Council’s consultation confusion

It seems that the York Council is pursuing a policy of overkill with many and various public consultations currently underway.

There is already some scepticism among residents about whether it is even worth responding to the Council’s questions. A recent survey found that the majority of respondents didn’t want to see any major change to traffic signal arrangements at the St Leonard Place/Bootham junction. The views were largely ignored when a decision on changes was shelved until the autumn.

Meanwhile, the ill timed (but well intentioned) Groves experimental traffic scheme is still in operation and attracting comments. It was implemented at the height of the pandemic when streets were virtually free of traffic. It is likely to be 6 months before a “new normal” is established and the true impact of the road closures becomes apparent. In the meantime ambulances and other emergency vehicles are forced use an unnecessarily longer route.

The Council is now trying to promote it’s ” My City Centre” survey.

With the York City centre beginning to get back to normal a cautious approach to change is needed.

It says the questions are aimed at shaping “a people-focused, business-friendly city centre where people love to spend time, live and work“. You can complete the survey visit My City Centre York.

There is more than a sneaking suspicion that the questions simply replicate the Castle Gateway approach which started in 2018. There a seemingly endless stream of questions were apparently aimed at wearing down non conformist opposition.

The best test of the voracity of any survey is whether it offers the status quo as an option!

The Council has had little option but to start consultation again on its Local Plan.

Planning inspectors have asked for the six-week consultation period before examining the plan at public hearing sessions later this year.

The consultation will ask for comments on additional evidence and modifications submitted since the ‘Phase 1 hearings in 2019’, including the recent submission of the Green Belt Topic Paper Addendum (2021).

To have your say, visit Local Plan Consultation. The consultation will end at midnight on Wednesday 7 July 2021.

Consultation on “York’s Community Woodland” finished yesterday. It ran for over 6 weeks without managing to answer key questions about how much each of the options would cost and where the funding would come from. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YorkWoodland

Another consultation which closed on 11th May relates to changes to recycling arrangements. The proposed 3 weekly collection system attracted one of the highest response rates ever seen. Whether the Council decides to go ahead with the changes, despite the concerns raised, may be the defining moment for the present Council. A decision is due on 24th June.

Other current consultation ca be found by clicking this link

York Council’s Green Belt submission

City of York Council has submitted more information about the definition of the city’s green belt to the Planning Inspector examining the local plan.

The council submitted the explanation of how it defines the outer boundary of the green belt, with explanations of other green belt boundaries set to follow. Officers also issued the timetable to deliver all the remaining additional information requested by Government inspectors by the end of April.

Having received the bulk of this information in December and January, inspectors have previously indicated that the examination is likely to progress to online consultation over the new information, followed by further hearing sessions, most likely to be held in summer at the earliest.

The council has published the submitted evidence on its key decisions page, which will be added to the latest correspondence on the examinations webpage www.york.gov.uk/localplanexamination shortly.

Mission Impossible 2

The black farce that is the York Local Plan process has taken a step sideways.

A letter from the appointed inspectors has ordered the Council to consult on the recent changes it has made to documents which should by now have been formally approved and implemented.

The consultation will take up to 6 weeks to complete.

It can only start as and when the Council gets round to publishing details of the latest changes that it proposes to make to the City’s Green Belt boundaries.

The Inspectors letter can be read by clicking here.

The letter concludes by saying that the examination in public will not recommence until June at the earliest. It will probably be held as a “virtual” (on-line) meeting.

We have said before, the Local Plan process is fundamentally flawed.

It is based on the proposition that it is possible to predict the economic and social changes which will occur over a 20 year period.

BREXIT and the pandemic have put paid to that notion.

We would all struggle to predict how the York economy will look this time next year, let alone in 2040.

Yet the Local Plan could see vast swathes of the City blighted as planners seek to allocate sites to house 790 additional families each year.

That level of job growth to support such inward migration is simply is not going to happen in the post pandemic world.

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A Local Plan for York – Mission Impossible?

