PickleWatch

St Edmundsbury

The Council has elected to enter a second period of consultation on the District’s core strategy following Eric Pickle’s letter. A decision will is expected from the local planning inspector in July or August.

Cllr Ian Poole – “All the comments will go back to the Inspector and they will consider all those before writing his final report and submitting that to us ... His report is binding to the council and if he says ‘I think something should be changed' then the council has to take note of that and change it. It will take legislation to rescind a government document like [regional spatial strategies]”

Taunton Deane

The Council has confirmed that as a result of Pickles’ announcement its new housing target is likely to be 14,000 for Taunton with a further 3,000 for the rest of the Deane – figures previously adopted by the authority in 2005. Before the announcement on scrapping RSS’s, the housing target for the District had set out 18,000 new homes for Taunton and 3,000 for Wellington by 2026.

The Council’s core strategy remains under scrutiny, and In the short term two sites are set to be earmarked for 300 homes each – Nerrols in Taunton and at Cades Farm in Wellington.