This response was agreed to be sent to Councillors at Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) following the Extraordinary Parish Council meeting called to discuss the call for housing development sites by HDC:
Hilton’s Response to HELAA Consultation-01
In recent weeks Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) have put a call out for development land due to an underestimation of the number of houses being built not reaching national targets under the heading of HELAA; Housing & Economic Land Availability Assessment. Five sites have been identified in Hilton. All these sites have previously been offered by their owners for development and have always been turned down.
This call for land comes against the backdrop of an emerging and significant new planning policy called ‘Local Plan for Housing and Development to 2036’. This planning policy document will outline the scope and type of development in our part of the county until 2036 and is set to be sanctioned next year.
It is extremely important to understand that none of these sites would be allowable for development under this new policy ‘Local Plan for Housing and Development to 2036’. This is why during the consultation period finishing August 2017, Hilton Parish Council (HPC) submitted a detailed response to HDC in support of the new policy.
Further it would require a dramatic ‘U’ turn in current planning policy, as well as contradicting the draft ‘Local Plan for Housing and Development to 2036’ which states Hilton is designated as a small settlement due to limited facilities such as schools, doctors surgeries etc. As such only infill would likely to be approved within the existing built area of the village.
Add to this other pertinent policies from the Local Plan such as maintaining productive farmland and a host of other bits of emerging policy, development of any of these selected sites in Hilton would represent a colossal turnaround in HDC’s approach to planning.
However we must be vigilant and utilise this current consultation period finishing on the 3rd November to make our opinions known.
You can view details of the selected sites and leave comments at:
http://consult.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/portal/pp/helaa/helaa-10-2017
You will first have to register:
To Register on the Planning Consultation Portal (5)
And then you can leave a comment:
Guidance on making comments on the Consultation Portal July 2017(1)
See below for Hilton Parish Council’s response to Huntingdonshire District Council on the Local Plan for Housing and Development to 2036, made during the recent consultation period:
