Tonbridge & Malling Green Party
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There is no doubt that the option to comply with the Government's direction and to consult on the Local Plan was considered prior to the Full Council Meeting on Thursday. It is inconcievable that the Council was unaware that the minister would simply trigger the legislation and that outcome should have been set out in the papers. One councillor did ask what the consequence would be should the council halt the plan making process but officers were forbidden from responding.Why given the fact we have known about the shortfall in water supply didn't the Leader of the Council ask for a significant reduction in the scale of housing when he wrote to the Minister on 2nd July giving him ample opportunity to respond before the Full Council last week?If the Council was aware that the Local Plan could be forced through why did it not consider submitting a plan which met a lower target using the evidence of insufficent water capacity as an exceptional circumstance?We now have a situation where across the new West Kent Council area we will be facing a water supply deficit of 2,302 homes for EVERY year, to proceed is irresponsible.We have a great deal of finger pointing about the target imposed by the Labour Government but we need to remember that their Conservative predecessors had already imposed a 15,102 target using their Standard Methodology which still leaves us with 9,000 homes without a water supply.At some point a council is going to need to have the courage to defy the legislation and refuse to proceed, that council is clearly not going to be Tonbridge and Malling.
It isn't only Anna that thinks it is a bit weird.
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There is no doubt that the option to comply with the Government's direction and to consult on the Local Plan was considered prior to the Full Council Meeting on Thursday. It is inconcievable that the Council was unaware that the minister would simply trigger the legislation and that outcome should have been set out in the papers. One councillor did ask what the consequence would be should the council halt the plan making process but officers were forbidden from responding.Why given the fact we have known about the shortfall in water supply didn't the Leader of the Council ask for a significant reduction in the scale of housing when he wrote to the Minister on 2nd July giving him ample opportunity to respond before the Full Council last week?If the Council was aware that the Local Plan could be forced through why did it not consider submitting a plan which met a lower target using the evidence of insufficent water capacity as an exceptional circumstance?We now have a situation where across the new West Kent Council area we will be facing a water supply deficit of 2,302 homes for EVERY year, to proceed is irresponsible.We have a great deal of finger pointing about the target imposed by the Labour Government but we need to remember that their Conservative predecessors had already imposed a 15,102 target using their Standard Methodology which still leaves us with 9,000 homes without a water supply.At some point a council is going to need to have the courage to defy the legislation and refuse to proceed, that council is clearly not going to be Tonbridge and Malling.
