A controversial plan to build thousands of homes on greenbelt in a Nottinghamshire town has been formally scrapped. A plan to build 3,000 homes on green belt land at Whyburn Farm in Hucknall as part of Ashfield District Council's Draft Local Plan has now been officially removed after almost a year of public backlash.
The proposal had previously sparked a row between the council and Government over who was to blame, with the ruling Ashfield Independents criticising high housing targets and a lack of clarity on the importance of green belt land. The Draft Local Plan, which sets out where 8,226 homes will be built between now and 2038, had been indefinitely paused by the council over the issue of Whyburn Farm.
Campaigners had mobilised in large numbers to oppose and petition the plan, calling on their council to "listen to the people" and take the area out of the Draft Local Plan. Whyburn Farm has now been formally withdrawn from the plan that will be sent in to the Government, with cabinet members on Tuesday, September 27 approving plans to remove the thousands of planned homes, meaning the authority will not meet its housing target set by Government.
Read more: Deeply controversial plan to build thousands of homes on Hucknall green belt scrapped
The council will now have to go back to the local plan development panel to finalise the updated local plan before launching a second public consultation at a later date. The results of this consultation will be sent to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, before a Government planning inspector decides whether to approve the document.
Ashfield District Council must have its local plan in place before the Government’s deadline of December next year. Councillor Matthew Relf, portfolio holder for regeneration and planning at Ashfield District Council had previously warned missing housing targets could result in planning control being taken away from the local authority.
But when it was first announced that Whyburn Farm would be removed, Ashfield District Council Leader Jason Zadrozny said: "It's a process of negotiation. The next stage is a consultation to the Government where the public feedback goes directly to the Secretary of State.
"What I'm hoping that we are able to do is have a process of negotiation with the Planning Inspectorate. There are consequences, they could say 'no we still want you to build 8,000' or that they still want us to do a 15 year plan.
"I'm hoping that we can negotiate the time period and that there's some room for manoeuvre. The consequences are severe, but that's on current guidance, everything that Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are saying is very different."
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