Neighbourhood Plans Do Work!

Whilst there has been lots of excellent support for the group of Audlem volunteers and Parish Councillors known as the Steering Committee, as in all things there have been some occasional negative comments: it's a waste of time; it's too late; they don't work etc etc.

Well, towns and villages now have a better chance of resisting unwanted new housing after one of Britain's most aggressive developers lost an important test case, as reported on in The Times.

The residents of Winslow in Buckinghamshire, ignored their naysayers and developed their Neighbourhood Plan. So, when our favourite Cheshire-based developer sought to double Winslow in size to 4,000 homes, whereas 98 per cent of local people had voted in favour of a Neighbourhood Plan under which only 450 homes would be built, Gladman initially tried to prevent the residents from voting on the plan by seeking an injunction to prevent a local referendum from taking place.

After losing that case, Gladman then challenged the legality of the plan at the High Court.

A judge dismissed the case in December, but last month the company made an appeal against that decision. The Times reported that the developer has now withdrawn the appeal, meaning that Winslow's plan will be used to decide where new homes should be built

The Times revealed last year how Gladman had sent a letter to landowners in another area advising them to 'move quickly whilst the local authority is vulnerable'. A Winslow councillor, said that Gladman appeared to have given up boasting about its aggressive approach to obtaining planning permission for housing. He said that the company had recently removed statements from its website in which it described itself as 'obsessed with winning consents' and said it was expert at obtaining 'residential planning consents on edge-of-town greenfield sites'. Aw shucks!

The full Times article can be foundhere.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.