Ben Wood from Build a Better Bembridge shares this latest in response to the Isle of Wight vote on the draft Island Planning Strategy that fell on Wednesday. In his own words. Ed
We are pleased that Isle of Wight councillors voted to pause the current draft Island Planning Strategy so that it can return to the Isle of Wight council’s Cabinet for reconsideration.
We are grateful to those councillors that stood up for their communities, including our Bembridge councillor, Joe Robertson, amid growing pressure to approve this draft Plan.
A bad Plan is worse than no Plan
We believe that as the draft currently stands, there is too much greenfield building allocated and not enough consideration given to genuinely affordable housing for Islanders including affordable rental accommodation.
We remain concerned about the overall housing numbers across the Island and the use of outdated population and household data.
Remove allocations for Bembridge and Freshwater
We continue to push for the Cabinet to adopt Amendment 2b drafted by the Council’s planning officers and presented to Corporate Scrutiny Committee on 6th September.
It would remove allocations for over 300 extra homes in fields on the edge of Bembridge and Freshwater which have been included against the majority wishes and feelings of both communities, their parish councils and their neighbourhood plans adopted by local referendum.
Expect it back for November meeting
We expect the Plan to come back to a Full Council meeting with some amendments no earlier than 16th November and probably later.
We continue to work with communities and councillors across the Island who share our aim of making the Plan greener and more affordable.
