Jointly, Local MP, Dr Ben Spencer and Cllr John Cope, Leader of the Opposition on Elmbridge Borough Council, have written to the Planning Minister, Matthew Pennycook MP, requesting an urgent meeting to fix the situation and protect residents from further costs and delays. A copy of the letter can be found here.
This came after the Liberal Democrat-led Elmbridge Borough Council made a last-ditch effort to salvage its Local Plan after it was deemed ‘unsound’, when the Planning Inspectorate identified basic failures, requiring the Council to:
- actually “demonstrate a 5 year housing supply”
- “revisit the Sustainability Appraisal”
- address “the acute position” and “scale of the backlog and the ever-worsening position regarding affordability ratios within Elmbridge”
- And stop basing parts of the plan on a “policy was adopted in July 2011 some 13 years ago and well before the Framework against which this local plan is being assessed”, showing just how long this process has been dragging on.
In response, the Council asked for another 12 and 15 months to rewrite the Local Plan despite already working on it for 8 years. This is well beyond the 6-month grace period set out in an (unpublished) letter from the Planning Minister of 30 July 2024, as referenced by the Planning Inspector in her letter of the 18 October 2024.
This letter refused the Council’s request for an extension and stated: “as a result, and as set out in my letter of 11 September 2024, the Plan should now either be withdrawn or I shall prepare the necessary report which will conclude that the Plan is unsound”.
Despite this clear refusal, this week, the Council leadership continue to deny the inevitable and again asked the Planning Inspector for the same extension that has already been rejected. This only delays the inevitable withdrawal of the Local Plan entirely, costing the council by their own calculation “£1million plus and 4 years of resources on a new Local Plan”.
Cllr John Cope, Leader of the Local Conservatives on Elmbridge Borough Council, commented:
“It’s now clear that years of work and millions of pounds of local people’s money have gone down the drain – and an acute shortage of affordable housing allowed in Elmbridge.
I don’t think Elmbridge residents should be held responsible for the failings of their Liberal Democrat-led Council – and should not pay the consequences of higher council tax and reduced local services, or see what remains of their green spaces lost.
Any new Local Plan will not just cost over a million pounds but will also have to accept the Labour government’s 121% increase in top-down development targets meaning a huge loss of green belt and loss of local democratic control of planning – but with no new roads, GPs, or schools to support the development.”
"If the Council is unable to deliver something as basic as a Local Plan, I suggest the Liberal Democrat leadership hands over control to the local Conservatives and residents so we can get the job done."
