ST HELENS Council’s cabinet is expected to agree to finally submit the long-delayed Local Plan to the Secretary of State.
The Labour-controlled council agreed to submit the plan back in December 2019.
All opposition parties rejected the submission draft Local Plan at the time, and still oppose to it in its current form.
In March this year, the submission was delayed to allow officers to undertake a review of the plan in light of the authority entering into a long-term partnership with the English Cities Fund (EFC) to regenerate the borough.
READ > St Helens infection rate soars above 100 as lockdown measures loom
A report on this review was due to come back to cabinet in the summer, but this was delayed due to the coronavirus crisis.
The report has now been published and will go before cabinet on Wednesday, September 23, for a decision to be made on the next steps for the Local Plan.
At the meeting, senior officers will recommend that the Local Plan be submitted as per the resolution of council on December 19, 2018.
Officers will also recommend that the Local Development Scheme (LDS) – a timetable for the production of the Local Plan that it is required to publish by law – be updated and brought into effect.
The report concludes: “Cabinet resolved to delay submission of the Local Plan in order to consider the land use implications of entering into a strategic partnership with ECF.
“Whilst ECF has ambitious plans for St Helens Borough, there is not enough evidence that submission of the Local Plan should be delayed to take account of the proposals at this time.
“In order to progress and minimize risk, it is recommended that the Local Plan submission draft be submitted and that an updated LDS be brought into effect to reflect the change in timescale.”
If a decision is made by cabinet to submit the Local Plan it will be submitted to the Secretary of State in October.
Cllr David Baines, leader of St Helens Borough Council, said: “Earlier this year we decided to pause the process for submitting the Local Plan draft, giving our new chief executive Kath O’Dwyer and new executive director of place services Lisa Harris the opportunity to look closely at it and for us to benefit from their experience and advice, and making sure we took full account of our ground-breaking deal with English Cities Fund.
“Officers have spent recent months assessing the plan and their strong and clear recommendation is that we proceed with the submission draft, so this will now be considered by cabinet.
“The Local Plan draft protects the majority of our borough as greenbelt, plus our outstanding parks and open spaces, while also being ambitious for employment and housing growth.
“And we will continue to explore all opportunities for bringing brownfield sites back into use, as we have done recently in securing funding from Liverpool City Region to help regenerate the Moss Nook and Cowley Hill sites.
“We want St Helens borough to be a vibrant, attractive and prosperous place. We want local people to benefit from a good choice of affordable homes, skilled local jobs, efficient infrastructure, beautiful open green spaces, good transport links and better health and wellbeing.
“This is an even more vital mission after Covid-19. Everything we do is in pursuit of these goals.”
Once submitted to the Government, the Secretary of State will appoint an independent planning inspector to examine the plan and documentation.
The planning inspector will then decide when the public examination will be conducted. Once known, details of the timescales will be shared online.
The submission draft of the Local Plan was subject to a public consultation in 2019, with the council receiving approximately 2,000 responses.
These responses have been collated and will be submitted to the inspector together with the Local Plan and supporting documents, should councillors decide to submit the plan.
Anyone who submitted a response during the Local Plan submission draft consultation will receive an email or letter from the council notifying them when the plan has been submitted to the planning inspectorate for examination, unless a request was made to not be notified.
Cllr Richard McCauley, St Helens Borough Council’s cabinet member for economic regeneration and housing, said: “We must develop a plan that allows us to meet the required Government targets on housing, and that can accommodate the growth we want to achieve in St Helens borough.
“This plan sets out our ambitions to create jobs, build a mix of high quality, affordable homes and shape infrastructure investments utilising brownfield first and foremost.
READ > St Helens parents asked to wear face masks on school run
“It gives residents some certainty about our development plans and future use of land in the borough. It shows where development is planned, and therefore where resources and possible additional infrastructure, such as roads or new schools, are needed to support it.
“It will protect the vast majority of our open green spaces, develop our town and district centres, and help to prevent decisions being made on developments that may not be in the best interests of our local community, as without it we are at the mercy of developers who would be able to cherry-pick development sites without our input.
“Our Local Plan will help us to achieve all the things that matter to you as residents, and to us too.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel