Conservative group leader at Harborough District Council says fast-track Local Plan process ‘insults local taxpayers’

Leaders at Harborough District Council are holding a meeting to address concerns raised by Conservative councillors.Leaders at Harborough District Council are holding a meeting to address concerns raised by Conservative councillors.
Leaders at Harborough District Council are holding a meeting to address concerns raised by Conservative councillors.
The opposition leader at Harborough District Council (HDC) has accused the leadership of cutting corners to meet the tight timetable to develop the district’s new Local Plan.

In a letter to the council’s chief executive John Richardson, Conservative Group leader Jon Bateman has outlined concerns over the plan’s development after the new government proposed changes to the national planning policy, doubling national housing targets to 1.5million.

The announcement followed the council’s agreement to develop a new Local Plan before June 2025, in order to include a portion of Leicester’s housing target, it is unable to meet.

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The council decided to push ahead, despite the government announcement, identifying potential housing sites across the district – of which only a fraction, it says, will needed.

It says pausing the process would waste time spent preparing the plan, and costs over £1million.

It also said if a new plan was not adopted, the district would be more vulnerable to speculative planning applications by developers.

But its fast-track approach has been slammed by Conservative councillors who say the process does not allow sufficient scrutiny and ‘insults local taxpayers’.

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In his letter, Cllr Bateman criticised how briefings and presentations were approached, including claims of short notice and low participation, lack of recordings, and complex issues and incomplete work presented over video calls via Microsoft Teams, with ‘no opportunity for adequate scrutiny’.

He wrote officers were ‘proceeding based on assumptions and presumptions’, adding there has been ‘insufficient meaningful engagement with elected councillors, residents/taxpayers and other stakeholders’.

Prior to plan’s publication date of January 8, he says there are two full council briefings in November and December.

He continues: “We presume the full evidence will be published on the 8th January 2025. If so, that will leave just seven days for councillors and local residents to go through the report and Evidence base – which no doubt will run to thousands of pages, and prepare for the meeting.

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“It also does not provide time for residents to submit questions to council.

“The timescale also prevents members, stakeholders and residents from submitting written questions in time to be considered at the council meeting.

“This is both insulting (and potentially open to legal challenge) to local taxpayers who are footing the £3.1million bill for this plan, and for those residents who have voted for all councillors.

“It creates a democratic deficit.”

He said if improvements and changes were not made, there would be little confidence in the resulting Local Plan.

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He continued: “The Conservative Group understand that the officers and the administration group are wedded to the adopted tight timetable they placed on themselves at the start of this process.

“We pointed out last December that this was unrealistic, and that by working to such an artificial timetable and allowing it to take precedence over the proper and constructive engagement, at all costs, of public and councillors, meant that there is a fundamental weakness in the plan when the plan is submitted for examination.

“We remain of that view.”

A spokesperson for HDC said: “The council has received a letter from the leader of the Conservative Group at Harborough District Council about the process for preparing the new local plan. A meeting with the opposition is being arranged to discuss the points that have been raised.”

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