Local Plan to 2036 – Examination in Public Hearing Postponed

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Stage 1 of the EiP has been postponed – it was due to commence on 17 March – due to Coronavirus.

Stage 1 considers legal, procedural and strategic issues including the spatial strategy, distribution of growth, housing and employment needs and the principle of changes to green belt boundaries – it will not cover individual site allocations.

In Stage 1, the Inspectors were to deal with Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils, however those councils will be abolished on 31 March. Stage 2 will not begin before May, after formation of the new, unitary, Buckinghamshire Council.

The examination of the Plan will then continue with the new unitary council. Stage 2 of the EiP will deal with outstanding matters, including the site allocations, probably in May and June – as soon as dates are know they will be published on this website…

Planning Inspectors appointed but dates of Examination in Public hearing sessions are delayed

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The two Planning Inspectors who will undertake the Examination in Public (EiP) have been appointed. They are Matthew Birkinshaw BA(Hons) Msc MRTPI and David Troy BSc (Hons) MA MRTPI.

They have written to Chiltern & South Bucks Councils to seek a lot of additional information, before they can even consider the dates for the EiP hearing. The latest information available is that, instead of the hearings sessions starting in December 2019, as originally envisaged, they may not commence until the 2nd quarter of 2020.

When the dates are announced, they will be posted on this news page.

Parish Council and Community Association send in their Joint Representation

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The joint response to the Consultation on the Chiltern and South Bucks Draft Local Plan has today (19 August 2019) been submitted to the councils for presentation to the Planning Inspector at the Examination in Public – the date of which has yet to be announced.

A copy of the Joint Representation, together with copies of the accompanying reports from independent consultants are available to read from the Key Documents page.

Councils Extend Deadline

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Chiltern & South Bucks councils have extended the closing date for the Local Consultation to Friday 23 August.

If you have not already sent in your response, this will give you more time but, as nothing has changed regarding the Draft Plan itself or the guidance supplied by the Coordination Group in its leaflet, it is recommended that you go ahead with your response, as soon as you are ready!

Meetings held at Little Chalfont Village Hall at the end of June

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The Community Association and the Parish Council arranged a series of five public meetings at the Village Hall on the 22nd, 24th and 25th of June. These were attended by approximately 250 residents, who were updated by the Coordination Group on the current Examination in Public and advised of the need to respond before 19 July.

A leaflet is currently being printed that will help people prepare their responses: this will be distributed around the village on the weekend of 6th July.

The leaflet will also be posted on this website. The slides used in the presentation will also be available here in case you were unable to attend the meetings.

Draft Local Plan delayed

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Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils has announced that the publishing of the draft Local Plan for consultation, scheduled for June/July this year, has again been delayed.

As part of the evidence documentation, traffic modelling is required for motorway junctions that, directly or indirectly, will be affected by the Local Plan, and Highways England, the responsible authority for undertaking the modelling, needs more time to undertake the modelling and produce reports.

No revised date is available but it is expected to be in the autumn.

Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils asked to remove the Green Belt land from Local Plan

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In a jointly signed letter dated 24 March 2018, the Parish Council and Community Association have put forward a strong case for the Green Belt land between Burtons Lane and Lodge Lane to be excluded from the draft Local Plan.

The letter, addressed to all members of the cabinets of both councils, sets out the serious weaknesses in the evidence they have so far presented to justify building on the site. Those weaknesses show that the land should never have been brought forward as a preferred option, and that to pursue the option could put the whole emerging local plan at risk of being found unsound. A local plan must be found sound by a Planning Inspector, if the government is to approve its adoption.

The reasons and arguments put forward are necessarily detailed and sometimes technical, but the first page sets out why the letter has been submitted and this is followed by a short summary of our arguments. You are encouraged to read at least the first two pages of the letter. The detailed arguments are available for those who wish to have a deeper understanding.

The letter is not a response to a formal consultation; the next such consultation will take place only after publication of the draft plan this autumn.  Supporting letters from the community are not recommended at this stage, but if you wish to send feedback to the Coordination Group, please use savelittlechalfont@gmail.com as the email address.

Update – Response received to Letter

An acknowledgement has been received to the 24 March letter referred to above and a copy can be read and/or downloaded from the link below.

In the acknowledgement, the Councils have given no indication that they will accede to the request for the Option 6 land to be excluded from the forthcoming draft Local Plan and that they will await all the evidence documents before making a decision. They have also made it clear that they will be following the advice of their Planning Policy Team.

The letter included an invitation for the cabinet members to visit Lodge Lane. This was to see for themselves why Lodge Lane is not a suitable pedestrian access to the nearest bus stop, as has been claimed in the interim proposals for the development of Option 6, but there is no comment about this in the response. The community needs to be satisfied that the cabinet members, as a key part of the decision-making process, have personally walked Lodge Lane to fully understand why any use as a pedestrian route to the nearest bus stop is completely unsuitable.

This invitation is being followed up.

Download response here