By Press Release
Attempts to get a new planning strategy in place for the Isle of Wight appear beset with challenges.
Preparations for a new planning bible, the ‘Island Plan’ started in 2016, but have still not been approved. Because the Island does not have a five-year housing land supply and did not hit government targets for housebuilding, new planning applications are judged against national policies rather than local ones, with a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’. When the Alliance Group took over the council in May last year, it pledged to prioritise getting a new planning strategy in place.
At the Isle of Wight Council’s recent cabinet meeting it was agreed to include recommendations from the all-party scrutiny committee and send the draft Island Planning Strategy (DIPS) to full council. Improvements included strengthening the protection of greenfield sites; developing them only when absolutely necessary and restricting the purchase of new builds as second homes. The council meeting was due to take place on September 21 but following the death of the Queen they will now meet on October 5.
However, it appears that the Conservative group is now likely to try to vote down the plan, because Bembridge and Freshwater have not been singled out for special protection against new greenfield development. In an email sent to councillors on Wednesday, Tory leader, Cllr Joe Robertson, said the Conservative position is that greenfield sites in the two villages must have special protection, over and above other Island areas, in line with an amendment put forward to the scrutiny committee, which was not supported.
The committee’s chairman, Cllr Richard Quigley said: “The Island plan offers the opportunity for the IW to take control of planning for the first time in a long time yet the Conservative group seems to be indulging in the housing equivalent of ‘let them eat cake’. Their answer to the housing crisis is to build no houses in the Conservative heartlands of Bembridge and Freshwater, a more obvious case of politicking would be difficult to find.
“The Conservatives need to focus on what is best for the Island and not just what is best for them.”
Another challenge to the DIPS comes from within the Alliance itself. Cabinet member for finances, Cllr Chris Jarman is calling for a complete rethink of the plans, saying that census figures show that only 70 new houses a year are needed, and data and estimates used in the DIPS are ‘wholly mistaken’. He has argued there are plenty of homes to buy, planning permissions in place for as yet unbuilt houses and many empty properties. He claims these could all be used to provide Island residents with a home. However, there is no legislation which can be used to control rent or sale prices or the tenure of existing homes or those which already have planning permission, so affordable homes would not be provided under his plans.
Cllr Paul Fuller, responsible for planning said that through the DIPS the council is trying to fight the government-imposed housing figure meaning the Island would have to build 730 homes a year. He added that officers and councillors have suppressed it as low as they think they can at 479 using an evidence-based approach.
Isle of Wight Observer