Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies (Regulation 19)

Object

Representation ID: 1222

Received: 25/11/2024

Respondent: Goldfinch Town Planning Services (West Midlands)

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

. Within the emerging Local Plan Review the council should focus on protecting existing employment land sites (including lower quality employment land sites which are currently struggling during the severe economic recession) in order to ensure that there is a sufficient ready supply of employment land available to meet the Dudley Borough’s current and future employment land needs. Essentially to ensure that local communities have a supply of local jobs within the inner urban area close to existing established residential communities. This plan-making approach will help to ensure the delivery of sustainable



communities consistent with guidance reinforced in paragraph 35 (indent d) of the Revised NPPF (December 2023). The proposed spatial planning policy approach of focusing 10,470 new homes into the inner urban area will result in the loss of employment land sites within the inner urban area, which could help to positively contribute towards meeting future local community employment needs. All types and condition of employment land sites should therefore be safeguarded within the inner urban area in the emerging Local Plan Review, and significant new housing development focused towards a housing-led sustainable urban extension in the borough’s low quality Green Belt countryside at land located south of Racecourse Lane, Norton, Stourbridge. The position is perfectly clear, there are now sufficiently robust exceptional circumstances and planning policy grounds now in place for the LPA to now consider Green Belt release within this emerging Local Plan Review, in order to help protect and maintain a sufficient and adequate supply of employment land within the inner urban area. To help ensure that there is a sufficient supply of locally-based employment land opportunities provision available to meet local community urgent needs, during a severe prolonged economic recession and cost-of-living crisis.

43. This is particularly relevant given that the Black Country’s traditional manufacturing industry has suffered extensive decline during the last 60 years. There is a need to future proof existing employment sites within the urban area with new, more resilient employment uses to help meet the local communities needs. The economic vitality of the inner urban area needs to be protected as the local area emerges from the post COVID-19 fragile economic recovery.

. The Sustainability Appraisal (SA) has failed to adequately and robustly consider the loss of employment land sites within the inner urban area and has also not thoroughly investigated Reasonable alternatives – in terms of loss of employment land sites. It is therefore failing Soundness tests in paragraph 35 (indents b and d) of the Revised NPPF (December 2023).

72. Dudley and the wider Black Country sub-region continues to suffer with poor economic regeneration jobs growth in comparison to other parts of the UK. Such as the home counties surrounding London, and places like Oxfordshire, South Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. This should therefore be a key Local Plan priority. The Black Country sub-region is falling far behind other parts of the UK given its continued very weak economic performance, subdued and poor-quality new jobs growth. This is harming local communities. The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) (2019) confirms that: “…19% of people living in the Black Country are in the top 10% most deprived areas…” The Black Country area is experiencing continued and long-standing high levels of unemployment and social and economic disadvantage. Reducing the supply of existing employment land sites within the Dudley Metropolitan Borough within the emerging Local Plan Review will make this situation far worse will eliminate any prospects of significant future economic recovery within the local area. This approach is failing local communities.

Object

Representation ID: 1224

Received: 25/11/2024

Respondent: Goldfinch Town Planning Services (West Midlands)

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

46. There is a lack of sufficient in-house specialist technical expertise within both Dudley Council’s Planning Policy and Development Management Teams to effectively deliver Net Zero policies being taken forward within the emerging Local Plan Review. This will have a damaging impact on the private sector bringing forward new planning applications as the council will continue to use a one-size-fits-all approach and continue to place excessive and heavily onerous demands on private sector housing developers bringing forward new planning applications. A more flexible planning policy approach should be used by the LPA in relation to these policy requirements, given the highly adverse economic circumstances currently affecting housing developers. This flexible planning policy approach will not be possible given the lack of in-house technical expertise.
47. Goldfinch Town Planning Services has concerns that highly onerous Climate Change Net Zero policies are being taken forward within the emerging Local Plan Review which will place a financially damaging burden on new housing development proposals coming forward at a time when the house building construction industry is operating within a severe 300-year-economic recession-event climate, and at a time when the construction industry is being adversely affected by prolonged and stubbornly high interest rates, high inflation and a varied range of other factors considered within the Appendix section of this Local Plan Representation. The Council should ensure that the approach taken towards Local Plan preparation is based on the most up-to- date and robust economic evidence in order for the Plan making approach to respond effectively to paragraphs 31, 35 (indent b) and 86 (indent d) of the Revised NPPF (December 2023).

