I welcome your comments on this and any other matter affecting our local communities - cllr.h.mitchell@basingstoke.gov.uk.

The Local Plan is the main document that defines what can be built and where across the Borough. Right now (January and February 2006) the Council is debating the report of the Local Plan Inquiry, in which the Inspector recommends many changes to the draft submitted by the Council. The documentation amounts to at least a thousand pages!

At a fairly stormy committee meeting on 9th January Councillors voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Inspector's recommendations (and against those of officers) on two significant matters:

Settlement Policy Boundaries

The jargon in planning is beyond belief. But I now think I have a pretty good grasp of it. The settlement policy boundary is a line drawn round a map of your village. Inside 'anything goes' - a developer can apply to knock down one or two houses and build an estate, or you can build a house in your back garden etc etc. There are of course restrictions (set out in the same Local Plan), but the basic principle is that "development is allowed". Outside the boundary is 'countryside'; in sharp contrast, the principle is that development is not allowed, 'except'. The exceptions are (need you ask!) complex, but the effect is that its much more difficult to get consent for development. The Inspector recommended that many existing boundaries should be removed, including two in my own ward, at Highclere and Stoke. Officers want to delay this decision and reconsider the whole matter as part of the next stage, something called a 'Framework'. Councillors took the view that this was undemocratic. People had objected to these boundaries in particular places; the Inquiry was held; evidence was heard - to simply reject the Inspector's list en bloc was to make a mockery of the Inquiry process.

German Road, Bramley

This was a site earmarked for development but the Inspector ruled that development on the scale envisaged was inappropriate. Officers disagreed but councillors again voted to uphold the Inspector's recommendation. Officers had compared Bramley with Tadley, Overton and Whitchurch. Councillors comprehensively demolished this assertion.

There were many other changes. In many cases I agreed with the officers' views; in others I argued for the Inspector's view. We debated this again in a specially convened meeting on Monday 16th January. It goes to Cabinet on 31st January and to Council on 16th February. Watch this space!