Our two families spent 6 years going through the planning system from start to a failed appeal (and spent the cost of an expensive car each in the process!). As we see it there are two serious problems with Test Valley's approach to planning and 'sustainable development'.
The first problem with the Test Valley planning is how it's policies relate to the 2008 Climate Change Act (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/part/1). This act states in paragraph 1:
' It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than the 1990 baseline.'
The National Planning Policy Framework ( NPPF https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2) states under 'Planning for climate change' in paragraph 149.
Plans should take a proactive approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change, taking into account the long-term implications for flood risk, coastal change, water supply, biodiversity and landscapes, and the risk of overheating from rising temperatures (In line with the objectives and provisions of the Climate Change Act 2008).
So you would have thought that this meant that council plans would have to help contribute to that 80% carbon reduction target.
An example of the 'plans' mentioned are the borough council's 'Local Plans'. Test Valley's is here:
https://www.testvalley.gov.uk/planning-and-building/planningpolicy/local-development-framework/dpd
The contribution of domestic homes to the overall UK Carbon emissions is about 27% of the UK total (from the HMG ‘Definition of Zero Carbon Homes and Non-Domestic Buildings' http://www.zerocarbonhub.org/sites/default/files/resources/reports/Definition_of_Zero_Carbon_Homes_and_Non-Domestic_Buildings.pdf. The UK Green Building Council puts it at nearer 40% https://www.ukgbc.org/climate-change/ - it depends on what is being inculuded) and approximately 25% of the houses that will exist in 2050 have yet to be built.
Yet the TVBC local plan provides no mechanism for addressing the requirements of the Climate Change Act.
When asked about this during the appeal process TVBC countered ‘The NPPF (2018) does not contain any specific targets that need to be met by local planning authorities in relation to carbon reduction and the reduction of greenhouse gases.’ So although the NPPF does directly commit planning in general to follow the Climate Change Act, TVBC believes that they don't have to do anything about it because no one has given them a target.
The NPPF states in paragraph 7:
The purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. At a very high level, the objective of sustainable development can be summarised as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The Oxford English Dictionary definition of Sustainable Development is: “Economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources”.
The NPPF paragraph 11 states:
Plans and decisions should apply a presumption in favour of sustainable development.
The TVBC Local Plan contains no definition of Sustainable Development that relates to construction and operation of buildings (in any way that would reduce the carbon output of new buildings) and applies exactly the same policies to a high carbon emitting development as it does to a Carbon negative, environmentally friendly, proposal like Timsbury Deeping. In this it cannot be complying with its obligations under the NPPF.
Strangely the Planning Inspectorate seem unwilling or unable to do anything about either of these points and totally ducked these when they were put to them during our planning appeal.
Initially TVBC appeared to be quite supportive. In 2014 the initial pre-application advice stated:
“With regard to the principle of development I would confirm my previous assessment that the development could be appropriately considered to be truly innovative and reflect the highest standards of architecture in accordance with the first two bullet points of paragraph 55.” TVBC Senior Planning Officer, Initial Pre-application advice letter 14/00674/PREAPS (section 55 is the planning policy framework clause that allows 'exceptional dvelopment').
In 2015 the TVBC architects Design Panel commented:
“The Panel considers that this innovative building typology is worthy of encouragement….”
In 2017 the TVBC Building Control Officer said:
“The proposed construction goes far above the minimum standards…. should the project be granted consent a self-sufficient building is likely to be resultant and would be far in excess of most other projects delivered locally, and likely nationally at the present time.”
But after a few changes of staff, those finally running the case at TVBC appeared to chicken out and just kept asking for more reports and surveys continually runing our costs up. Whenever the end of the process looked to be approaching (councils have a limited time to decide on a planning application) they would suck their teeth and suggest we withdraw the application and re submit with more details. When after 2 pre-application advices and 3 full planning applications, over about five years, one of the officers started to suggest that the houses might be a bit large and we should consider making them smaller (the houses had been the same size and number throughout the entire process) we gave up and let the application run it's course and let it go to decision - when, of course, they said 'no' (primarily because our site was in the 'wrong place').
The full planing timeline was as follows:
November 2013 to April 2014 – Pre Application Advice undertaken with TVBC (14/00674/PREAPS).
March 2015 – Full Application submitted (15/00655/FULLS).
Autumn 2015 - the Full Application was resubmitted (15/01848/FULLS).
October 2016 – A pre-planning application was re-submitted (16/02487/PREAPS).
July 2017 - Full application re-submitted (17/01644/FULLS).
31st October 2017 – TVBC Southern Area Planning Committee rejects application (17/01644/FULLS).
26h March 2018 - Appeal submitted (APP/C1760/W/18/3198859)
8th April 2019 - Appeal Rejected.
To see the full set of planing document please see planning reference 17/01644/FULLS on the Test Valley Planning Portal https://view-applications.testvalley.gov.uk/online-applications/