Object

Representation ID: 1226

Received: 25/11/2024

Respondent: Goldfinch Town Planning Services (West Midlands)

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

. The LPA is taking forward a seemingly inflexible, heavily out-of-date, unsound, unreasonable, financially unsustainable and highly onerous affordable housing (30% affordable housing target) planning policy regime, an onerous Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and planning obligations policy regime into the emerging Local Plan Review (2024). These policies, such as affordable housing policy, are fixed and based on heavily out-of-date and no longer reliable planning policy assumptions made a number of years ago now, as part of the evidence base work previously undertaken for the now collapsed Black Country Plan (BCP) Review (Autumn 2022). This BCP Review not fit-for-purpose evidence base work is based on insufficiently robust and heavily out-of-date pre-COVID-19 economic data which is no longer defendable, reliable or sufficiently robust. This planning policy approach is therefore in direct conflict with guidance reinforced within paragraphs 31, 35 (indent b) and 86 (indent d) of the Revised NPPF (December 2023). Future Policy formulation and policy shaping needs to remain significantly more responsive to the adverse economic



landscape now facing housing developers operating across the Black Country sub-region for the various economic factors discussed within this Local Plan Representation now facing the construction industry. The LPA cannot continue to keep placing unreasonable, financially onerous and financially damaging planning policy demands on rural landowners and housing developers within the borough during a severe 300-year-economic-recession-event.

Object

Representation ID: 1234

Received: 25/11/2024

Respondent: Goldfinch Town Planning Services (West Midlands)

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

64. The public consultation approach undertaken by Dudley Council’s Planning
Policy Team has been unfair and inadequate, resulting in substantial prejudice.
65. The public consultation approach has accommodated a number of failings. The public consultation approach is not considered to be fit-for-purpose or sufficiently robust. This is damaging towards local community confidence in the Local Plan making process, and alienates key stakeholders who feel excluded from the Local Plan-making process, due to the removal of key pieces of information from the public domain (e.g. Local Plan Representations made by other key stakeholders).
66. Large numbers of local residents, local businesses, landowners, housing developers, property investors, and other key stakeholders were completely unaware of the Autumn 2024 Regulation 19 Local Plan consultation.
67. Representations made by housing developers, private sector landowners, local businesses, property investors, planning consultants, local communities and other key stakeholders have been deliberately with held from the public domain by the council’s planning policy team as part of this Regulation 19 (Autumn
2024) and the earlier Regulation 18 (Autumn 2023) Local Plan public consultation stages. The approach lacks sufficient transparency, is unfair and unreasonable, and has placed key stakeholders at a considerable disadvantage as they have not been able to view comments and concerns raised by other stakeholders. As stated above, the public consultation approach undertaken by Dudley Council’s Planning Policy Team has been unfair and inadequate, resulting in substantial prejudice. We object to the way that key stakeholders have been excluded and obstructed from the Local Plan making process by a failed and ineffective public consultation approach.
68. The ‘Local Plans Consultation Portal’ (Opus Consult) is unclear, not fit-for purpose and highly confusing for members of the public and other key stakeholders. This creates a restrictive approach and forms a barrier to effective community engagement, in direct conflict with paragraph 16 (indent c) of the Revised NPPF (2023). These types of public consultation portals which are both highly ineffective, take far too long in terms of timescale for members of the public to use, and are unnecessarily complex, and are not effective ways for Local Planning Authorities to consult local communities for Local Plan Reviews. LPA’s should now therefore start to finally begin to accept that these types of public consultation portals are completely ineffective, as well as a considerable waste of local Council Tax payers money. Given that these IT systems are very expensive to maintain due to the high financial service charges costs from the private sector IT companies that own and manage these consultation portals. The public consultation approach undertaken by the LPA is therefore ineffective, is inadequate, results in substantial prejudice – particularly towards those key stakeholders described above.
69. The public consultation approach taken towards this Regulation 19 consultation (Autumn 2024) and the earlier Autumn 2023 Regulation 18 consultation has not proved “effective” or fit-for-purpose, and has therefore failed to respond robustly to guidance reinforced within paragraph 16 (indent c) of the Revised NPPF



(2023), which is perfectly clear that: “…Plans should: (indent c) be shaped by early, proportionate and effective engagement between plan- makers and communities, local organisations, businesses, infrastructure providers and operators and statutory consultees…”

Object

Representation ID: 1235

Received: 25/11/2024

Respondent: Goldfinch Town Planning Services (West Midlands)

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

70. The emerging Local Plan Review does not contain an Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP). The Plan-making approach is therefore not based on proportionate evidence and therefore fails Soundness tests specified under paragraph 35 (indent b) of the Revised NPPF (December 2023).

Object

Representation ID: 1236

Received: 25/11/2024

Respondent: Goldfinch Town Planning Services (West Midlands)

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

71. For far too many years the Black Country Council’s Planning Policy Teams have consistently failed to get a grip of the problem of appropriately dealing with the problem of severe traffic congestion when preparing emerging Local Plan Reviews. These problems and substantial planning policy failures stem all the way back to the adopted Black Country Core Strategy (BCCS) (2011).

Object

Representation ID: 1239

Received: 25/11/2024

Respondent: Goldfinch Town Planning Services (West Midlands)

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

The Council’s economic regeneration approach for the borough lacks sufficient ambition. The Plan is not being Positively prepared in direct conflict with Soundness tests set out under paragraph 35 (indent a) of the Revised NPPF (December 2023). Proposals which will harm the local areas economic outlook and recovery, and which will discourage new business inward investment opportunities should not be supported by the LPA within the emerging Local Plan Review.