Councillors “call-in” Wirral Council Cabinet decision on controversial Local Plan for further scrutiny
Councillors on Wirral Council have “called-in” a Cabinet decision made just before Christmas (17th December 2018) about the controversial Local Plan.
Video of the Cabinet meeting starting at the point where the Local Plan is discussed is below.
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Cabinet (Wirral Council) 17th December 2018 3 – Local Plan Update Report
I published a piece on this blog last year in advance of the Cabinet meeting headlined Greenbelt consultation returns to Cabinet on 17th December for further decisions.
The Cabinet decision on the Local Plan will now not be implemented until Wirral Council’s Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meet to review the decision. That public meeting is expected to take place on Thursday 7th February starting at 4.00 pm in Committee Room 1, Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
A copy of the decision made at the Cabinet meeting before Christmas which will be discussed by the councillors on the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee is below:
(1) a revised Local Development Scheme be submitted for approval by the Council once the amended future timetable has been determined;
(2) approval be given to amend the Scheme of Delegation of Executive Functions to Officers to delegate to the Corporate Director of Economic and Housing Growth, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning, decisions relating to the approval and publication of the evidence base, and associated technical reports, relevant to the preparation of the Local Plan;
(3) the summary report on the consultation responses received be published in February 2019; and
(4) the Council be requested to continue to lobby the Government, to enable it to use the ONS household projections, published in September, 2018 for the purposes of preparing its Local Plan, which would give an annual target of 488 new residential dwellings per annum.
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Very Interesting, Any Idea of the specific reason why it was called in?
Im sure most if not all residents are very disappointed with WBC handling of the Local Plan and suspicious selection of sites that lack underpinning and evidence to support.
One area of particular concern is the lack of response from the consultation, Not a single comment has been formally responded to and it doesn’t appear that we will have a right to reply to WBC response (if there ever is one)
Its clear legal action will be taken against WBC if they carry on claiming they need to release any greenbelt, there is now too much evidence to the contrary and a good spread of well informed local people who know the truth and are willing to dig deep to support legal action.
lets hope this committee see sense and demand answers to the empty homes and brownfield sites available that must be used in WBC ‘we are brownfield first’ policy!
Thanks for your comment.
Sorry no, unfortunately I don’t know the reasons it was called in yet, but the papers for the call in meeting should be published on Wirral Council’s website by Wednesday 30th January 2019 which will include the reasons for the call in.
I think it’s also best to point out that the Corporate Director of Economic and Housing Growth referred to in the Cabinet decision recently resigned and as far as I know the position is vacant.
As to why Wirral Council haven’t contacted those who responded to the Local Plan consultation, I don’t know the reason why.
The call in will give the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee a chance to scrutinise this issue and Cabinet’s decision making on it.
(2) approval be given to amend the Scheme of Delegation of Executive Functions to Officers to delegate to the Corporate Director of Economic and Housing Growth, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning, decisions relating to the approval and publication of the evidence base, and associated technical reports, relevant to the preparation of the Local Plan;
Anyone know what this reads in English?
Looking at the recently published reasons for the call-in, it appears the Council doesn’t have a Corporate Director of Economic and Housing Growth as the previous post holder resigned.