The Planning Inspectors Decision on the 141 dwellings in Long Street Road

The PDF document in full:

The Planning Inspectorate Appeal Decision for Land at Long Street Road, Hanslope

Councillor Andrew Geary writes on Facebook about it:

The Planning Inspectors Decision on the 141 dwellings in Long Street Road has been received today by Milton Keynes Council. It’s bad news. The appeal has been allowed and planning permission for the 141 dwellings has been granted. Moreover some of the reasoning in the decision could have huge impacts and consequences on the whole of the rural area. Along with the Planning department at MKC and Hanslope Parish Council we will now consider what, if any further action can be taken. My thanks to all of those who have spent time, effort and money on pulling together to attempt to resist this development. Too many to name but you know who you are. #Further to my post of earlier today regarding the decision from the Planning Inspectorate to grant the appeal for 141 dwellings on Long Street Road.
and later:
I have now read the judgement in full. It has come to some unbelievable conclusions. It bases its decision around 7 key areas. It concludes that there will be detrimental impact to heritage assets. It concludes that there will be direct conflict with MKC’s own planning policy. It concludes that there would be harm to the setting and character of the village. And there the reasonableness ceases.
It concludes that the development can be classed as sustainable. It concludes that, given the level of financial contributions, that there is sufficient infrastructure to cope with the additional development. It concludes that there will be no detrimental impact on the highways or transport network. And perhaps most significantly of all it concludes that Milton Keynes cannot demonstrate a 5 year land supply. These four reasons outweigh the previous three and therefore permission should be granted. I believe all four of these conclusions to be wrong, so please don’t shoot the messenger.
My comment that the lack of a 5 year land supply is perhaps the most significant isn’t meant to detract from any of the others, but I state that because this will have a catastrophic knock on effect for other sites in the rural areas. Basically, unless there is an up to date Neighbourhood Plan in place, it will be incredibly difficult to refuse any planning application in the rural area that can be classed as sustainable. So any village fringe applications (Eastfield Drive, the Eventing Centre) will be almost impossible to refuse.
One chink of light. I believe there may be some areas within the report that may be challengeable by means of a Judicial Review. MKC are currently seeking Counsels opinion on this and I will be urging the Parish Council to take similar independent advice when it meets on Monday of next week. JR is a lengthy and expensive process but it’s the only way forward now.
Once we have managed to get the document in a publishable format I will ensure that it is posted on the Hanslope village website. If it is felt helpful I’m also prepared to put on a local planning workshop for the rural parishes within the Ward to which all residents would be most welcome.
Finally, there is no doubt that we have lost a major battle today. But I’m not yet prepared to admit that we have lost the war. Tonight we feel totally deflated. Tomorrow we must dust ourselves down and prepare to fight on.