Bath and North East Somerset Council's revised Core Strategy plans were on show for public consultation at local venues last Thursday, 18th April, but will run across the area until 8th May.

The event was an opportunity for residents to give their opinions about the plan, which has had to be considerably revised since it first went on show in 2007. The area's Core Strategy hearings began at the beginning of last year and are currently suspended whilst B&NES respond to the Government's Planning Inspector's conclusions. Developers have seized this chance to get their applications in quickly, as at the moment, B&NES has a lack of housing and is under pressure to allow new homes to be built. Once the Core Strategy is finalised and adopted, it may be more difficult to build in certain areas, as it should set clear limits. Until then, B&NES is faced with a building free-for-all and is very vulnerable to unwanted planning applications.

The Planning Inspector's main concern for the original Core Strategy was that the Council were not planning for enough new housing in the area and that the methodology to calculate housing need was not compliant with new national policy requirements. The Inspector will now be considering a plan for 12,700 new homes in the area between 2011 and 2029, compared to the previous 11,500 from 2006 – 2026. The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment identified 2,100 homes to be allocated in our area during this time, 1,700 of these are accounted for under land already committed to sites, such as at Alcan Mardons, the Radstock Regeneration Project and the Welton, Bibby and Baron site or those that already have planning permissions. This leaves 400 of which will be for sites in the Somer Valley which will be determined through Placemaking Plans.

All this assumes the Inspector accepts B&NES Councils proposed figure and does not require a much bigger figure. The Core Strategy figure for housing is 2,400, so, on top of an extra 400 houses, B&NES will also need to identify 300 more from the 2,100 mentioned. It is complicated to say the least and a total of 700 extra homes to find. Most of these sites will need to be greenfield sites as B&NES claim brownfield sites will have been exhausted. The target for affordable housing should be around 30% for our area.

This need for extra housing as a whole has meant that the Green Belt boundary is having to be altered to accommodate new development and will ultimately lead to unpopular decisions, particularly around the Bath area and the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Council admit that new housing could exacerbate our current climate of commuting out of the areas in which we live. The Core Strategy will try to address this with economic development in our town centres, which will be looked at through Placemaking Plans. This will mean that Town and Parish Councils, residents or indeed, developers, can be involved in the specifics of the area in which they live and will be responsible for producing a planning policy document that is locally specific. The idea of Placemaking Plans is to be launched by the Council in May, and there will be a series of workshops being run in local communities to explain the initiative. Placemaking Plans will not be adopted until 2015.

The best case scenario for the Core Strategy would see a decision by the Planning Inspector by October. If it is approved as it stands, it would be adopted by December this year. A hearing will take place in July for public examination. Alternatively, the Inspector may reject the B&NES plans completely and then we are back to 2007 with a longer window of opportunity for developers to make bids for new housing, while a completely new plan is prepared!