BROWN NOT GREEN
  • Home
  • About
    • What Was Proposed?
  • Donation Refund policy
  • Archived Pages
    • Gate Owners' Prescriptive Rights
    • Fundraising
    • What you can do >
      • Public Rights of Way
  • Upcoming Events
    • News
  • Link Page
  • Contact
    • History
    • Local Plan Examination
    • Asset of Community Value
    • Professional Advisors >
      • Three Minute Survey
      • Old Home Page

Latest News

Success in Listing the the Green Belt as an Asset of Community Value (plus Consultation Dates Extended to August 23rd)

16/7/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture

June and July has been a VERY busy period for the Brown Not Green (BNG) campaign but we have some important news to share with you that illustrates how your support and pledges of money ARE making a difference. 
​
  • First, we are delighted to announce that we have recently been told that our application to have the fields at Lye Green listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) has been APPROVED!  This is a very significant development which I will explain later in this message.
 
  • Brown Not Green had recently raised concerns with the planning department about incorrect assertions being made by a few Councillors that any letters & written comments made by the public would not be considered to the current Regulation 19 consultation unless they were submitted online or via the Council’s website Portal.  These assertions have since been confirmed as INCORRECT.  Any form of written comment made by the public (including letters or written statements) and submitted before the deadline WILL be considered and passed to the independent planning inspector.
 
  • Finally, (and probably because of the above) the deadline for making comments under the Regulation 19 Public Consultation has just been EXTENDED from 19 July to 23 August 2019.


The listing of the fields at Lye Green as an Asset of Community Value now means that we have demonstrated that the land satisfies the requirements of the Localism Act 2011, namely that the land is widely used by the community for a variety of informal outdoor recreational uses and as such the land “improves the wellbeing of the local community”.  This was the burden of proof we had to satisfy under our s.88 application. 

The land will now be listed as an ACV for 5 years and this gives BNG the “Right to Bid” for the land. Restrictions will be recorded on the landowner’s title at Land Registry.  This means that if the landowner(s) wish to sell the land at any time during the next 5 years, they must give a clear prior 6 months’ notice to Brown Not Green to enable us to arrange finance/loans etc in order for BNG to bid for the land.   BNG as a not for profit company, have stated that any purchase of the land would be held in Trust for continued community benefit in order to maintain the status quo; namely to maintain the land in agricultural use whilst also ensuring the community still has access for the many informal recreational uses that have been enjoyed by hundreds of people for decades.

However, this designation as an ACV also raises several material planning considerations that we want to put before the Inspector too.  Including:
  • The 13 Green Belt sites being allocated in the new Local Plan for housing are supposed to represent the “worst performing” Green Belt sites in the District. The Land at Lye Green is one of these sites in the emerging Local Plan - (SP BP2).  We have long maintained that the Council’s Green Belt site selection methodology was flawed and based on many preconceptions and assertions that were not properly tested. The very fact that the land at Lye Green is now listed as an ACV underlines its informal recreational value (which is one of the few uses encouraged under Green Belt designation) and as such this listing supports our contention that this Green Belt site, at least, has been incorrectly bought forward for allocation for development.
  • We also assert that now the land is listed as an ACV, it really should be removed from any allocation for development in the Local Plan and it should be retained in Green Belt. This is because any allocation for development is (like the grant of planning permission) only going to add to the land’s financial value and would therefore undermine the very principles of the community’s right to bid afforded under the Localism Act 2011.  This principle was adopted following a similar decision passed down in the Court of Appeal last year in the case of Banner Homes vs St Albans City & District Council 2018. 
  • We will be asking the Inspector to consider this precedent and the perverse implications of leaving an Asset of Community Value allocated for development in the Local Plan therefore.

We urge anyone still contemplating making a Regulation 19 Submission under the current (now extended) consultation process to consider this too when drafting their comments to the Inspector! 

We are also heartened by the many messages of support and the continuing donations through our CrowdJustice portal to fund the legal & professional fees we are incurring to protect this land and the wider town from the effects of its inappropriate development.

Thanks again for your continued support

The BNG Team
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Members of the Brown Not Green Campaign

    Archives

    May 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
    • What Was Proposed?
  • Donation Refund policy
  • Archived Pages
    • Gate Owners' Prescriptive Rights
    • Fundraising
    • What you can do >
      • Public Rights of Way
  • Upcoming Events
    • News
  • Link Page
  • Contact
    • History
    • Local Plan Examination
    • Asset of Community Value
    • Professional Advisors >
      • Three Minute Survey
      • Old Home Page