Housing targets
Government plans to strip local government of planning powers could over-rule a Black Country council's plan to block green-belt development, it has been claimed.
Councillor Mark Webb has tabled a motion to Monday's meeting of Dudley Council, urging leader Councillor Patrick Harley to challenge government plans to reform the planning system.
The move comes days after Councillor Harley announced that the council's planning strategy for the next 16 years would allow 10,500 new homes to be built, without the need to develop green-belt sites.
But Councillor Webb warned that government plans to strip planning powers from local authorities could put green-belt development back on the agenda.
The Government has pledged to reform planning laws in order to speed-up housebuilding, and has hinted that giving either central government or elected regional mayors greater powers to over-rule local planning decisions could be one way of achieving that.
Councillor Webb said that the Government had already announced a 122 per cent increase in the number of new homes it wanted to see built in Dudley borough.
"The Government has now published a Planning and Infrastructure Bill designed to reform planning rules," he said.
"Dudley Council has an established brownfield-first development policy, which is placed at risk by the changes to National Planning Policy Framework introduced by the Government," he said.
Councillor Webb, who is Conservative member for Kingswinford and Wall Heath, said the Local Government Association had already written to ministers expressing reservations about this plan.
"The proposed changes would limit the types of applications that can be determined by councillors in the planning committee, eroding democratic accountability in the planning process," he added.
"Removing the ability for councillors to discuss, debate or vote on key developments in their localities could erode public trust in the planning system and local government itself."
Councillor Webb's motion calls on the council to write to Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner outlining its opposition to this plan, and also to the elected mayor for the West Midlands, Richard Parker, outlining its opposition to any plans to give strategic planning powers to the office of the mayor.
He also called on the council's environment and regeneration select committee to review changes to the National Planning Policy Framework and the measures outlined in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, and evaluate how they will impact planning outcomes in the borough.
The motion is due to be debated and voted on at the meeting of the council on Monday night.
