Call for Sites

Since our last newsletter, Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils have issued a “Call for Sites” asking local people to identify sites within both districts that may have the potential for development over the Local Plan period, up to 2036.
This 'Call for Sites' exercise will run from 3 December 2018 to 14 January 2019 and will be used to update the Council's Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA), which will be part of the evidence base for the new Local Plan.

From the Council email:

We would therefore invite landowners, agents or potential developers to put forward sites for consideration which might have potential for contributing towards Chiltern and South Bucks’ future needs for housing, specialist housing such as for older people .... employment uses, town centre uses, community facilities, mixed use developments, sport and recreation, no specific use, or other development uses where there is considered to be a specific or general need or opportunity over the period to 2036.

The Councils' Call for Sites web page can be found here.

BNG are hopeful that as well as bringing their SHLAA up-to-date that perhaps the Council have realised that they may have jumped the gun in considering Green Belt sites for housing development before fully exploring all other options first.

The BNG Team are aware of Brownfield sites and contaminated sites within the Greenbelt that were not considered by the Council when they originally embarked on the Draft Local Plan (2014-2016).  Examples are a seven acre site that could easily accommodate dozens of dwellings that has had planning refused.  Another current site laboriously held up in the delayed planning process but available now could accommodate 90-plus dwellings.  Neither site would impact valued Greenbelt.   The BNG Team believe there are other potential sites within the two districts that have not yet been considered or have been overlooked by the Council that could contribute to the Districts’ housing need. 

If you, or anyone you know, are aware of any such sites please send them through to us here at BNG with a map clearly identifying the boundary.  You do not need to be the landowner but ideally should provide information and the views of the landowner.

Points to note:

• Allocations for any type of land use will be considered.
• Include a map clearly showing site boundaries and land ownership
• There is no minimum (or maximum) size of site at this stage. The housing Land Availability Assessment will consider all sites and broad locations capable of delivering five or more dwellings, or economic development on sites of 0.25ha (or 500m2 of floor space) and above.

​If you are the landowner, you should complete the Site Nomination Form and send this directly to the Council but also informing BNG; otherwise send your site nominations through to us.

It is worth being fairly open-minded about what land can be used for.  For example, land that may be useful for industry but not residential should be considered.  By taking Industry out of Chesham, we free up space for residential in the town centre.   We should consider all unused sites in South Bucks & Chiltern Districts.  It is better to put sites forward and have them refused than not put sites forward at all.

As The Brown Not Green Campaign enters into its third year of existence, the BNG Team, would like to thank everyone for their continued support and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The BNG Team