UPDATE – New representations have now been made by the York Council to the Planning Inspector. They can be viewed by clicking here

The latest exchange of correspondence, between planning inspectors appointed by the government and the City of York Council, on the proposed “Local Plan” simply serves to highlight how difficult it is to produce a robust proposal which can stand the test of time.

*Controversial plan was to have been determined in February 2019.*

The latest exchange concerns apparent lack of justification for the Green Belt boundaries. These heavily influence the size of the area allocated for new housing in the City.

It is not a new argument.

It is nearly 20 years since York embarked on an attempt to update its strategic plan. It came close to success in 2011 when a proposal was ready to be sent off to the planning inspectorate.

Of the five drafts that have seen the light of day, this was perhaps the one which achieved the broadest consensus. It envisaged building an additional 575 homes in the City each year for 30 years

In the main it was some developers and the political fringe who objected to it.

A change of political control saw an inexperienced Labour administration adopt a new proposal which would have seen the City increase in size by 25%. The stance contributed to them being booted out of office 4 years later.

Another attempt was made but was again jeopardised by the unexpected (in this case the decision to close barracks in the City).

It would be 2019 before the revised plan was ready to be submitted.

It still included a higher growth rate for housing than was necessary to sustain the existing City. It anticipated large amounts of “inward migration” to fill the extra jobs and homes that were envisaged. But again, changing government policies, unstable population growth forecasts and then coronavirus combined to halt the final “examination in public” part of the process.

Now the inspector wants the Council to withdraw its proposals and start again. That would mean more delay, plus expenditure of another £x million for taxpayers with no guarantee that a plan would be approved at the end of the process.

Planning inspectors are paid a fee of around £1000 a day! Some may feel that they have a vested interest in prevarication

The Council has opted to try to provide more information to move things forward.

There are vested interests at work for whom delays are an advantage.

Lack of a strategic blueprint means that developers can chance their arm by submitting planning applications on wholly unsuitable sites in the Green Belt. Schemes at Moor Lane and Boroughbridge Road are recent examples.

Getting a Local Plan adopted is pretty much impossible given the current high level of central government interference.

The City needs to be able to get on and determine its own future. The ballot box provides a safety net against the adoption of extreme policies.

What will happen, before the detached hand of a North Yorkshire Mayor tries to seize the reins of power, remains to be seen.

Hopefully the Council and the planning inspector will now find a way to move forward more quickly.

York’s Local Plan – Inspectors comments

Government inspectors have written to the York Council highlighting issues with the methodology used to establish the detail of the York Green Belt boundary.

They have however confirmed the general boundaries to be those defined in long standing regional strategies

The main issue – the number of additional homes required in the area – still remains open to criticism. Population growth estimates have gradually reduced in recent years although the Councils plan still seeks to allocate sites for 20,000 additional homes. The impact of the coronavirus scare is expected to further reduce house building demands in the City.

The examination itself has been held up during lock-down and it remains very unclear when, or even if, it will recommence.

The letter, which has been published by City of York Council today, follows examination hearings on several key aspects of the plan, including the duty to co-operate, housing numbers and the spatial strategy and Green Belt issues. The letter invites a response from the Council on aspects of the approach it has taken to define York’s Green Belt boundaries.

The Council says “it has already begun this work and has formally responded to the planning inspectors to thank them for their work so far. To progress the Local Plan, City of York will continue to work with the planning inspectors to justify the approach taken to define York’s greenbelt boundaries”.

“The proposed plan looks to deliver over 20,000 homes over the next 20 years, including up to 4000 more affordable homes, and prioritises development on brownfield sites. The plan will also create around 650 new jobs per year, whilst crucially defining the greenbelt boundaries in planning law for the first time since the 1950s”.

The draft Local Plan was submitted to the Secretary of State on 25 May 2018. Since submission, there has been ongoing correspondence between the Council and the Inspectors.

Phased hearing sessions started in December 2019. This phase focused on legal compliance and in-principle matters relating to York’s housing requirement, spatial distribution and approach to Green Belt.

