Its Our County

The countryside, our best asset but the LDF hardly mentions it

“The housing expansion forced onto us by both Labour and Conservative governments shows yet again the need for a sensible local voice.  Our infrastructure can’t take 16,500 extra houses.  It’s Our County would change it all around and put the countryside,  farming and small and medium sized businesses at the centre of the Plan.  They are our Unique Selling Point, the important things that will support us into the next century.  The houses come later, and in response only to need, not as a mechanism for economic growth.”     Peter Cocks; Chair; It’s Our County

Suffering from consultation fatigue, It’s Our County will respond to yet another round on the Local Development Framework 2011-2031 by rejecting this housing based plan.

It’s Our County takes the view that the LDF plan should be based on quality jobs and not on house building.  There is no direct link between building new houses and creating high quality jobs.  The public will be surprised to learn that according to the Council’s 2011 Hearn study Herefordshire is at full employment now and new jobs are not needed.  It’s Our County believes though that what is needed is better quality, full time, higher paying jobs that will keep young people in the county and older people working longer.

A plan is needed that will build on Herefordshire’s strengths, on its agriculture and tourism and on its small businesses and the  manufacturing and service industry we have now spread throughout the county.

We need to continue and increase the support for enterprises working in the many small industrial estates throughout the county  and for people working in the information industry from home.  We need to encourage food products, agricultural engineering and farm enterprise businesses that are especially suited to the county and we should specialise in outdoor tourism.  Herefordshire could become a centre for equestrian, cycling, canoeing and walking but to do so it needs the help of the plan.  The long distance bridle paths, cycle routes and walking routes must be written into the plan.   These will attract people to the county and encourage  hospitality industry to grow up round them.

Herefordshire is woefully short of this infrastructure and nothing is proposed in the current plan out for consultation to improve it.

It’s Our County rejects the Council’s claim that a vastly increased in-migration is needed in order to sustain a balanced working  population.  Said Mark Hubbard

“We cannot say who will buy these new houses, it is just as likely that people wanting to retire from the South East will buy them, in which case the extra housing would actually lead to a greater imbalance of age in the population than we have now.”

As the largest opposition party in the Council, and a party in waiting to govern, It’s Our County is working on its own LDF plan for the future of Herefordshire.

Housing should support economic expansion; let’s have people travelling to work here before we build houses.  Housing delopments would be based on need and the need is likely to be for small developments of affordable, low impact homes  that don’t require the level of infrastructure that large-scale housing estates need.  Some land should also be set aside  for ‘self build’ because that would encourage entrepreneurial people in the county to stay here and contribute to it.

In 2011 the housing market is in the doldrums.  Giving planning permission for 16,500 houses will merely result in land banks  being stored up by volume house builders, and give no chance to small scale enterprises and housing cooperatives.  It would be disastrous to allocate so much land for housing at a time like this.

It’s Our County hopes Herefordshire people will reject this plan, as they did so emphatically the first time and demand something better.

Notes for Editors

 It’s Our County is the largest opposition political party in Herefordshire.  It has nine Councillors plus one Green member in its political group in the Council.

The Hearn Report is at: http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/docs/Final_Report_(11-07-11-nxi).pdf. The Hearn Report shows that in the next 30 years, if there were no in-migration, Herefordshire’s population would fall – deaths exceed births with a small out migration, leading to a population decrease of 240 per annum.

The Hearn Report states that Herefordshire has 7% less 15 to 34 year olds than England and 5% more 50 to 64 year olds and 6%  more 65+.

The LDF will go out shortly for a further round of consultation, with a deadline at the end of November.

The latest housing targets from the LDF are (see http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/docs/Draft_Revised_Preferred_Option_Background_Paper.pdf)

Number of Houses