STOKE MANDEVILLE PARISH COUNCIL RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT VALE OF AYLESBURY LOCAL PLAN – FURTHER INFORMATION Chapter 1 - Background Para 1.4 – “Where possible, the content of these responses has been taken into account in the preparation of this draft plan” The Parish Council invites the District Council to identify what proportion of the 4,500 comments have been taken account of and led directly to changes in this draft plan. Para 1.6 – “Their feedback will be taken into account when the final local plan is prepared.” The Parish Council asks how their feedback will be taken into account in the final local plan. Para 1.13 – “The Councils to the south of Aylesbury Vale District have identified an estimated collective unmet need of 12,000 homes.” Having reviewed the approach taken by Wycombe District Council in their Local Plan, who are expecting Aylesbury Vale to provide for an unmet need of at least 5,000 homes, the Parish Council is concerned that the Duty to Co-operate is being exploited unfairly by neighbouring Councils. Whilst planning constraints do exist, that does not explain why Wycombe is planning for significantly lower housing densities than Aylesbury Vale and refusing to consider a review of Green Belt sites. Those two actions alone would reduce, if not eliminate, unmet housing need in Wycombe District. The Council suspects that a similar approach may have been adopted by Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils, meaning that the estimated collective unmet need of 12,000 homes is a major overestimate. The Parish Council expects Aylesbury Vale District Council to robustly challenge the level of unmet need to ensure the final local plan reflects reality. Para 1.14 – “As that will not deliver the amount of housing we may need, the Council is considering some different approaches to meeting housing need.” The Parish Council is concerned that devising approaches to meet housing need is premature until there is greater clarity about the precise level of housing need, particularly unmet housing need elsewhere. Para 1.14 – “There will need to be specific provision for affordable housing given the high cost of housing in the District and specific provision to meet specialist needs such as housing for the elderly.” The Parish Council expects the District Council to make provision for all types of specialist housing need, including for people with disabilities and special needs. This should be assessed in conjunction with disability groups, charitable bodies, and healthcare providers, including the Clinical Commissioning Group. Page 1 of 11 STOKE MANDEVILLE PARISH COUNCIL RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT VALE OF AYLESBURY LOCAL PLAN – FURTHER INFORMATION Para 1.17 – “The provision of infrastructure to support the new housing is essential…” The Parish Council believes that the provision of infrastructure to support housing is critical to the development of sustainable communities and its importance should never be underestimated. There are particular deficits in certain sectors and geographical areas that must be planned for and met by future housing growth. The Parish Council urges the District Council to prioritise the preparation of a comprehensive Infrastructure Delivery Plan, involving all service providers, to ensure it reflects the needs of existing and future communities and is based on robust assessments of demography and growth. The Parish Council hopes that relevant bodies such as the County Council are properly resourced for this work. Para 1.19 – “The proposed delivery of East West Rail will also increase connectivity.” The Parish Council is disappointed that Aylesbury Vale District Council describes East West Rail in such an uncertain way. It trusts that Aylesbury Vale remains committed to securing the completion of the East West Rail project in a timely manner to support growth across the District. Para 1.19 – “It is important to mitigate the effect of new transport infrastructure, such as the proposed HS2.” The Parish Council is confused by the approach adopted by Aylesbury Vale District Council towards HS2, the Government’s highest priority transport infrastructure project. Whilst the project has yet to achieve Royal Assent, the recent publication of revised Safeguarding Directives by HS2 Ltd and statements made by the new Prime Minister and Transport Secretary leave little doubt about the Government’s position. Having faced the threat of HS2 for more than six years, Stoke Mandeville Parish Council, is surprised at the ambivalence of the District Council. Despite being required to consult HS2 Ltd on planning applications within the safeguarded area, Aylesbury Vale chooses not to show the line of route on the key map (Draft VALP – Potential Housing Allocations – South East Aylesbury). This must be rectified. Para 1.21 – “Conclusions will need to be reached on the housing numbers from the other Councils in Buckinghamshire and surrounding areas.” The Parish Council believes that these conclusions are critical to the local plan and fundamentally affect the scale of growth and its distribution. Finalising