Object

Representation ID: 1334

Received: 28/11/2024

Respondent: Home Builders Federation

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Policy DLP63: Public Open Space within New Large Housing Developments is considered unsound by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) for being unjustified, ineffective, and not in line with national policy.

HBF's concerns are:

SPDs in Local Plan Policy: Criteria 2 and 3 of the policy seek to give Local Plan policy status to Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), which HBF deems inappropriate and contrary to national guidance. HBF emphasizes that planning policy should be made through the Local Plan process and subject to public consultation and independent scrutiny during the Examination process.

Comment

Representation ID: 1384

Received: 27/11/2024

Respondent: CPRE West Midlands Group

Agent: CPRE Worcestershire

DLP63 is welcome but does not go far enough. The default position should be that the open space provided is available to the public generally and maintained at public expense. In recent years, the practice has arisen of developers retaining open space and charging residents a service charge for maintaining it. Since the Council will be collecting Council Tax from the residents, having a service charge as well constitutes a form of double taxation. There may need to be some exceptions to this, such as for blocks of sheltered housing (as provided by McCarthy & Stone and others) where it may be appropriate to have a homogenous enclosed community. If a service charge is imposed, it should be in favour of a company owned by the property owners, not by the developers, at least once the development is completed. This also applies to DLP64.

Support

Representation ID: 1413

Received: 21/11/2024

Respondent: National Trust

We maintain support for this policy and consider that our comments set out in our previous representations to the Reg 18 Local Plan consultation are still applicable to the policy in respect of how the Regional Park can contribute towards the achievement of the objectives set out in this policy.

Comment

Representation ID: 1502

Received: 29/11/2024

Respondent: Canal and River Trust

Reiterate previous Regulation 18 comments.

Request incorporation of cross reference to Policy DLP36 Canals within the justification text to this section. Use of canal network can be seen as component of enhancing green networks for recreational purposes.