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Buckinghamshire Council to consider whether to withdraw the Chiltern and South Bucks Local Plan

| October 14, 2020

Buckinghamshire Council is to consider whether to withdraw the Chiltern and South Bucks Local Plan.

On Wednesday 21st October 2020 Buckinghamshire Council will be considering whether to withdraw the Chiltern and South Bucks Local Plan.

The draft Chiltern and South Bucks Local Plan (CSB Plan) was inherited by Buckinghamshire Council on Wednesday 1st April 2020. However over the summer the Council has had an opportunity to review the plan in the light of recent Planning Inspectors’ comments, the unprecedented impact of Covid-19, and the new government White Paper Planning for the Future which envisages a new planning system for England.

Councillor Warren Whyte, Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement, said: ‘In May 2020 the Planning Inspectors who were examining the draft CSB Plan pointed out that there was a strong likelihood that the only option will be for the Council to withdraw the Plan.

This was because, in their view, Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils had not cooperated with Slough Borough Council to identify sites in the plan for meeting some of Slough’s housing needs which would otherwise not be met.

Whilst we did not agree with the findings of the Inspectors, we do believe the time is right to refocus our efforts and resources on completing a new Local Plan for the whole of Buckinghamshire.

We do acknowledge that withdrawal of the CSB Plan may put pressure on housing land supply in the short term, but we believe this will be mitigated by the fact that 87.5% of the CSB Plan area is within the Green Belt and 43% in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which offers it a significant degree of protection.

The impact of Covid-19 has also been considerable and has brought significant changes to how and where we work, future shopping needs and our town centres. All this will need careful consideration and our strategy for addressing these issues should be incorporated into the new Buckinghamshire Local Plan.

Neither the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (VALP) or the Wycombe Local Plan is affected by the decision to withdraw the CSB Plan. The Wycombe Plan is adopted and Buckinghamshire Council is continuing to pursue the adoption of the VALP which is expected by early 2021.

*Source of article : Press release from Buckinghamshire Council.

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