​As expected, the new revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published this week as Parliament broke for the summer recess.  The full document can be found here on the Govt website.
No doubt there will be further commentary and opinion pieces on this over the coming weeks.
So far the following commentary from The Planner Magazine seems an appropriate summary.  We have highlighted in red the important points for BNG:
 
The much-anticipated revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has finally been published with an increased emphasis on high-quality design - but there are concerns the new framework will put planners under 'significant pressure'.

Housing secretary James Brokenshire said the latest framework will make it easier for planning authorities to challenge poor quality and unattractive development. In particular, it stresses that councils “have the confidence and tools” to refuse applications when the development does not prioritise design quality or complement its surroundings.

The new framework also aims to give communities a greater say in the design of developments. Councils are encouraged to make use of “innovative visual tools” to promote better design and quality and allow residents to see schemes before they are built.

Adopted neighbourhood plans should “demonstrate clear local leadership in design quality, with the framework allowing groups seeking such plans to truly reflect the community’s expectations on how new development will visually contribute to their area”.

Councils will have to apply design policies “in the most appropriate way in their area, recognising that they are well placed to know their area’s unique character and setting”.

“I am clear that quantity must never compromise the quality of what is built, and this is reflected in the new rules,” said Brokenshire.

Local authorities are urged to “exhaust all other reasonable options for development” before considering altering a green belt boundary. It stresses that “considerable evidence” would be needed to alter any such boundary. The framework confirms the housing need methodology set out last year for calculating housing need across different forms and tenures based on a wide range of factors including affordability.

From November 2018 councils will have a Housing Delivery Test focused on driving up the numbers of homes delivered in their area, rather than how many are planned for. This will penalise councils that under-deliver over three years. The frameworks also aims to provide further protection for biodiversity by aligning the planning system more closely with Defra’s 25-year environment plan. It stresses greater importance on air quality when deciding applications and offers more protection for ancient woodland and trees. The revised document replaces the previous NPPF published in March 2012.

The full NPPF document can be accessed here.
 
The full Planner Magazine article and subsequent comment can be found here

It would appear that the revised NPPF makes it more difficult for councils to change Greenbelt boundaries than previously which is good news but concerns have also been aired around the new “housing delivery test”  notably in this article by Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

All that said, we should now see the wheels start turning again in the BNG campaign and, indeed, in the Council’s Planning Processes although at the time of writing the Chiltern District Council’s planning website shows no further updates or mention of the revised NPPF and, indeed, now appears out of date.
​
Watch this space.

This time, Green Belt & AONB to the North-West of Chesham is under threat of development

​BNG have just heard that another new strip of Green Belt and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is under threat of development.   This is in addition to the ongoing threat of 900 homes on the Green Belt to the North-East of Chesham in Lye Green.   

The new application site is located to the North-West of Chesham.  More precisely, to the South-West of Chess Vale Bowling Club on Asheridge Road, bordering on Darvell Drive.

Worryingly, the Developer's Planning Statement uses as justification for building on this Green Belt site the fact that the Council is considering removing Green Belt status from the Lye Green Site to build 900 homes. 
(Ref:  Pg 29 Para 8.34).  Without wishing to sound alarmist regarding this justification, the proposal for the 900 homes on the Lye Green site may become the thin edge of the wedge for the rest of the Green Belt and AONB around Chesham which is already one of the largest settlements within Chiltern District.  Certainly the impression given is that it can do little harm to cram more houses into the already overburdened Chesham area.

Despite being a narrow road, over the previous two decades, Asheridge Road has had more than its fair share of new houses causing traffic and parking challenges for the local residents.  This development will just add to this pressure build-up despite the Developer's naive claims of sustainable transport into Chesham.

The Planning Application and associated Documents can be found here on the Chiltern District Council Planning Portal.  The Application Reference No is
CH/2018/0659/OA
The Consultation closes on Tuesday 5th June (probably 5pm).  

We need to send a strong message to the Council that it is not open season on the Green Belt around Chesham.  It is no more right to build 99 homes on this Asheridge plot as it is to build 900 homes up at Lye Green.  If you have the time over the next ten days to put in a quick objection, this will help get this message across.  In your objection, only refer to the Asheridge site so as not to muddy the water.   

