Village you can always take some more!

I havent been through in detail the Beta Guidance, and frankly apart from a few sections it doesn’t need it.  One that does however is the section on rural housing probably the weakest of all the sections.

Why is it so bad?  Does it do the jobs asked of it – no.  Is is clear logical and helpful;, not in the slightest.

Its only four paragrapgs long, nothing for example on the thorny issues regarding agricultural dwellings and rural needs dwellings, where Welsh guidance could have been a useful template.

The only para which adds to the NPPF is a model of how not to write clear guidance, dogmatic idelogical, self contradictory and not making the slightest bit of sense.

Assessing housing need and allocating sites should be considered at a strategic level and through the Local Plan and/or neighbourhood plan process. However, all settlements can play a role in delivering sustainable development – and so blanket policies restricting housing development in some settlements and preventing other settlements from expanding should be avoided unless their use can be supported by robust evidence.

All plans need a rural strategy which states the degree of expansion suitable by settlement or settlement ctaegory, how can such evidence strategies be ‘blanket’ they are the opposite.  What would the DCLG rather have a policy which allows unlimited expansion of every village, how could that be sustainable.  The statement ‘all settlements can play a role in delivering sustainable development’ does that mean all can take some more?  What if a draft strategy allocated 30 units to the village but 50 were granted in a 5 year panic prior to submission only to see another application for 50 come along?  Is planning for villages a widows cruse where they can always take some more and the village is never full?

Planning guidance for villages should be about landscape, settlement form and careful design and integration so villages unless there are pressing growth requirements in the most sustainable locations, grow organically meeting primarily local requirements.