Object

Representation ID: 1335

Received: 28/11/2024

Respondent: Home Builders Federation

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Policy DLP64: Children’s Play Areas is considered unsound by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) for being unjustified, ineffective, and not in line with national policy.

HBF's concern is:

SPDs in Local Plan Policy: Criteria 3 of the policy attempts to give Local Plan policy status to Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), which HBF argues is inappropriate and contrary to national guidance. HBF stresses that planning policy should be developed through the Local Plan process and subjected to public consultation and independent scrutiny during the Examination process.

Object

Representation ID: 1387

Received: 27/11/2024

Respondent: CPRE West Midlands Group

Agent: CPRE Worcestershire

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Yes

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.