Dacorum Borough Council is in the middle of the process of drawing up a new Local Development Plan. As things stand at the moment Tring is facing a 55% increase in the number of local houses. Berkhamsted faces a 23% increase.
Since the plans were put out to local consultation (a so-called ) back in February, Liberal Democrats have been protesting both about the massive housing numbers being imposed on the Borough by the Tory Government and the imbalanced way the Borough is proposing to allocate the new developments.
At a recent committee meeting the Liberal Democrats pushed for a delay in moving on to the next stage in the planning process. That would have been the where new local plan, possibly after some changes by the planning officers, is submitted (as are any comments) to the Planning Inspectorate.
Any public comments at this stage can only be with respect to , e.g. ‘Tests of Soundness’ and legal compliance. After this stage, the Draft Local Plan goes directly to the Secretary of State.
Responding to pressure from the Liberal Democrats, to public opinion and to disquiet among the Conservative councillors themselves, following that committee meeting, the DBC Cabinet has voted to defer the Regulation 19 Publication.
Cllr Sheron Wilkie (Lib Dem, Tring Central) welcomed the decision, saying: “The indications are that a substantive amount of work is going to take place now, and it may take another two years to complete a report. In contrast to what we have been hearing up until now, there seems at last to be some recognition among the Conservatives that another Regulation 18 Consultation is likely to be needed, which the Lib Dems have been pushing for.”