A brief objection is better than no objection at all.  The most painless way to object is to register on the Planning Portal and fill in the online Comments form.  It really is quick & easy and it will even remember your details for next time you wish to object to any planning applications!  My objection took only fifteen minutes to complete.

As Chesham residents, we all have a duty to protect the Green Belt all the way around Chesham not just our immediate neighbourhoods.  Developers and other organisations are beginning to swarm around this precious land to meet their own aims with scant regard to the protection of the Green Belt. 

We hope you can find the time to submit your objection.  Please also share this with your friends, family and colleagues.  

Thanks again for all your support.  
​
The BNG Team
 

Congratulations to all our supporters as we surpassed our fundraising target of £20,000 in April.  We are still leaving all the fundraising channels open and will continue to request funds so that we can exceed the original target as surplus legal funds will be required for this lengthy campaign as matters continue to be delayed and fresh issues are likely to arise..

And lengthy this campaign will be as recently the Council has announced again that the publication date for the Local Plan has once more been pushed back and will not be issued this Summer as they had previously indicated.  This time, they have not given a new date for publication but it is anticipated to be in the Autumn now.

As frustrating as this delay is for all of us, cloaking Chesham in a cloud of uncertainty, BNG are still working away behind the scenes.  We are putting together our evidence base to present to the barrister to formulate a solid legal case.   

The next stage that the BNG community will face arises when the Local Plan does eventually get published.  We will all have six weeks to put in our personal submissions/objections.  The consultation will ask quite technical points and for many people, guidance will be required. BNG are preparing to help our followers on this. BNG together with our retained barrister from Landmark Chambers will be putting together a guide on to how to respond to the Local Plan within the time frame.  To receive this guide, you need to be on our mailing list.  Sign up here.

In the meantime, there are still ways to keep our campaign alive.  We have a new Secretary of State the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, replacing the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP who many of you will have already written to.  Nothing will help Mr Brokenshire settle into the nature and demands of his new role than receiving a number of handwritten (or typed) letters (rather than emails) asking him if he will continue with policies to protect the Green Belt outlined in the new draft National Planning Policy Framework.  Read Phillip Plato's summary of the key points of the new draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).  The new NPPF bodes well for our cause adding further protections for the Green Belt.

Certainly, our local Councillors also need reminding that this threat of building on the Green Belt and overloading Chesham’s infrastructure has not gone away.  More written letters to them will let them know where you, the voters, stand on this topic.  Even if you have already written to them in the past, please write again and ask them what they are doing to protect the Green Belt and to improve Chesham's infrastructure.  Postal addresses and advice on writing letters can be found on our How to Lobby page.  

Thanks again to all the BNG community.  Your financial contributions and messages of support have been much appreciated.  Finally, a few words of wisdom oft repeated by the BNG team:

​Do NOT assume the lack of news means we have been successful!  We were always advised this campaign will be a marathon, not a sprint.

Dear Supporter,
​
​Thanks to your generosity we have now reached over 96% of our £7,000 crowdfunding target!

Our CrowdJustice page was due to close at noon on Tuesday 27 February but the organisers of CrowdJustice have kindly agreed to let our site stay "live" for another 30 days given we are so close to being fully funded.

Thank you all for your generosity to help us fight the Council's flawed proposals for releasing 60ha of land from Green Belt designation which they want "safeguarded" for future housing development. 

Please continue to share this campaign with friends & family and ask them to donate what they can so we can be assured of being fully funded to retain our planning barrister as the final draft Local Plan emerges in the coming months.   Funding instructions here.

Please follow the Brown Not Green website for further news updates.
​
Thank you.
Phillip Plato MRICS
Chairman - Brown Not Green Chesham Ltd
A not for profit company limited by guarantee.

Our fundraising efforts have gone into over-drive mode over the last few weeks and we have made great headway raising in excess of £17k.  Thanks to all those that have contributed.  As you probably know by now we are raising funds to retain a specialist Planning Barrister.  She is Sasha Blackmore of  Landmark Chambers, who are very highly-ranked specialists in Planning Law.  We will use them to pick apart the Council's case for building on the Green Belt.  

