3rd November 2009

 

The planning authority concerned with possible development east of  Luton  is a combined committee called the Luton & South Bedfordshire Joint Planning Committee (JPC).  The JPC comprises 6 councillors from Luton Borough Council and 6 councillors from  what has now become Central Bedfordshire Council.

 

At the time of the last public consultation about the so-called Core Strategy Issues & Options (Core Strategy) there were of course many public inputs to the JPC, but also several submissions from what are known in planning terms as Key Stakeholders.  One such Key Stakeholder was of course Luton Borough Council  (LBC  - along with Cemtral Bedfordshire Council, the Highways Agency and several others).

 

It may seem bizarre that a Council who have half the membership of the JPC should be allowed to make a formal submission, but since the JPC has a legal planning role that is “independent” this is how things happen!  At the time that the LBC submission was made at the last public consultation in June 2009, the LBC view was that they strongly supported the designation of the area east of Luton - in North Hertfordshire- as one of the preferred expansion areas and that LBC supported the view that some 5,500 houses should be built in that area.  LBC similarly supported the building of a Luton northern bypass with an eastern extension along Lilley Bottom.

 

You need to understand that Luton Borough Council (LBC) is a Labour-controlled council, with some 54% Labour councillors, 35% Liberal Democrat and 11% Conservative.  As a generalisation, the Luton Wards on the east of Luton are pretty well entirely Liberal Democrat strongholds.

 

The Joint Planning Committee (JPC) members from Luton are 4 Labour Councillors and 2 Liberal Democrats.  The Luton Labour JPC members have typically always voted with the entirely Conservative representation from Central Bedfordshire.  This Labour / Conservative alliance has always been able to prevail over the consistently solid stance from the 2-person Liberal Democrat representation who have been opposed to development east of Luton all along.  This makes things seem very much party-political but KEOLG does not see things that way, since the Liberal Democrats are looking after their constituents who live in the east of Luton.. In fact KEOLG deplores the fact that such an important issue has been handled in this high-handed party-political manner.

 

Despite the previous LBC support of the JPC decision to promote east of Luton as a preferred growth area, The full Luton Council voted in favour of a Liberal-Democrat motion that changed the position of LBC from one of supporting this eastern expansion option to opposing it - at least in its “current form”.  The motion was carefully worded and has in any case to be ratified at the Luton Council Executive Meeting on 7th December 2009.  The motion certainly does not rule out the possibility that LBC will again support development east of Luton in some modified form - for example a reduced scale of development.  The more cynical amongst us might see the almost parallel issue of propsals by one of the original development consortium to build just a 1,000 home subset of the original proposed total as an unlikely coincidence!

 

If approved by the LBC Executive on 7th December 2009, the Joint Planning Committee will be told that Luton Borough Council is withdrawing its support for development east of Luton in its “current form”.  Such a change of heart from one of the key stakeholders will then mean that the Joint Technical Unit (JTU) - paid planning officers who support the JTU - will have to consider significant amendments to the Core Strategy that will form the basis of the next consultation  in the Spring of 2010