Amber Valley Borough Council has disappointed all those who were hoping that their planning brief for the Derwent Street/ Meadows Edge site would include firm guidance on the size of new buildings.
At a meeting of the Planning Board on 14 December 2009 the Council’s legal advisor claimed that this kind of guidance could only be dictated in ‘higher level’ development plan documents. The advisor also dismissed claims that advice given to East Riding Council about a supermarket development in Howden, Yorkshire, demonstrated that development briefs such as the one Amber Valley are compiling for the Derwent Street site are the appropriate place for public scrutiny of issues such as that relating to size.
The issue is whether a limitation on size flows from the current statutory local plan policies (ER1c, EN27, EN29, TC1 etc.) or whether it is a new policy. Despite the Civic Forum’s arguments that the former is the case, the Board went along with their planning officer’s advice that it was the latter.
There was some support for our position from John Nelson and Bob Moon, both of whom, along with Les Dorey, abstained from the vote. (All others voted for the recommendation.) John Nelson proposed that the council fund the independent retail study suggested by BATS, but the Council’s planning officer assured the Board that the Council already had a bigger study in hand as part of the evidence base for the Core Strategy - but he did not give any timescales. Much was made of the fact that the Core Strategy is scheduled to be adopted by the end of 2011 - but it's already slipped by 3 years, so don't hold your breath! How are the key policies going to be sorted out during the course of next year if the studies to provide the "robust evidence base" have not been started yet?