Phillip Plato, the BNG Chair, has been out and about on speaking engagements in residents' homes and the Black Cat Pub on Lycrome Road.  The latest stage of his "tour" is at the White Hill Centre, tonight, Monday 12th February at 7.30pm.   

If you haven't had the chance to attend one of our meetings so far, this will be the final chance on this leg of the tour.  Here you will get the latest up-to-date information on our battle to protect the Green Belt around Chesham and ease the strain on our Town's infrastructure.  

This may be the the last BNG speaking engagement for a while but this is by no means the end of our fundraising efforts.   Although we are getting close to our target of £20k,  It should be noted that this is a minimum target to justify retaining a Planning Barrister and our aim should be to exceed it.  To that end we are still asking all those that haven't donated yet to consider helping now in any way they can to help reach our target.  With the Council's "direction of travel" if we do nothing, Chesham will end up with an extra 900 houses on the Green Belt at the top of the hill.  By raising funds to fight this proposal, we can dramatically reduce this figure or even prevent it from happening at all.

​Our Crowdjustice campaign has just 14 days to run by which time it will no longer be possible to pledge money this way.   If you have been thinking about donating but not got round to it, now is the time to do so.  If you would rather donate by cheque or BACS, please visit our Fundraising page for further instruction.  We will also be able to accept cash donations at White Hill tonight.  

The BNG Directors firmly believe this is a cause worth fighting for.  Between them they have personally put in a third of the monies raised so far.  They have put their own money where their mouth is.  We would like to offer a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed.  From those donating four figure sums to the pensioner in their 70s who was sorry that they could only contribute £5.  You have all played your part.  Thank you.

Hopefully see you at the White Hill Centre tonight.

​The BNG Team

The Council’s published responses to the Green Belt Consultation in November 2017 and the outcome of a subsequent disappointing meeting between three BNG Directors and the Chief Planning Officer in early December 2017 has affirmed BNG’s view that they now need to retain a specialist Planning Barrister to advise generally and to represent this campaign at the future Local Plan Inquiry anticipated to be held sometime next year.  BNG have commenced discussions with Sasha Blackmore of  Landmark Chambers, who are very highly-ranked specialists in Planning Law. 
 
Whilst fundraising is going well to fund this professional representation, BNG must ensure they have sufficient funds to cover the Barrister's full involvement and to this end the Chairman of BNG will be speaking at various public and private events in the coming weeks. 
 
If you want to be updated on what is happening please try to attend one of the following events;

• Presentation by P Plato at PRIVATE MEETING at 79 Lye Green Road, on Tuesday 30th January @ 7.30 p.m.
  (contact  Giles Ellerton for info on attendance)
• Presentation by P Plato at OPEN MEETING at Black Cat Pub, Lycrome Road, on Weds 7th February @ 7.30 p.m. (contact www.brownnotgreen.com/contact to advise if attending)
• Presentation by P Plato at OPEN MEETING at White Hill Centre on Monday 12th February @ 7.30pm  
  (contact www.brownnotgreen.com/contact to advise if attending)

 
Alternatively, please keep an eye on our website for updated info and for details of our new crowdfunding initiative where from Midday on Sunday 28th January 2018 we can accept credit card donations via CrowdJustice.com.  Please share this news on your private and social media networks such a Facebook, Twitter etc.  The more people that hear about this the better.

The stark reality is that if we do nothing, we will lose these fields forever and Chesham will have an extra 900 homes eating into the already strained infrastructure.  The Council Plans need to be challenged legally if we are to change their proposed "direction of travel" regarding this much cherished section of Greenbelt.  

Thanks again for your support.

As was feared, recent official publications by the Council confirm that the Local Authority is still proposing changes to the Green Belt boundary to the North East of Chesham. 
 
BNG now feel it will be necessary to hire a specialist barrister to represent BNG in the final official consultation and at the subsequent Examination in Public (Local Plan Inquiry). This was expressed at the Public Meeting organised by BNG in October where a fundraising initiative was launched. 
 
In light of the Council’s publications BNG now urgently renews their call for donations from all residents & businesses in Chesham as the Council’s proposals will have a significant effect upon the wider town if left unopposed.  We already have over 50% of the funds needed to retain a specialist planning barrister. 
 
