“THANK YOU” TO LUTON BOROUGH COUNCIL

 

At the Executive Committee meeting of Luton Borough Council held on December 7th 2009, the Executive decided to endorse the motion previously approved by the Full Council, namely to withdraw the support of Luton Borough Council for development in the east of Luton.

 

Even though the Full Luton Borough Council had passed a motion withdrawing their support for an EoL development, it is the responsibility of the Executive Committee to act as the consultees for the Core Strategy being developed by the Luton & South Bedfordshire Joint Planning Committee (JPC).  It is important to understand that despite Luton being a major stakeholder in the context of the Core Strategy, the JPC is an entirely separate, independent and fully delegated planning body.

 

In its previous submission to the JPC, in response to the Public Consultation that ended in June 2009 concerning the JPC’s Core Strategy, Luton Borough Council Executive had stated its support for many aspects of the Core Strategy and specifically had endorsed the planned inclusion of development east of Luton for the provision of 5,500 houses and associated infrastructure.  The consequences of this Executive Committee decision on the 7th December 2009 include a statement to the JPC that Luton Borough Council is no longer supporting the development east of Luton.

 

The previous formal response by Luton Borough Council to the JPC as part of the Public Consultation process covered many topics, so that rather than rescind the previous response in its entirety and have to re-submit the Executive Committee resolved to formally notify the JPC – and the associated Joint Technical Unit (JTU) that supports the JPC – of its withdrawal of support for east of Luton development.

 

In response to question concerning possible support by Luton Borough Council for other scales of development east of Luton - the example cited was the tentative suggestion by a developer of 1,000 homes in the area - the meeting concluded that although it was impossible to be definitive over something that was still so vague an idea, the minutes would say that the Executive Committee would “feel” inclined not to support such an alternative development proposal.

 

KEOLG would like to thank Luton Borough Council for taking proper note of the thousands of protest postcards that had been properly submitted by named individuals.  This is in stark contrast to the JPC/JTU themselves, where the thousands of postcards had been dismissed as a single objection!  KEOLG would also like to thank the Luton Borough Council Executive for having given KEOLG the opportunity to input during the meeting of 7th December 2009.