Hucknall: Ashfield District Council's Local Plan timeframe 'not set in stone' with pause to continue until Government responds

The timetable for progressing Ashfield's controversial draft local plan is "not set in stone" a council leader has said, amid concerns over the document being put on hold.

Councillor Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) reaffirmed the authority will not be conducting any further work on the plan until it receives clarity from the Government on potential policy changes.

Local plans are drawn up by councils to allocate land for development in future years and explain how they will hit Government targets to build new homes.

The council confirmed in November it was pausing the document amid comments made by both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Housing Secretary Michael Gove.

Mr Johnson's statement at the Conservative Party Conference in September outlined a Government plan to prioritise housebuilding on brownfield, disused sites, and for protection to be given to greenfield land.

Mr Gove's comments, made in Parliament in the autumn, described the current methodology of calculating housebuilding targets as "outdated", suggesting the system could be reformed.

Both issues have been central to the wider discussion about Ashfield's local plan, with council leaders suggesting the 8,226-home target is "unmanageable" without building homes on "precious" fields.

The authority says it can only build roughly 1,100 homes on brownfield sites before having to find green space to build the remaining homes.

And leading councillors hope the statements made by the Government could see major changes brought forward to the local plan system, in turn bringing down the number of homes required from the document significantly.

Speaking in the full council meeting on Thursday (January 27), Councillor Zadrozny, leader of the council, explained more details behind the plan's delay.

One of the major developments within the plan proposes 3,000 homes on greenbelt land at Whyburn Farm, Hucknall, while the second large settlement would see 1,000 homes built on greenfield land at Cauldwell Road, Sutton.

These two developments were subject to their own petitions, totalling more than 9,000 signatures, while a motion calling for the plan to be redrawn was also debated when the cabinet met on Tuesday (January 25).

All three submissions were "recognised" and will become part of the formal draft local plan consultation, but no decision on whether to scrap the plan was taken at the meeting.

Jemma Chambers who leads the Hucknall Against Whyburn Farm Development group, and presented one of the petitions at the meeting wasn't disappointed with outcome of the meeting.

Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News, she said: "They agreed that they were supportive of the petition. They took on board the opinions and (agreed) that it would form part of the consultation which is good, that's what we wanted, and it would form part of the Local Plan working group.

"There was some to and fro off the back of that as to whether that Local Plan working group was something that anyone can join or listen to. The upshot is that they are inviting all councillors to that Local Plan working group and that they might open it up to the public and that's unprecedented, so that was exciting.

"To the credit of our (Hucknall) councillors, we had six councillors that were present, and they all spoke, and they were all brilliant. They were really good in the passion that they put forward; it didn't feel scripted."

The Government's Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been approached for a comment on the council's queries.