Comment

Representation ID: 29814

Received: 23/03/2021

Respondent: Addingham Parish Council

The Parish Council supports the Plan’s strategic policy SP4, which prioritises the use of previously-developed sites and sustainable green field opportunities in local service centres ahead of Green Belt sites. Our Neighbourhood Plan policy on housing development supports the use of small infill sites, particularly those which have been previously developed but only if the land is not of high environmental value. Given the general comments made above in relation to the high landscape quality of the setting, lying within two Natural Character Areas, the Green Belt sites proposed in the Local Plan are unsuitable for housing development, because the high environmental value of the land excludes them from consideration. The Local Plan’s draft policies are also not consistent with the Neighbourhood Plan’s policies as regards the proposed allocation of relatively large sites for housing.
The Parish Council has taken advice from planning consultants appointed by the local council sector, and understands that policies in an approved plan, including a Neighbourhood Plan, “trump those contained in [a] draft one (including an emerging Local Plan)”. The Neighbourhood Plan’s policies are therefore to be given full weight in the proposal of sites to be allocated in the new draft Local Plan. Since the Neighbourhood Plan’s policies clearly indicate that these particular preferred options are not appropriate, they should immediately fail.