The full letter can be viewed at www.york.gov.uk/localplan

Council must get to grips with planning system

Today’s announcement of a plan to build on greenbelt land between Acomb and Poppleton highlights the problems that lockdown is bringing for the planning system in the City.

An application for a major new development on Boroughbridge Road has been submitted.

The Councils Local Plan never got beyond the preliminary stages of a hearing in public before restrictions caused proceedings to be suspended.

As so much of the Plan depends on – now impossibly unrealistic – assumptions about economic growth and the demand for extra housing that will bring not surprisingly some objectors are calling for a new plan to be developed.

But that would leave the City without a basis on which to judge individual applications for a period of 5 years or longer. It would also involve enormous cost which the taxpayer can ill afford. It isn’t even certain when revised ONS population figures could be published reflecting what is now called he “new normal”.

The “new normal” won’t be clear for at least a year.

Against that background, some developers are spotting the main chance and seeking to exploit the chaos in the planning system. Losing large chunks of the Green Belt to avarice would be a disaster for the City.

The Council only has itself to blame. They bounced their own Lowfields development – much of which is being built on playing fields – through the system before it could be subject to a proper public inquiry. The Council may, therefore, find it difficult to defend its position, if significant numbers of appeals are lodged against planning applications even if they have been rejected locally.

This also raises the issue of the role of the planning committee.

At least on “meeting” of the committee will be held later this month (21st May at 10.30am) to consider an application at the hospital. Many of its members will not be allowed to participate in what will be a “remote” meeting.

Instead what the Council terms a proportional sample will make decisions (Cllrs (Cullwick, Chair, Pavlovic, Vice Chair, Ayre, Hollyer, Perrett, Kilbane and D’Agorne). The “proportion is based on the relative strength of the political parties represented on the Council. However planning decisions should not be determined by party political priorities. Each application should be judged on its merits.

Several Conservative and Independent members are therefore being excluded from the process, ostensibly on the basis that the more who log in the greater the risk of technical failure.

It may be that the hospital application will prove to be uncontroversial. The only outstanding application is for the erection of vascular imaging unit on Wigginton Road. The application was submitted last August. The only significant issue appears to relate to drainage.

But there are other controversial proposals in the pipeline. The Acomb/Poppleton proposals may be the tip of the iceberg.

A more inclusive way of making decisions is required.

NB. We were sorry to learn of the passing recently of Rachel Macefield who was the lead planning officer for the Council on the York Local Plan. Our condolences to her family and friends.

York Local Plan Inquiry goes ahead

Following notification of the General Election to be held on 12 December 2019 the Planning Inspectorate has issued guidance stating that Local Plan examinations should proceed as planned.

There had been speculation that the examination would be suspended until after 12th December.

The hearings into the City of York Local Plan will therefore commence at 10.00 am on Tuesday 10 December 2019, as previously notified

Phase 1 of hearings of the City of York Local Plan will commence at 10.00am on Tuesday 10 December 2019 in the Gimcrack Room at York Racecourse at Knavesmire Road, York YO23 1EX.

Further details can be found via this link.

York’s Local Plan – public hearings to take place from December

A framework to guide and promote development, and to protect the quality of city’s unique historic, natural and built environment will take a step forward from December.

Appointed planning inspectors will undertake an independent examination of York’s Local Plan, which will commence with initial hearing sessions at York Racecourse, from Tuesday 10 December from 10am.

More information about the hearings including a detailed timetable for the sessions is available to view at: www.york.gov.uk/localplanexamination

The Local Plan sets strategic priorities for the whole city and forms the basis for planning decisions; it must be reviewed at regular intervals to be kept up to date.

Cllr Keith Aspden, Leader of the Council, said: “The draft Local Plan is one of the most significant strategic documents for our city, as it will determine how York develops over the next 20 years.

“We have been working hard to progress York’s Local Plan and I welcome these public hearings in taking this next step towards adopting a Local Plan for York.

