One item we have been following closely is the withdrawal by Castle Point Council of its Core Strategy.
The Core Strategy is the requirement to build a certain number of regionally imposed houses on an area. In the Rochford District this has meant the need to effectively show areas where around 3,800 houses could be built, much of it on Green Belt land.
Castle Point Council which is in a very similar position to Rochford with some brownfield sites but a lot of Green Belt land, recently passed the following motion, abandoning its Core Strategy with its requirement to build a further 3,450 houses and deciding to do a local plan using their own neighbourhood projections.
This Council resolves to withdraw the Core Strategy from the Inspectorate to await the outcome of the National Planning Policy Framework and to understand how this will work with the new Localism Act. This Council, with the help of the local community, resolves to protect the Green Belt, where possible, and to start the work forthwith to prepare a Local Plan based on neighbourhood projections. This Council further resolves to start early and meaningful engagement with the local community to help the Council shape the future of the Borough.
Castle Point has the view that Green Belt land will be protected by its current policies whilst a new Neighbourhood Plan will meet the requirement to build houses for its own needs, not those of other areas.
This is similar in setiment to the proposal put forward by Green Councillor Michael Hoy, with the help of Rochford Independent John Mason, in 2009 where it was proposed that Rochford conducts its own survey to see how many houses were needed rather than use the outdated survey encompassing Rochford, Southend & Castle Point. That proposal was voted down by the ruling Conservative Administration who obviously do not agree with their colleagues in Castle Point.
At a meeting the leader of Castle Point Council had with the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, minister for Decentralisation & Planning, she has stated
However, he did stress that the Government is determined to place the preparation of new local plans into the hands of local people and was supportive of the idea of not having too long a forecast but instead having a five year rolling programme. He also emphasised that the Government was determined to ensure there was strong protection for the Green Belt and stressed the allocation of land for housing should start with land of the least environmental quality.
Although the Localism Bill is not yet Law and the Council is currently required to provide a plan to build 3,450 houses, Castle Point has decided that by starting a local plan it will be in a defensible position against developers wanting to build on Green Belt land and it’s new local plan will be proposing development from local people as outlined in the localism bill.
It has been suggested by members of Rochford Council that to follow such a policy would lead to a “free for all” for developers who would be able to build large scale developments on Green Belt land in the Rochford District. It seems as though Castle Point disagrees with this believing they have protection for Green Belt land under current policies. Interestingly the examples we have seen so far of developers building where a Core Strategy is not in place have been on green field sites and not Green Belt land.
A Green Read 
When I saw this I wondered whether this would be debated at Rayleigh Conservative Club and whether they had enough guts to follow their neighbours. It would be logical, would it not? for the Castle Point councillors to be invited along by Rochford Councillors to explain their logic on why they made such a decision and to answer questions that RDC planning officers have about how CPC will stop mass development.
Personally I agree with CPC, that the government should protect Green Belt and that it should be down to local residents to decide whether they want to release some of that to accomodate their housing needs. That way we do not end up building houses for the sake of building houses and as a means of getting the country out of the recession. That should be done through building business opportunities that generate EXPORTS and not IMPORTS !