
The council has to identify land for 26,890 more homes by 2026
An examination into the future of planning development in Aylesbury Vale will continue, following a ruling by an independent inspector.
Geoff Salter, the planning inspector leading the examination into Aylesbury Vale District Council’s Core Strategy, has ruled that the document is legally compliant as far as the procedures and processes followed.
This ruling was made in response to legal challenge submissions from the developer promoting the Fleet Marston site, which is currently not scheduled for development. If Mr Salter had ruled in the objectors favour, it could have resulted in the suspension of the hearings whilst the council carried out more work on the development options.
Councillor Carole Paternoster, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, said: “We believed that we had followed all the correct procedures as we prepared our Core Strategy and we are obviously pleased that the inspector has found this to be the case. This challenge from developers, whose site is not included for development, would have introduced significant delays at this late stage and created uncertainty for communities throughout the district.”
The public examination will continue as scheduled and Mr Salter has made it clear that he will be assessing the soundness of the Core Strategy with an open mind after reflecting on the evidence of all the parties involved.
The next hearing sessions are on 11 March (dealing with the town centre strategy) and 12 March (dealing with employment). The inspector has now programmed further sessions to deal with those aspects of the growth of Aylesbury not covered so far, starting on 30 March.
The council approved its draft core strategy in May 2009 and, as well as highlighting where potential infrastructure and businesses could be located, it also outlines key housing areas where large scale developments could take place in order to fulfil the house-building numbers for Aylesbury Vale, set out by the government in the South East Plan.
AVDC must identify sufficient land across the district to meet the South East Plan’s requirement for 26,890 more homes by 2026. Two of the major proposals within the core strategy concern provision of 9,250 new homes to the east of Aylesbury and a further 5,390 homes to the north of Newton Longville. The examination will look at these development sites in some detail as part of the discussion. It will take into account evidence submitted by the council and comments from residents sent in via the earlier public consultation on the core strategy as a whole and on the allocated housing sites.
Full details of the hearings and the submissions made can be found on the council’s website by following the link below.