HOUSING – THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY

Originally Strategic Planning was the responsibility of the democratically elected Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth Councils. Strategic Planning is the plans for development of land such as the location of new housing and the decisions on the number of new houses. Well our central Government decreed that such planning was to be in the power of the South West Regional Government – did you know that there has been a Regional Assembly that has been meeting in Exeter for the last 6 years ? They have vast powers over you but they are an undemocratic Quango that most people have not heard of, operating rather in stealth.

The Regional Government produced their 2nd ‘Regional Spatial Strategy’ last year. The strategy included the proposal to build 3,000 houses in the Green Belt around Poole and Bournemouth – despite Government promises not to despoil Green Belts. Most of these were in the East Dorset District Area such as Corfe Mullen and Wimborne. When CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) heard of this they co-ordinated 3 pressure groups to fight this urban sprawl. At a full E. Dorset Council meeting (the relevant planning authority) the overwhelming vote was to reject the extra houses. But under Government new rules, democracy counts for nothing and decisions by Regional bureaucrats must triumph.

Last Summer a 3 month Public Enquiry was conducted into the Strategy. CPRE was the only voluntary body to be invited to participate in all 7 sessions, and we amassed much data and Consultants’ reports to defend the countryside. But the final Inspector’s report in January was a complete farce. He ignored all the representations of democratic County and Unitary councils and was only interested in implementing Gordon Brown’s edict to build 3 million more houses. So he dictated that the Regional Plan must increase the number of houses by 24% over the number that the Regional Assembly had decided on. This is the 2nd largest increase after the S.E. Region and dictates 570,000 extra houses.

The edict is that the Poole and Bournemouth commuting area must increase extra houses by 20% to 48,100. Bournemouth must increase by 10% to 16,100 extra houses and build over their Green Belt at Throop. Because Poole does not have extra land that is not environmentally protected, it only has to increase by 500 houses to 10,000. This is basically because the developers of the Hamworthy power station site want to cram in 1,647 units rather than the 900 that the Council had planned. The developers’ problem is that the Poole Council wants to levy a heavy Section 106 impost to pay for all the new roads and infrastructure. At the moment the Council does not have enough money to pay for the 2nd Lifting Bridge, so it is on hold. The £14million Government grant for the bridge is in 2002 money – and there has been inflation since. The key change is in Purbeck where the edict is a 145% increase in housing to include a new town of 2,750 houses in Upton or Lytchett. This is by far the largest increase for any District in the Region.

This Regional dictation is the reason why there is so much development in Poole, which is drastically changing the character of your neighbourhood. The Government has also changed planning guidance so making it more difficult for Poole Council to resist some of the proposals for demolition and development.

The other subject that you should be aware of is that the Government has dictated that all Councils should do a Housing Availability Assessment. This means that Poole Council must identify specific sites for 10 years supply (and ideally 15 years supply) of housing development land and set out any constraints on delivery of this land and identify how these constraints can be overcome. Poole Council have asked all developers for their suggestions (whether the landowner is aware or not) and has advertised for proposed sites. This of course is a developers’ Charter for the sites they can attack. The Officers are currently completing this Assessment.

The final stage in the Government’s drive to reduce democracy (apart from handing all our sovereignty to the United States of Europe) is the plan to abolish the Regional Assembly in 2010, and hand responsibility for strategic planning to the Regional Development Agency. This is a straight bureaucratic Quango with no democratic input, whose dominant aim is economic growth, with no thought of environmental protection.

Beware for the future of Poole and Bournemouth!

Terry Stewart.
President Dorset CPRE.