The Extraordinary Council Meeting on 6th June saw the Council resolve "to formally request the Planning Inspector to pause the Examination Hearings into the Local Plan for a period of three (3) months to allow time for the new council to understand and review the policies and implications of the Local Plan and, after the three month pause, the Council will decide what actions may be necessary before the Local Plan examination may proceed.”
It seemed obvious at the time and, subsequently with the discovery of irrefutable evidence, that the ultimate intention by a cohort of disaffected councillors is to scrap the Local Plan altogether; and that the resolution to 'pause' the Examination Hearings was no more than a device to add a veneer of respectability to achieving their ultimate goal.
It should be remembered that, before the local elections in May, the progress of the LP through to the public Examination Hearings had been approved by Council. Should these dissident councillors get their way it would put the Council back by years and, in the absence of an LP, leave the Borough open to predatory developers who have in the past successfully appealed development approvals where existing plans are deemed to be out of date (as is the case in this Borough). Though by no means perfect (subject as the plan is to government fiat), the eventual adoption of the LP is the only protection we have against the prospect of a developer free-for-all.
A highly vocal minority, principally from Staines, intend to pack the public gallery in support of the motion by an ersatz partisan grouping to ditch the plan completely. Your presence is needed to lend support to those councillors who justifiably wish to put an end to this nonsense.
Please attend by 6.45 pm. The relevant agenda item may be viewed by clicking here
