Hucknall: Council underlines commitment to keeping Whyburn out of local plan amid 1,000 extra homes

The commitment came after it was revealed Government inspectors had paused the public examination of the council’s new draft local plan over concerns about a 882 shortfall in the number of houses – something the council disagrees with.

Of futher concern to the council – and to Hucknall residents – will be the news that the Government wants a further 1,000 homes built in the district in the next 15 years, on top of the targets already set.

Coun Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind), council leader, said in a statement: “The Government wrote to the council to inform us that the transitional arrangements that they put in place for us relating to housing has changed.

“We have now been asked to build almost 1,000 extra homes in Ashfield over the next 15 years, in addition to the previous houses requested.

“For some time, we have been working on a long-term plan for the local area, which we have now had to press pause on the inspection of to enable us to add these additional homes.

“As a responsible council, we will follow the law set out by Government, but I want to reassure residents that over the next few months, as we reassess sites in the district and find suitable land available for extra properties, we will be prioritising brownfield sites and not our green spaces.

“We also refuse to shortcut public consultation and will ensure all plans are taken to public meetings to enable residents to have their say.

“Ashfield Council is committed to keeping the residents of Ashfield informed as these plans progress.”

For Hucknall residents, this will immediately raise fears that Whyburn and Misk Hills will be back in the firing line, especially if developers directlty request of the Government that they are included as viable development sites.

Coun Dave Shaw (Ash Ind), who represents Hucknall on the district and county council, said: “We are not considering releasing any of the proposals out of green belt, which is the entirety of Hucknall.

"The only way that could come forward is if the government grants it directly at the request of the developers.

"This is something we would strongly fight but Labour seem hell bent on concreting over every blade of grass in the land.

"But for us, Hucknall would remain as is currently in our proposal with no development at Whyburn or Misk Hills.”

And encouragment on that front for Hucknall green belt campaigners comes, ironically, from the planning inspectors themselves, who say in their letter to the council announcing their decision to pause the local plan examination, that they feel there will be no need for the council to build on any green belt in the district.

Some areas of green belt, including at Stubbing Wood Farm, Broomhill Farm and Church Lane in Hucknall, have been earmarked for development as part of the new local plan.

But in their letter, the inspectors said: “Paragraph 141 of the National Planning Policy Framework expects that before concluding that exceptional circumstances exist to justify changes to the green belt boundary, the strategic policy-making authority should be able to demonstrate that it has examined fully all other reasonable options for meeting its identified need for housing development.

"By focusing on sites of fewer than 500 dwellings, there may be other potential sites of over 500 dwellings which may result in the council not needing to release land from the green belt.

"It appears from the representations that such sites may well exist.

"Therefore, there is currently insufficient evidence to justify that exceptional circumstances exist to remove land from the green belt at the strategic level.”

The council submitted its draft local plan to the Secretary of State last April and the first hearings of the examination in public took place in November .

The next hearing was scheduled was for this month but this has now been postponed.

A meeting of the council’s local plan development committee has been scheduled for February 5 to consider whether there are any additional sites which could potentially be included in the allocations within the draft plan.

If the committee chooses to propose any additional sites, these will need to be approved by cabinet and full council later in February before going to public consultation for six weeks.

Following that the local plan development committee will decide whether to formally recommend inclusion of any of these sites in the draft plan to cabinet and full council in May or June.

The council will wait to see if the inspectors are satisfied with this proposed approach to identifying any further potential sites and none of these actions will proceed without the inspectors’ approval.