this evidence must be a priority action for the District Council, ahead of any other work. Para 1.21 – “Traffic modelling of impacts of the proposed development is being prepared and has partly informed this draft plan, but this will need finalisation and will need to show how impacts can be addressed.” Whilst the Parish Council accepts that traffic modelling is essential, until there is agreement on the fundamental matter of housing numbers, it could be abortive and expensive work. Page 2 of 11 STOKE MANDEVILLE PARISH COUNCIL RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT VALE OF AYLESBURY LOCAL PLAN – FURTHER INFORMATION Chapter 2 – Vision and Strategic Objectives Para 2.1 – “It sets the ambition and direction for the District as a whole, which all relevant strategies and delivery plans of the Council and its delivery partners should support.” Whilst the Parish Council understands and recognises the hierarchy of the development plan, it is concerned that such a statement implies a top-down dictatorial approach to planning. It suggests that all other plans should be subservient to rather than informed by the local plan. The Parish Council would prefer the use of words that imply partnership and collaboration. Spatial vision The Parish Council believes that the spatial vision for the District is generic and vague, with little to make it specific to Aylesbury Vale. There are unique characteristics and strengths within the District that could be referenced which would give the vision a unique Vale flavor, such as its links to the Paralympic Games and its motorsport heritage. Para 2.4 – Sections a-f Again the Parish Council thinks that these statements are generic and idealistic, with little to differentiate them from anywhere else other than the inclusion of place names in sections c and d. As stated above, Aylesbury Vale has characteristics and strengths that could be referenced. Para 2.4 – Section g The Parish Council is disappointed that the significant growth in Aylesbury is not described as being led by or at least supported by neighbourhood planning, since much of this growth is in areas and Parishes that are developing neighbourhood plans, such as Stoke Mandeville and Weston Turville. It is surprised that this particular feature about Aylesbury’s growth is not mentioned in any of the ten aspirations for the town. The Parish Council questions how the District Council will secure the sixth aspiration, where it refers to “well-designed, connected, healthy, safe and integrated greenfield urban fringe sites” that will help “deliver identified strategic infrastructure without compromising the character of surrounding villages or community cohesion.” Stoke Mandeville Parish Council is sure it is not alone in asking how these ‘urban fringe sites’ in neighbouring Parishes will avoid coalescence. It believes that section g needs to be developed in conjunction with the Town and Parish Councils who will be supporting and making major contributions to the growth of the town, rather than prepared in isolation from those Councils. Without such involvement, this collection of aspirations reads as a number of ‘motherhood and apple pie’ platitudes. Page 3 of 11 STOKE MANDEVILLE PARISH COUNCIL RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT VALE OF AYLESBURY LOCAL PLAN – FURTHER INFORMATION Para 2.4 – Section j The Parish Council is pleased that the District Council wishes to see the rural areas (including Stoke Mandeville) remain predominantly rural in character, but is not clear how this will be achieved bearing in mind the significant risk of coalescence between Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville village. It does, however, dispute the statement that growth will have been proportionate and reflect community aspirations, since it has already experienced the District Council recommending that applications be approved where growth is far from proportionate and clearly fails to reflect local aspirations. It would welcome understanding how and from what point the District Council will ensure that development reflects the character of the local circumstances, since recent events suggest that this principle is not currently applied. The Council looks forward to the development of a well-managed network of green infrastructure but does ask how this, once established, will be maintained. Strategic Objective 1 The Parish Council would welcome a definition of ‘balanced sustainable growth’ and whether this will be achieved through adopting ‘a flexible and pro-active approach to promoting sustainable development’. It suggests that perhaps a clearer objective would be to state that the Council will ‘plan for homes and jobs that match existing and future needs, on a combination of greenfield and brownfield sites across the District.’ Strategic Objective 2 The Council reiterates its previous point about unmet needs from elsewhere. It suggests that the statement should be strengthened from ‘if reasonable and sustainable’ to ‘where proven’. It also repeats its point about housing being required to meet a range of needs rather than just those of an ageing population.