Meeting with the Chairman of CPRE's Planning & Policy Group, Christopher Napier, they discussed the charity's concerns around the current workings of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the new set of planning regulations brought in by government in 2012.
Amongst CPRE's concerns are:-
- Making sure that priority is given to brownfield (previously developed) land before granting planning permission on greenfield sites.
- A failure to recognise the intrinsic value of our local landscape.
- Different interpretations of the NPPF by planning Inspectors. There has been much discrepancy from Inspector to Inspector and this has caused confusion, delay and inconsistency.
- An increasing culture of 'planning by surrender' where councils feel pressured to accept development because, if not, they could be taken to costly Appeals.
CPRE believe the original spirit of the planning policy, which was meant to create a fairer, locally driven planning system is being lost in practice.
Steve Brine, MP agreed to take these concerns to Westminster, with a particular focus on clarifying the status of the five year land supply and making sure the Local Plan has supremacy in local planning. Currently councils have to demonstrate a five year land supply for house-building. CPRE believes this is being given far too much weight and councils are granting inappropriate developments without taking into account landscape impact or using brownfield before greenfield sites.
Another subject up for discussion was the current wind farm application at Bullington Cross. The application would see the erection of fourteen 126-metres high wind turbines and is the focus of a huge campaign from the Keep Hampshire Green group and others.
CPRE made clear their belief that it would have a severe negative impact on the setting of both the South Downs National Park, where they would be visible from Cheesefoot Head, and more closely the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Sir Andrew Motion, President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England said recently; "We have communities who are increasingly powerless in the face of applications from well-funded wind and solar developers who are able to manipulate the planning process in their favour. This is wrong-headed not least because it undermines public support for the changes we need to make to tackle climate change. We should not have to choose between the countryside and the wider environment. There is a place for renewable energy, but our countryside is priceless and cannot keep on accommodating wind turbines, regardless of their impact on people's enjoyment of the landscape.
Steve Brine, MP added; "This was a useful session and we certainly covered a lot of ground. I think it is very early days for the new planning policy architecture and many of the problems are being created as the old system morphs into the new but there are issues which need ironing out and I am hugely grateful for the expert and well argued opinion of CPRE which helps me approach Ministers with a strong hand.
"The organisation have been consistent opponents of the Bullington proposal and it was timely that our meeting coincided with the announcement that any future Conservative Government will not seek an expansion of onshore wind as a means of generating energy from renewables."
Pictured, Steve Brine MP and Christopher Napier at the Cathedral Refectory in Winchester
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