Questions must be answered over this housing plan fiasco

INCREASINGLY, I wonder if the world is going completely mad and practical good sense has flown out of the window.

For the last six years, Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) has been working on producing the Harrogate District Sites and Policies Development Plan which outlines how this area is to meet the housing shortfalls projected by the Government.

Nearly in its final stages, the Government-appointed inspector, whose apparent role was to review the soundness of this plan, has written to HBC expressing such major concerns that it appears they will now need to start the process all over again.

It would seem that his issues surround the number of houses this plan will actually yield (390 extra dwellings per annum rather than the necessary 862 to 1,086 per annum) suggested by government data. Thus we are told that based on the most up-to-date evidence it is apparent that the council’s plan would 
fail by a considerable margin 
to meet the housing needs of 
the area.

The Government is so obsessed with the apparent lack of housing that they have indicated to all councils that if there is no plan then there has to be a “presumption of acceptance of all development” so that housing needs can start to be met.

Thus, after all the apparent consultation and money spent on delivering the local development plan HBC, and we, now actually have less influence on what can be built and can in fact be overruled by the Secretary of State if planning applications are not approved.

There are serious questions to be asked: who on earth has allowed this to happen? Who has got the figures so wrong? Where has this up-to-date evidence come from? Are other areas having the same issues?

Was it always such a difficult task that the development plans were bound to fall at the last hurdle making it easier for central government to do exactly what they please?

As someone who has bothered to engage with this process and provided feedback outlining my concerns at the plans, I am now flabbergasted by where those living in the Harrogate area now find themselves.

It is time that the Government and HBC reviewed the actual number of additional houses needed and the best places to put them. The process should be transparent, honest and simple and include the residents of the Harrogate area.