Council Agrees to Delay Local Plan Submission in Bid to Protect Green Belt

Posted by UK Property Forums on 16th December 2024 -

Councillors have agreed a proposal to delay submission of its Local Plan to try to protect its Green Belt.

Three Rivers District Council’s full council meeting on December 10 decided the authority should delay its Local Plan submission so that a review of Green Belt can be carried out.

It wants the number of homes it has been required to build reduced. The Government had proposed a mandatory target of 13,303 homes for Three Rivers over the next 18 years.

Council leader Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst (pictured) said: “We are committed to protecting as much of our Green Belt as possible. The Government’s new policies now require us to provide clear evidence that release of Green Belt would fundamentally undermine its function across the area of the plan (Three Rivers).

“Effectively, this means preventing merging of communities in our area. That is a key function of the Green Belt. We have already undertaken massive work of Green Belt sites, promoted by developers, and rated them from low to very high harm and excluded sites from rated moderate to very high harm from our last plan, which received large support from residents and community and environmental groups.

“Officers have advised that this new crucial piece of work must now be undertaken if the council wishes to make a case for not meeting the Government’s housing target in full.

“Whilst this means a delay in submitting a plan, I do not want the council to be forced to submit a plan for 13,000 homes which is what we would have to do without this new work.”

As a result of the delay, the council will seek new brownfield sites for development. So far only about 1,000 homes can be provided on brownfield sites.

The council will also update other evidence including an updated open space sport and recreation study.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst added: “The updated Local Development Scheme pushes back the expected adoption date by a few months to give our officers enough time to build our case further that this high housing figure is unrealistic. If we can move quicker once we gather the extra evidence, we will.”

The key dates are now:

• Publication (Regulation 19) – February/March 2026
• Submission (to the Planning Inspectorate) – April/May 2026
• Adoption – September/October 2026