Key Councillor behind proposals to build 3000 homes on Hucknall green belt defends Local Plan

The Councillor behind the controversial Local Plan that proposes building 3000 homes on Whyburn Farm in Hucknall , which is green belt land, has defended the Plan but conceded that "I don't like it, I really don't like that so many people are upset about it."

Councillor Matthew Relf, who represents Sutton Junction and Harlow Wood for the Ashfield Independents, is the Portfolio Holder for Place, Planning and Regeneration at Ashfield District Council.

In this role he was one of the Councillors instrumental in putting the Plan together.

In an exclusive interview with Hucknall Nub News, he was asked if he still felt as positive about the Plan as he did when it was launched and the public consultation into it was opened, on Monday 4 October. He was forthright in his response.

"At the end of the day we are working within the constraints of the national planning system and the criteria we've got to satisfy for the Government but I do still feel that the draft that we've put together is the best that could be done within the constraints that we have.

"It was very much the case of this is the approach you need to follow and that is hard and fast and set by the Government but what has changed since we launched the consultation, is an awful lot of change of rhetoric coming out of the Government.

"For instance, Boris Johnson talking about, in his party conference speech, that going forward councils would not be required to build any homes on green field sites, that is a huge change of planning policy.

"We've seen Michael Gove talking to select committees saying that he thinks that the system might be a bit out of date and the numbers need looking at and that's all happened since we've launched the consultation.

"And that is a big shift which is why we're pressing pause on our Local Plan process so that we can get clarification from the government as to what an earth is actually going to be changing, because they've been coming out with all this rhetoric; they need to now follow it up with actual words in policy."

The opposition to the Local Plan, has been huge, particularly in Hucknall as around 50% of the housing allocation will be built in the town as it stands.

Over 7,500 residents signed a petition opposing the Plan and the 'Hucknall Against Whyburn Farm Development' Facebook group has accrued over 4000 members in less than two months.

Councillor Relf is not surprised at the response of the people of Hucknall though.

"I got into politics off the back of opposing the previous Local Plan. I understand the level of controversy that these things create. I can understand the level of passion that people feel about the situation, we knew full well that whatever Local Plan we put together was going to receive opposition, that is the nature of these sorts of things unfortunately."

The other noticeably large development in the Local Plan, near Cauldwell Road, is in Councillor Relf's Ward and he has been accused of offering guarantees that he can get the development off the Plan at a recent local residents' meeting in Sutton.

He strenuously denied this claim and moved to clarify his comments.

"The point that I made at the meeting is the point that I've done myself with the previous Local Plan when we opposed it as a residents' association before I was an elected member.

"We did a huge amount of research, we did an awful lot of work on that to identify valid planning reasons why the sites that were there were poor sites for selection.

"I spoke at the National Inspector's inspection of that previous Local Plan and he agreed with the valid planning points that we put forward and that was a huge spanner in the works for the previous Labour administration's Local Plan and they had to massively rework it.

"I was making the exact same point: if anybody is able to bring forward valid planning reasons that haven't been picked up by the officers' assessment so far, which is perfectly possible that they are there, that then gives us a new piece of information on which to reassess and re-evaluate the Local Plan.

"And if there are valid planning reasons why any of the sites that are within the draft Local Plan shouldn't be there then they come out, that's all I was saying and that is a perfectly valid, reasonable point to make."

When asked if there is a danger that this could become an egotistical battle with the Ashfield Independents not wanting to lose face by backing down from their Plan, Councillor Relf said: "I'm not an ego person, I'm not like that. This is genuinely a consultation and I fully genuinely expect there to be changes following this consultation but we have to be evidence based about it because if we aren't evidence based about it, it won't get past the national inspector.

He concluded: "If the Government stick to their guns and say you have to follow our national process that's already there and build 8000 homes in the next 15 years then based on the evidence that I have at the minute, the Local Plan that we have put forward I do feel is the one that is of the least harm to Ashfield.

"I don't like it, I really don't like that so many people are upset about it but if the Government forces us to allocate 8000 houses within the planned period then I've not seen an alternative that's there at the minute."

A full District Council Meeting will take place at 4:30pm on Thursday (2 December) when the Local Plan and the Hucknall residents' petition will be discussed.