Visit to Parliament

Yesterday I together with the leader of EDDC had a very useful interview with Greg Clark who is the Minister for Decentralisation. On the agenda were the development of our Local Plan and the robustness of our housing assessments which drive the housing numbers included in the plan. Greg is the author of the new national planning guidance which in reality is at the heart of the localism agenda. I was delighted to hear that what we are doing was in absolute accord with the guidance and our frank discussion left me in no doubt that our proposals are sound. Indeed my colleague concluded that unless we have a plan based on robust and tested housing projections we could leave ourselves open to unregulated development on our green belt. The minister confirmed that if we wanted we could continue without a plan but that would seriously expose us in planning terms in the future. I was able to get my bit in about the building blight that the flooding policy PPS25 had caused in Christchurch under the last administration and that in my opinion further work had to be done about this matter as it had cost Christchurch over 300 homes in the last five years. The minister was clearly impressed with our partnership direction with EDDC and recognised the ambition that both have for our Councils, we also made him aware of the care taken to involve our communities in extending the period of consultation period over that recommended and that we had a very healthy return from our communities to the core strategy document. I have to say it was really refreshing to hear the minister say 'well chaps it's up to you'. That sounds like real support for localism to me. Although the trip up to London took up most of the day we both concluded that it was well worth doing especially as it gave us confidence that the direction we are taking is sound. I got soaked to the skin on my return to Christchurch as I had to walk a mile to my car, suit ruined, papers waterlogged, late getting home, dinner in the dog, if you know what I mean!