Council Motion – 22nd July 2010

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Proposed by: Councillor Ian Beardsmore

Seconded by: Councillor Colin Strong

Under Standing Order 16.3, the Council has received Notice of the following Motion:

“Council notes the substantial over-development that has taken place across the Borough in the last decade to the detriment of our environment.

Council further notes that many new dwellings across Spelthorne have been built on back gardens.

Council welcomes the recent moves by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government to end ‘garden grabbing’ by developers and the removal of top-down targets for house building.

Council resolves:

1) That in order to compensate for the exceptional over-development in the last decade to substantially reduce the rate of new development over the next 5 years

2) To resist any new dwelling built on back gardens.

3) To work towards substantially increasing the number of new family homes with gardens as a proportion of the number of new dwellings that are built each year.”

Councillor R.A. Smith-Ainsley circulated the following amendment to the Motion which was seconded by Councillor H.A. Thomson

“Council notes development that has taken place across the Borough in the past decade as part of the Council’s strategy to deliver housing as required by our top down housing targets.

Council further notes that many new dwellings across Spelthorne have been built on back gardens which had been designated as Brownfield land.

Council welcomes the recent moves by the Conservative led coalition government to amend PPS3 and give LPAs more power to refuse ‘back garden’ development where appropriate.

Council notes that as one of the leading planning authorities in the country, with an already adopted Core Strategy it has already been able to start on long planned work on Supplementary guidance on ‘Design of Residential Extensions and New Residential Development and Size of Dwellings. These will further strengthen the Council’s position in rejecting poor development on any type of site, securing high standards of design and ensuring new dwellings meet local needs.

The Council resolves:

1 To take into account the change in PPS3 along with all the other guidance in our adopted Core Strategy as well as Supplementary Planning Guidance and other relevant planning issues when determining development applications on ‘back garden’ land; and

2 To affirm the importance of the supplementary guidance the Local Development Framework Working Party will be bringing forward over the coming months to deal with design issues and size of new dwellings.”

Councillor T.W. Crabb asked for a point of order as he felt that the amendment was a negative to the motion which under Standing Order 18.7 was not permitted. The Head of Corporate Governance clarified the matter and the amendment was allowed.

Commentary 

The purpose of the amendment was to wreck the intention of the motion. The effect of the Conservative amendment was to avoid condemning the over-development that has been all too evident in Spelthorne and to indicate that they have no intention of using the coalition’s reversal of Labour policy on garden-grabbing to support residents.