In the face of the recent Council publications outlined below, BNG now urges the Chesham Community to contribute towards funding professional opposition to these unsubstantiated and damaging proposals for Chesham.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION
 
BNG asserts that the notion of outward expansion of the town into Green Belt is in stark contrast to the more thoughtful Chesham Master Plan being created by the Chesham Renaissance Community Interest Company, under which more homes can be accommodated in the town centre avoiding increased traffic and air pollution but also whilst regenerating the High Street and avoiding loss of any Green Belt.    We fear that if the Council earmark a housing site for over 900 homes that is 2.5km from the town centre it will undermine the excellent work being done by Chesham Renaissance CIC. 
 
The Council’s position on Green Belt Options was summarised on Tuesday 7 November 2017 at the Joint Committee of South Bucks & Chiltern District Councils where Members reviewed the Post Preferred Green Belt Options report that had been published by the planning officers a couple of days before the Council meeting. 
 
This has been the first official indication of the Council’s reaction to the numerous objections made by the community to the Green Belt Options Consultation that the Council had concluded nearly a year ago.                                         
To read the document, please click HERE.
 
In respect of the Green Belt land to the North East of Chesham at Lye Green, despite concerns in the recent report alluding to the sustainability of the location and in spite of the main landowner’s reluctance to release additional land on the site, the planning officer’s recommendation was that the whole 60 hectare site should be removed from Green Belt designation and safeguarded for future development after the end of the new Local Plan in 2036.
 
Many BNG supporters, who had picked up on this announcement, emailed their Councillors or members of the Joint Committee before the meeting.  A number of local residents also attended the Joint Committee Council Meeting near Denham and subsequently expressed their frustration to BNG at the minimal amount of time given to debate this important matter.
 
Furthermore many attendees complained that more time was spent debating and approving a £5,000 loyalty bonus to planning officers than the Post Preferred Green Belt Option report.
 
The Chesham location was one of four of the 15 Green Belt Preferred Options listed in the report with a recommendation that the whole site should be removed from Green Belt designation and safeguarded for future development after the end of the new Local Plan in 2036 or at any early Local Plan Review (normally every 5 years).
 
All the remaining 11 Green Belt Option sites, bar one, are also recommended for removal from the Green Belt designation but specifically for development within the forthcoming Local Plan period.
 
The Chief Planning Officer, Graham Winwright responded to the only question raised by one of the Councillors at the Joint Committee on the proposal to “safeguard” land, saying that “no final decision” has yet been made but that this report “merely gave an indication of the direction of travel” in the ongoing Local Plan process.
 
The Chairman of BNG, Phillip Plato, spoke to Mr Winwright after the meeting and asked him to confirm that it would be inappropriate for any unsustainable location to be safeguarded in the Local Plan.  Phillip also highlighted the risks of removing 60ha from Green Belt protection when only about 26ha are regarded by the Council as “developable” or necessary for the perceived housing need. Within hours of asserting unsustainable locations should indeed not be removed from Green Belt and earmarked for development, Mr Winwright sought to modify his response given after the Council Meeting and stated in an email to Mr Plato that “I do not think an ‘unsustainable location’ should be the determining factor in whether land should be safeguarded from the Green Belt but rather whether any resultant development is capable of being sustainable”
 
[Editor’s note:  For the avoidance of doubt, the Planning definition of the word safeguarding used by Mr Winwright here means protecting for development rather than protecting against the development.  Therefore safeguarded land would be built on.]
 
BNG have asserted that the site NE of Chesham at Lye Green is unsustainable, undeliverable, unviable, undesirable and that to date the Council have failed to demonstrate the existence of any demonstrable exceptional circumstances being justified for this site’s removal from Green Belt designation.
 
National Planning Guidance (NPPF) is clear and states that Green Belt boundaries should only be changed in “exceptional circumstances”.  Case law has indicated that housing needs alone are not “exceptional circumstances”.  BNG now feel they MUST fund a specialist Barrister to argue the case against this site being removed from Green Belt as development at that location would harm the wider town too.
 
BNG appreciate there may well be a case for a mix of Brownfield and Green Belt development in the administrative area of Chiltern & South Bucks although given the topography of Chesham and the many concerns relating to Lye Green specifically and Chesham generally, they feel any Green Belt proposals need to be somewhere else and that the mix should strive to be mostly brownfield.
 
