National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) headlines, BMKALC August office hours
Dear Colleagues
There is an audible sigh in our sector as local councils either take a recess from meetings or at least wind them down for August. Whilst many will choose this time to be away with family or to simply take a break, others of will be climbing into those housekeeping jobs which languish at the bottom of our To do lists for the rest of the year.
Our week included three training events which was nothing short of miraculous when you consider that Lorraine is currently away. Working in local government teaches you to be flexible and inventive and despite challenges, all the events went ahead. I attended the Playground Inspections on Tuesday at Seer Green and Cllr Sue Smith attended Stone, Bishopstone and Harwell on Wednesday. Our professionals for the day included Streetscapes, CCLA and Gallaghers. These courses were a first for us, a combination of classroom training and practical on site observation. Finding suitable locations was tricky, and we were fortunate to receive many offers from you of co-located halls, parking and playgrounds. Thank you to both our host councils and Liz and Angela for their hospitality and to CCLA for sponsoring the catering. The CiLCA Wednesday group met for Day 3 and armed with budgets, VAT and risk templates, now take a break, retuning to the classroom in September.
I received Your latest news from the Chilterns National Landscape and wanted to share it with you. It’s easy to subscribe to the newsletter and there are often very useful snippets of information and contacts for councils. This segues very nicely into an update from O Neill Homer one of our planning support members.
Hot off the press: the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have now released an amended National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The NPPF is a cornerstone document in planning decision making and so any changes can and do have a significant impact locally. What do these proposed changes mean for community, town, and parish councils? And what next steps can you take?
Headlines of the new NPPF include:
- The proposed changes are significant in how plan making and decision taking will operate from the autumn – they not only reverse the changes made to NPPF23 but go at lot further in some policy areas
- Of those policy areas, the Green Belt is the most immediately affected, including directing how, when and why it should be reviewed and by defining ‘Grey Belt’ areas within it
- The retention of all the current provisions for neighbourhood plans, including their five-year currency in the ‘tilted balance’ per §14, but the absence of a reference to them in any of the published documents and statements
Read more of ONH’s need-to-know NPPF analysis by Neil Homer at the ONH Blog.
Thank you to everyone who has responded with the names of the chairmen/women of their councils together with their email addresses. The “View” will in future be copied in to them and your nominated representative. We are currently looking at how best to provide access to the members area of the BMKALC website and will let you know when this is ready to go.
As we manage our summer holiday roster in BMKALC, we will between us, be monitoring inboxes and telephones in the mornings only during August. Emails to the balc@bucksalc.gov.uk email address will be opened by whoever is on duty and responded to. If you need an urgent call back, please indicate that, providing the correct numbers, and we will endeavour to call you back within 24 hours.
The “View” will be taking a short break too, anything urgent will of course be shared, which leaves us only to wish you a lovely and peaceful August and to look forward to welcoming you back re-energised and refreshed in September.
Kind regards Mel and Lorraine