Cross-boundary Smoke and Green Mirrors

Sevenoaks District Council’s failed attempt to challenge their Local Plan Inspector’s Report has generated further calls for the duty to cooperate (DtC) to be consigned to the planning scrapyard. ‘Hear, hear’; few argue with the criticisms of the DtC and we eagerly await details of its replacement from MHCLG.

Perhaps overlooked, the Examination of the Sevenoaks Local Plan also shone a light on a more significant and persistent problem. It is the root cause of why the Sevenoaks Local Plan failed the DtC but very likely would also have been found unsound. The crux of the matter – whether meeting housing need should override the protection of the Green Belt.

 Alongside the Sevenoaks Inspector’s Report, which dealt solely with DtC, the Inspector wrote to the Council summarising several “soundness issues” for which she would have required further evidence[1]. The first four of the soundness issues listed essentially relate to the decision-making process and justification for a housing requirement “substantially lower than the housing need”.

For some of the participants in the Examination, it appeared that the Council’s sustainability appraisal had been produced with the objective of supporting the Council’s chosen strategy (‘Option 3’); not as a process to help inform its decision-making. The SA was criticised for wide-ranging errors, omissions, and inconsistencies in the assessment of alternative options. In my opinion, it made a mockery of sustainability appraisal as part of the plan-making process.

To the Council’s credit, the SA did include ‘Option 4’ to meet housing need in full. The sole difference between Option Option 3 (the submitted plan) and Option 4 was the addition of 3,336 additional homes to be delivered via the allocation of “weakly performing Green Belt sites”[2]. The fact that the examination of these soundness issues including any further evidence from the Council will never be concluded is hugely disappointing and a missed opportunity.

To many, a straightforward solution was for the Local Plan to be amended based on Option 4 of the SA. Had the Local Plan been submitted on this basis, there would have been no DtC concerns and most of the soundness issues summarised by the Inspector would have been addressed. As it was, to resolve this post-submission through the Examination, seemingly at the resistance of Sevenoaks District Council adamant to be seen to do its utmost to protect the Green Belt, would have required the Inspector, PINS and, ultimately the Secretary of State, to recommend that additional Green Belt land be released so that housing need be met in full.

Personally, it seemed convenient for PINS, MHCLG and potentially also the Council, to avoid having to pursue these soundness issues and the inevitable juggling of the hottest of hot planning potatoes - balancing protecting the Green Belt and meeting housing need.

Unquestionably, Sevenoaks failed to comply with the DtC. However, I believe it would be na?ve to conclude that an inadequate statutory or policy framework for strategic planning is solely to blame for the predicament the Council and others including St. Albans, South Bucks and Chiltern (now Buckinghamshire) and potentially Tonbridge and Malling now find themselves in.

Turning to the preparation of a new Local Plan, it should be clear to Sevenoaks what must now be done. Had this been initiated at the end of 2019 when it became apparent the previous Local Plan would not survive – instead of pursuing a legal challenge which I for one thought highly unlikely to succeed - it is possible that a Regulation 18 draft could have been published for consultation and a Regulation 19 draft be well underway. As it is, more patience is needed.

The Inspector's soundness letter concluded by stating, "I hope that these points will prove useful to the Council in its future Plan making." I agree but, more importantly, it will require a modicum of political courage on both sides, something which I think all planning practitioners would welcome whole-heartedly. 

Outside of the formal introduction of the Government’s planning reforms, which it seems will not arrive in time for Sevenoaks (and therefore should be no excuse for delay), PINS and MHCLG should provide sufficient support to the likes of Sevenoaks to ensure that past mistakes will not be repeated.

[1] https://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/downloads/file/2894/sevenoaks_soundness_letter

[2] https://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/downloads/file/2498/ed26_sustainability_appraisal_table_52_update