Issue - meetings

Core Strategy Local Plan - Review of Development Options - Report of Consultation

Meeting: 17/12/2018 - Cabinet (Item 47)

47 Wirral Local Plan - Update Report pdf icon PDF 144 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

GeorgeDavies

Councillor George Davies, Cabinet Member - Housing & Planning (and Deputy Leader of the Council), said:

 

Making sure Wirral residents have a choice of good quality, attractive housing is vital. We’ve got to have a robust Local Plan so we are able to meet those needs.

 

We’ve also got a responsibility to our residents. They have told us, unequivocally, that they do not wish to see Green Belt land developed for housing. We agree, and we have told Government Ministers the same thing.

 

We must have a Local Plan. We understand this, and we are committed to developing one within the timeframe we have set out. We will do everything we can to protect our local environment and the Green Belt which is so important to our residents.

 

We have consistently lobbied Government to allow us to use the recent, more accurate household projection figures published by the Office of National Statistics in September this year. Using these figures would mean we need release almost no Green Belt land for development.

 

At the moment, the Government are refusing to allow us to lower our projections, so we must continue to plan for the bigger housing target – 12,000 over the next 15 years.

 

Over the next six months, Council officers will do the detailed technical assessments required on all land which was included in the consultation. We will do this, so we can ensure our Local Plan does what it needs to do.

 

I want to thank every Wirral resident who took part in this consultation. I want to reassure them that we are on their side, and pledge to do everything in our power to protect our borough and our unique environment.”

 

 

 

 

Councillor George Davies introduced a report that provided the Cabinet with an update on the Local Plan.  He informed that the Local Plan was vital as it was the document that set out the Council’s land use priorities for the next 15 years.  Effectively, it decided what could be built and where it could be built in the borough.

 

Councillor Davies also informed the Cabinet that a solid, effective Local Plan could not be more important. The Council needed to draw up a Local Plan that was right for Wirral and its residents. The Council was committed to delivering this Plan as quickly as possible and had invested extra resources to make sure that it happened.

 

To this end the Cabinet at its meeting on 23 July 2018 had resolved that the results of a review of development options should be published for public and stakeholder consultation and that the results of the consultation should be reported to it in December 2018.  (Minute No. 17 refers.)  Councillor Davies reported that the development options review consultation had been completed and the Cabinet was grateful to every resident who had taken the time to take part.  More than 3,000 representations had been received and they would all be considered as the Plan developed.  A summary of these responses  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47