Basildon Conservatives move motion to withdraw Submission Local Plan
The motion, moved at last night's meeting of Full Council, was passed after Labour councillors walked out on the meeting
At the meeting of Full Council held on January 27th, councillors met to consider the Basildon Local Plan Post Submission Modifications. The Draft Local Plan was formally submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in March 2019 but there have since been several delays in proceeding to the Examination in Public. This has led, in the intervening period, to a number of modifications being made and updates to the evidence base underpinning the plan, as well as a large increase in the overall housing numbers (now at over 20,000 new homes), much of them planning for the Green Belt. Consequently, the Planning Inspector, Mr Paul Griffiths, had written to Basildon Council requiring us to carry out a public consultation on the modifications prior to the Examination in Public.
But there has long been unease on the Conservative benches around the plan, not least the terrible changes introduced by the then Labour/UKIP alliance that ran Basildon Council in 2017/18, since when the political landscape has changed drastically, including a number of newer members of the Council, who had no previous involvement in the Local Plan preparation. The current Leader of the Council, Cllr Andrew Baggott, therefore moved a procedural motion to defer the item to enable all councillors to receive proper advice and an opportunity to pose questions to counsel in relation to representations made to councillors by their constituents.
At the reconvened meeting of Full Council, held on Thursday, February 10th, Councillor Baggott moved the following motion (click to listen to the speech):
"The Council resolves to withdraw the Emerging Basildon Borough Council local plan (2014-2034), which is unadopted.
The reason for the withdrawal is based upon, in part, the current Conservative Administration views and beliefs in placing a greater emphasis on protecting the Green Belt for current and future generations than the previous administration.
The withdrawal will in addition give the Full Council an opportunity to make a new plan, one which will seek to address other concerns, which includes, but not exclusively, the town centre regeneration and the high rise developments."
Basildon Conservatives were satisfied, on the basis of the legal advice we received from counsel, that we were legally entitled to withdraw the Local Plan. Having consistently challenged the housing numbers and resisted pressure both to sacrifice Green Belt and intensify development in our town centres through monster tower blocks, Conservative councillors were not happy for the Local Plan to proceed in its current form. Despite the best efforts of the Mayor to ensure all members received ample opportunity to debate the motion, Labour councillors made repeated attempts to have the item blocked and, when these failed, walked out of the meeting. There were, nevertheless, important and informative speeches, particularly by the Chairman of the Strategic Planning and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Dr Richard Moore, and the Mayor, Cllr David Dadds.
On finally being put to the vote, the motion was passed by 20 votes to 3.
The details of the vote to withdraw the Local Plan were as follows:
In favour
Ademuyiwa, D. (Con, St Martin's)
Adeshile, Y. (Con, Vange)
Allen, C. (Con, Langdon Hills)
Allen, S. (Con, Crouch)
Baggott, A. (Con, Burstead)
Blake, K. (Con, Burstead)
Buckley, M. (Con, Wickford Castledon)
Dadds, D. (Con, Billericay East)
Hedley, A. (Con, Billericay West)
Holliman, P. (Con, Wickford North)
Jeffery, G. (Con, Wickford Park)
Lawrence, D. (Con, Billericay West)
Mackenzie, L. (Con, Pitsea South-East)
Moore, R. (Con, Burstead)
Morris, D. (Con, Wickford Castledon)
Rimmer, C. (Con, Pitsea South-East)
Sargent, T. (Con, Crouch)
Sullivan, S. (Con, Billericay East)
Terson, S. (Con, Pitsea North-West)
Turner, P. (Con, Billericay West)
Against
Green, H. (Ind, Nethermayne)
Robbins, V. (Ind, Langdon Hills)
Smith, K. (Ind, Nethermayne)
Abstained
Brockman, E. (W Ind, Wickford North)