Javid’s ‘persistent failure’ jabs at Jorvik remain justifiable

1954. A great year all round – Wolverhampton Wanderers won the football league first division (the Premier League in old money) for the first time, Elizabeth II became the first Monarch to visit Australia (I assume we’ve all watched The Crown during lockdown), but most notably, City of York Council adopted its most recent development plan.

It was the same year that Roger Bannister became the first athlete to run a mile in less than four minutes, and if he’d carried on at this pace by now he’d be approaching nine million miles. 

Fast forward 63 years (!) to the end of 2017 and York was named by the then communities’ secretary Sajid Javid as one of 15 local authorities, which also included the likes of Leeds and Rugby Council, facing central government intervention after failing to keep up the same pace as Sir Roger on its local plan.

A number of the local planning authorities (LPAs) were rather bemused at Javid’s suggestion at intervention. Richard Lewis, Labour-run Leeds City Council’s executive member for regeneration, transport and planning, said: “I can hear the sound of goalposts being moved again! Six to 12 months to update a Local Plan, including drafting, consultation and approval from an inspector, is simply not possible. It makes me worry that government ministers do not understand their own policies.”

Leeds and Rugby have since gone on to adopt their local plans, but it looks like the long wait is set to continue in York. Planning Inspectors have asked the Council to "give serious consideration" to withdrawing its long-awaited local plan from examination after suggesting that the authority may struggle to address the Inspector’s concerns about the strategy's proposed green belt boundaries.

Local plans communicate a set of democratically agreed land use principles to the general public. Even at Planning Potential we get the occasional refusal and, in some cases, ‘politics’, with a small ‘p’, has played a role. Applications can be used as political footballs, and as this example shows, so can York’s local plan.

The last time York was close to submitting a local plan was September 2014, when Labour controlled the Council and cabinet members approved a draft for consultation. The following month, amid concerns that a housing target of 996 might fail examination, members halted plans for consultation and called for further work. Labour lost a by-election and, two months later, councillors voted to reduce the target to 926.

At the time of writing the Council intends to continue with its existing plan, but regardless of whether they opt to withdraw it, further delay is unavoidable.

In December 2020, consultation concerning plans for 300 dwellings on a Green Belt site in York was commenced by national housebuilders - no doubt frustrated with the Council’s progress on its plan. It’ll be interesting to see how the Council responds to the formal submission given the latest setback and whether this application could act as a catalyst for further speculative applications.

In 1954 Winston Churchill became (and remains) the only British Prime Minister to reach his 80th birthday while still in office. I wonder how old Bojo will be (and what tier we’ll all be in) by the time York finally gets its local plan over the line.

I’m off to run a four-minute mile, but if you want further information on how the delay of the new local plan may impact your project, contact [email protected]