In terms of Green Belt, BNG feel that the starting point must be what National Guidance says.  Specifically, whether there are “exceptional circumstances” for an area being removed from Green Belt designation in the first place. Case law indicates that neither the process of preparing a Local Plan nor housing need alone constitutes “exceptional circumstances”.   Only after identification of such “exceptional circumstances” should questions be asked of whether the land should be safeguarded or whether it is sustainable for proposed development. 
 
In terms of the Lye Green area the latest report (Post Preferred Green Belt Options – Nov 2017) states that “exceptional circumstances could exist” (our italics) subject to further evidence base work, testing etc. BNG submit that this is not enough and that only after exceptional circumstances are demonstrated, should any site be considered for removal from Green Belt designation.  Therefore, it seems premature to be recommending this site for removal from Green Belt as well as “safeguarding” it. Even more so where there are concerns on sustainability, deliverability, viability and the methodology being used by the Council to quantify housing need.
 
A specialist planning Barrister is now to be retained to make the formal submissions to the final draft Local Plan in June 2018 AND to then appear at the subsequent Examination in Public (Local Plan Inquiry) to highlight these issues before an independent Planning Inspector.  Please pledge or donate to the BNG fundraising campaign. (CLICK HERE)
 
Please share this news article with family, friends and social media.
​
Thank you.

Post Script:  On a separate but connected note, BNG Supporters will be interested to read a letter addressed to to the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, the Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government from a handful of Parliamentary Members including the Rt Hon Cheryl Gillan MP.  It is self-explanatory and can be read by clicking here.  This news was echoed in the recent Budget where Phillip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer announced "the government will continue their strong protection of our Green Belt.”  Read the comprehensive CPRE reaction to the Budget by clicking here.

Dear Supporter

Many thanks for all those that took part in yesterday's email campaign to the Head of Chiltern District Council and her fellow Councillors. If you haven't yet, it is not too late to take part.  See yesterday's News post further below. 

Today we are looking for a show in numbers at this evening's Joint Planning Committee Meeting.   

Members of the BNG team will be in attendance at the Chiltern and South Bucks Joint Committee Meeting, tonight, Tuesday 7th November at 6.30pm at Room 6, South Bucks District Council, Capswood, Oxford Road, Denham, UB9 4LH.

We are pushing for Phillip Plato of the BNG team to be allowed to present to the Planning Committee.  We will also use this opportunity to lobby individual Councillors on the Planning Committee and challenge the Green Belt Development Options Appraisal Document which currently recommends the land to the North-East of Chesham be removed from the Greenbelt.

​It will strengthen our message if we have a strong show of numbers.  Banners will be provided.

Fill your cars with friends, family and neighbours.  Arrive early and dress warm (we may not all squeeze into Room 6!)

We are not there to disrupt the meeting but we do wish to show the strength of local feeling against these proposals. 

​We hope you can join us there.

Dear Supporter,

We need your URGENT assistance as we need people to quickly email the Head of Chiltern Council:

Isobel Darby - idarby@chiltern.gov.uk

THIS NEEDS TO SENT BEFORE THE COUNCIL MEETS ON TUESDAY EVENING, 7th NOVEMBER

As predicted at our BNG Open Meeting with Cheryl Gillan MP just three weeks ago, Chiltern & South Bucks Joint Council Planning Committee, is due to meet to consider the Green Belt options recommendations from the planning officer this coming Tuesday  at 6.30 pm. 

In respect of our site in Lye Green, to the North-East of Chesham, the recommendation by the Chiltern Planning Officers for Lye Green is that the whole site is removed from Green Belt designation & “safeguarded” for future development!   

This is an appalling suggestion given only 26ha (43%) of the whole 60ha site is regarded as develop-able. Continued Green Belt designation will safeguard it perfectly well as it has done for many decades.

Most importantly, the site is at an unsustainable location being too far from public transport and places to shop/work and is inappropriate for "safeguarding". 

The recommendation flies in the face of the site's scoring within the Council's own Evidence Base and their Green Belt assessment and therefore the recommendation is contrary to guidance in the National Planning Policy Framework and the recent Housing White Paper. 

