FOI request (FOIR-508274091)

Land North of Barley Lane

Requested Mon 17 April 2023
Responded Fri 05 May 2023

Land to the North side of Barley Lane, Hastings

Application for Permission in Principle

The attached application for Permission in Principle is a 'free go' in pursuant to the refusal of application HS/PIP/22/00163 dated 29 March 2022.

The grounds of refusal of the previous application have now been examined by the Applicant's Planning Solicitor ******, and their critique, attached as part of this 2nd application, clearly shows the that the Local Planning Authority (LPA) acted erroneously in the decision arrived at in the Case Officer's Delegated Report.

Rather than simply proceeding straight to Appeal, the Applicant believes his 2nd Application will afford the LPA the opportunity to 'think again' without spending 'taxpayers' hard earnt money on defending an Appeal, and also potentially incurring an Award of Costs against them.

However, the LPA are put on notice should this 2nd Application be Refused then the Applicant will go to Appeal and seek an Award of Costs.

In contemplation of this, the Applicant makes the following Freedom of Information request.

1. During the period of the current Local Adopted Plan, please provide on an annual basis the cost of unsuccessfully defending Planning Appeals both in council officers' time and expense and the use of external consultants and legal costs. Please also include and specify separately any Award of Costs made against the LPA.

2. During the period of the current Local Adopted Plan, please provide on an annual basis the number of completed residential units both in Clive Vale and Ore Village settlement and the Borough as a whole.

3. Please provide the number of applicants currently on the Council's Housing Register for both the Clive Vale and Ore Village settlement if available and the Borough as a whole together with the number of each at the start of the planned period.

4. During the period of the current Local Adopted Plan, please advise as to all Local Wildlife Sites in the Borough that have been Granted Planning Permission for development either as a whole or in part or have been made the subject of an Allocation. Where this has occurred, please specify whether the land in question is or was at that time owned by the Borough Council.

5. In terms of the emerging new Local Plan, please advise as to all Local Wildlife Sites that are being proposed for Allocations and whether they are owned by the council.

Response

1. Information not held in relation to the the first part of this query regarding officer time. Please find attached table of award of costs against the council and appellants.

2. Local Plan monitoring reports can be found online at:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/policy/localplanmonitoring/

These include completion figures for the borough as a whole which can be found in Table 2: net new dwellings by monitoring year. The Monitoring report also confirms completions for all the Planning Focus Areas in Table 5. Planning Focus Area 12 covers Clive Vale and Ore Village and details for this area can be found in in the latest published monitoring report within Table 5: Net additional dwellings 2020/2021 within the Planning Strategy Spatial Areas. The latest LPMR for the period 2021-22 is being finalised and is not therefore currently available.

3. Number of households on the housing register as at 1st April 2022 was 1147, of which 303 households wanted the 'Ore' area. Number of households on the housing register as at 1st April 2023 was 1472, of which 504 households wanted the 'Ore' area.

4. Data available to view on Council's public access site:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/searching/

5. We are unsure if you are requesting information relating to sites which will be designated as Local Wildlife Sites (LWS) and which are in Council ownership or about sites which will be proposed for development ('allocations') and which are in the Council's ownership.

Since the new Local Plan is still in development information relating to LWS designations or sites proposed for development is yet to be determined. A public consultation version of the draft Plan (Regulation 18) is available to view at:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/policy/new-local-plan/consultation/

This does not contain information relating to LWS designations.

Attachments

• FOIR-508274091_FOIR-508274091_1-costs.docx