News Letter 15th August 2016
Issues that were raised at the last Full Council meeting regarding the draft VALP local plan and the matter of accommodating un-met needs from the southern Bucks districts in the housing market area under the duty to cooperate. Due to the concerns raised by district councillors about the size of this unmet housing need, as well as concerns raised by Vale residents at VALP public exhibitions, AVDC engaged G L Hearn, planning consultants, to review the available land for development within Wycombe District, with reference to the draft Wycombe Local Plan, currently the only other draft plan available.
The Wycombe expectation that AVDC would take 5000 homes as part of an ‘un-met needs arrangement’ as resulted in the G L Hearn review reporting the following – (extract from the full report) “Fundamentally this review demonstrates that a more thorough and rigorous assessment of land availability should be progressed by Wycombe District Council, against a context of unmet housing need”. The headline figures from this initial assessment indicates that there is an estimated additional development potential in your district of at least 2,800 dwellings, over and above that which has been identified in the draft Wycombe District local plan. There may also be the potential to raise the average density assumption to 35 dwellings per hectare to further increase capacity. We have also recently been copied into a submission made to the draft Wycombe district local plan by a developer, who has also identified that in their view there is more capacity that can be delivered in Wycombe district than the draft plan indicates.”
Clearly as suspected there is further work for Wycombe DC to do before it should ask for AVDC to add to its own requirement.
Meeting a housing requirement of 33,300 involves growing each of our strategic settlements by 50%, our larger villages by 22% and our medium villages by 19% as well as delivering a new settlement of 4,500 dwellings within the District and increasing densities. The housing proposals so far to meet this requirement is almost entirely proposed on greenfield land. This amount of growth is challenging in a number of ways, including providing infrastructure to meet this new demand and being able to accommodate a level of growth that local communities can see is justified and accept.
AVDC encourages residents of all ages to have their say on the future of the Vale
With three weeks to go until the end of the consultation process on the draft Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan, AVDC is continuing its drive to get people involved with an animated video on its social media channels.
The plan provides the framework for how the Vale will grow and develop in the coming years and allows for around 33,000 new homes between now and 2033. Residents, businesses and community groups are all being asked to give their views on future housing developments, employment opportunities and leisure and community facilities.
The video directs people to the AVDC website where they can submit their comments and make suggestions on what should be included. It can be found at www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/localplanvideo
The VALP consultation runs until Monday 5 September. More information can be found at www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk