core strategy – suspended

Please read the text below.  I hope now that the Residents of Harnham will be listened to and the ludicrous development on Netherhampton Rd will be thrown out.  Just who is buying the land?  Does anyone know? 

1.       On 10 November 2009 Full Council resolved to submit the South Wiltshire Core Strategy (SWCS) to the Secretary of State. The Core Strategy was subject to a formal Examination in Public (EIP) for six weeks in March and April 2010.  2.       However, before the Inspector (Mr. Bob Yuille) was able to report his findings the Communities and Local Government Secretary revoked the Draft Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West (RSS) by way of an Order laid before Parliament. The Inspector then requested a further period of consultation to gather views on the implications of this on the SWCS.   

3.       The situation surrounding the SWCS is very unusual in that very few Core Strategies were at this stage in the process at the time of abolition of the RSS. In the circumstances, the Inspector has acknowledged the Council needs time to consider its position and is willing to allow that time.  4.       Having considered, in conjunction with the Inspector, all the options open to the Council and the risks arising from each, the relevant Cabinet Member, Cllr John Brady has decided to accept the Inspector’s offer to suspend his report. 

5.       This will allow us time to re-assess our situation in the knowledge that there has been much disquiet over the housing numbers in South Wiltshire (some 11,000 representations to the process attest to the controversial nature of the process). Given this and the opportunity that the Government have given us, it is the only sensible course of action to look again at these figures. It is proposed to commence the review of housing numbers immediately and to take the conclusions to the full Council meeting in November.  6.       Should the Council decide to produce revisions to the SWCS the Inspector will determine how much additional time should be allowed to formulate these revisions, justifying them through a firm evidence base and carrying out the necessary consultations and Sustainability Appraisal. 7.       Once Full Council has made its decision, the Inspector will determine whether or not it is necessary to hold a Procedural Meeting to discuss the above matters in public or whether they can be dealt with through correspondence.

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