It will also expose the hypocrisy of the Council’s boasts to always strive for “sustainable development” in the area and it will probably undermine the excellent work currently being done by Chesham CIC Renaissance too.

Given the fact that the main landowner does not want to sell the whole site either, the whole site is clearly not deliverable and the officer's recommendation makes no sense and offers a dreadful option of uncertainty in planning terms over the next 20 years.    
​
Please send an immediate email to Isobel Darby copying in all other other Chiltern Councillors (click here for the full mailing list) reciting the above and any other issues you wish to raise in the hope we can get the elected Councillors to reject this lamentable recommendation being made by an unelected planning officer! 
Thank you. 

The BNG team

Today, I was privileged to sit among some of the brightest minds Chesham has to offer to hear a presentation of the second stage of the Chesham Masterplan and Launch of the Public Consultation which begins tomorrow, November 4th.

We at Brown Not Green (BNG) have been campaigning against building on Greenbelt proposing that brownfield should be used first.   Although we agree the need for more housing, we at BNG are not really coming up with any detailed solutions to the housing need problem in Chesham.  The good folk of Chesham Renaissance, the Community Interest Company (CIC) set up for Chesham, have gone much further by coming up with a developed plan to not only protect the Greenbelt around Chesham but to build sustainable homes and promote carefully located employment land all within and around the environs of Chesham.  Their joined-up thinking regarding infrastructure, transport, parking, pollution, quality of life, quality of employment and variability & affordability of different housing types shows far more imagination and innovation than the lazy planning option of just plonking 900 homes on the Greenbelt at the top of a very steep hill, a mile and half from the station.

So impressed was the attending Rt Hon Cheryl Gillan MP with the ground breaking work that the Chesham Renaissance CIC are doing with their bottom-up approach to building homes and re-invigorating Chesham that she would like to use them as a shining example to be shared with her colleagues, including the PM, in Parliament.  Likewise, the Leader of the Chiltern District Council, Isobel Darby was very supportive.  Every Councillor that spoke at this meeting appeared to be very much in support.  We all recognised there is still much work to be done and many challenges lay ahead but none of these challenges are insurmountable.  

If everyone is so convinced that this is the way forward and that Chesham's Greenbelt can be protected, why have we still not heard that the Greenbelt Option #1, the land to the North-East of Chesham, is no longer under threat?  The meeting was well attended by many elected officials ranging from the local MP, County, District and Town Councillors.

The Head of Planning for Chiltern & South Bucks was not in attendance and it is this person that ultimately decides whether the Chesham Masterplan is incorporated into the Local Plan for Chiltern and South Bucks.    It appears that the Head of Planning, playing his cards very close to his chest, still needs convincing regarding the strength of the Chesham MasterPlan and the protection of Chesham's Greenbelt despite the fact that building on Greenbelt without exceptional circumstances flies in the face of the Government National Planning Policy Framework.  

Chesham Renaissance need to build a strong Evidence Base, thus one of the reasons for their Public Consultation.  This consultation is in the form of an easy-to-complete questionnaire.  Your response can be as brief or as long as you like.  Your response will be used to shape and confirm the next stage of the Masterplan.   What you say today will go towards designing the Chesham of the future.  This is a real chance to have your say on how the Masterplan develops.

If you wish to find out more about the Chesham Masterplan, they will have an exhibition at Chesham Town Hall, tomorrow, Saturday November 4th between 10am and 3pm.  Try and get along there.  If you can't make it, it is worth investing the time exploring their fabulous website www.cheshammasterplan.org.   

I came away from this meeting, very much inspired.  Chesham Renaissance have a great team of Directors.  They may have had what started out as a vision but they are heavy hitters and I have every confidence that if the Masterplan is incorporated into the Local Plan they can make it happen.  The BNG Team are very much in favour of this project and urge our supporters to take part in the Chesham Masterplan Consultation.   As with the BNG petition - even more so in fact - the more responses they receive the better.

Please share this post with your friends, family and social media.

​Dicky Biddle
​BNG Team

​PS And if you haven't had a chance, don't forget to visit our Fund-raising page.  It looks like we may be needing to commence legal work very soon.