“We remain determined to secure a Local Plan for York that delivers more homes and economic space, whilst protecting the unique character of the city.”

A number of informal debates (hearing sessions) will take place on the principal matters identified by the inspectors.

The initial hearing sessions will cover key matters such as legal compliance, housing need and the York Green Belt.

Participants will be on an invitation basis only, but the hearings themselves are open to members of the public to attend.

The inspectors will take into account the comments submitted to-date, as far as they relate to soundness considerations such as whether the plan is justified, effective and consistent with national policy.

Following the closure of the hearings, the inspectors will prepare a report to the council with precise recommendations, these recommendations may include modifications to the plan.

All other aspects of the plan will be examined by the inspectors during the subsequent hearing sessions, which could take place early next year.

All correspondence with the planning inspectors is available to view at: www.york.gov.uk/localplanexamination

Local Plan inquiry dates set. Askham Bog appeal imminent

A planning appeal into the York Council’s refusal to allow a development near Askham Bog will start on 12th November.

The potential developers (Barwood Land) refused to wait for the results of the public hearing into the York Local Plan (which protects the area near Moor Lane in Dringhouses from development). Instead they have pressed ahead with their planning application.

The Local Plan Inspectors are now preparing for the first stage of hearings, which will address legal compliance including the Duty to Co-operate, Housing Need and Green Belt. Provisional dates have been agreed with the Inspectors for these initial hearings to be held on selected days over a two week period, commencing on Monday 9 December 2019 at York Racecourse.

The Inspectors will shortly be issuing the Council with their Matters, Issues and Questions (MIQs) which will be published on the examination library (link above) along with the Council’s response to these questions. The Inspectors will also produce a hearing timetable giving more detail on the hearing sessions including the schedule for each day.

Representors (all those who commented on the Plan during the Regulation 19 Publication consultation and the Proposed Modifications Consultation) will be given the required formal notice (6 weeks) when the dates and venue have been finalised.

We will also update the examination library with these dates and will issue a press release with details of the dates and venue and where to find more information.

Independent report into housing in York published

Local Government Association (LGA) report says the house-building rate in York is comparable to rest of the country.

The net new supply in York increased the existing housing stock by 1.5% during 2017/18.

This is much higher than the England average of 0.9%, suggesting the level of local supply is unlikely to be an issue. The Government’s national target of 300,000 homes per year is equivalent to 1.3%.

Population growth in York is set to average 686 people per year from 2020 to 2041, with projected average annual household growth of 430 households over the same period. This is significantly lower that the Council is forecasting in its draft Local Plan

According to the report, which was published this week, the average house price in York in 2018 was £254,000. The median ratio of house prices to local earnings is 8.8. This is higher than the England average of 8.0, suggesting high house prices are likely to be an issue for some

Private rents in York in the 12 months to September 2018 ranged from £565 per month for a lower quartile one bed to £2,058 for an upper quartile four (or more) bed property. The overall median private rent was £745, which is approximately the same as the England average of £690, suggesting that high private rents may also be an issue.

House prices in York in December 2018 are higher than their 2007/08 peak by 25.4%, compared with England at +27.3%.

Employment in York improved from 75.3% in 2014/15 to 78.7% in 2017/18; unemployment changed from 3.6% to 3.1%; and economic inactivity changed from 21.7% to 19.4%.

Gross domestic household income in York was £18,070 per person per year in 2016, compared with £14,133 in 2006. By comparison the figure for England changed from £15,349 to £19,878 over the same period.

The overall population in York changed by +0.6% due to migration in the 12 months to June 2017: +0.2% from domestic sources and +0.4% from international.

By age, the largest single contribution to growth was from 19-year olds.

The average life expectancy for people born in 2015-17 in York is 80.2 years for men and 83.5 years for women.

The equivalent national figures are 79.6 and 83.1 respectively.

The report confirms that second home ownership, empty homes and inward migration numbers are not significant issues for the City compared to the rest of the country.

The full report can be read by clicking here