Penrith town council’s planning committee today agreed to exclude the press and public from its meeting to receive an update and legal advice about the Neighbourhood Plan and consider any action that the town council may need to take.
The Penrith Neighbourhood plan that Penrith Town Council started in early 2016 to develop and its understood has to date cost in the region of £45,000 of public money in its development and legal process costs.
Eden Council is due to consider if to progress the Neighbourhood plan to a public referendum later this month having pulled the item form past meetings it had been scheduled as the town council had failed to provide legal representation to Eden council resulting in Eden Council having to seek its own legal opinion to determine the range of options open to the Council.
Its understood the primary delay is the town councils rejection of the independent planning inspectors requirement to remove a number of policies as out of scope in the neighbourhood plan including one regarding Penrith Beacon.
With The May local elections and the April change to local government in Cumbria that will see Eden council replaced by the new Westmorland and Furness Council.
We have been told that any further delays to the process resulting in Eden Council not able to consider at its meeting later this month would see any referendum delayed until at least late summer.
Its currently not known the total additional costs Penrith Town council and Eden council has incurred on the additional legal advice on top of the already incurred £45,000 the Penrith Neighbourhood plan. With forecasts that a referendum could cost between £10,000 and £20,000 to hold in addition.
The Evolve Penrith group have for some time called for the Penrith Neighbourhood plan it says “will be 7 years out of date by the time it gets to a referendum” to be scrapped and a fresh current plan created that it says should “involve all in the community in its creation and be progressed at pace like other neighbourhood plans are not take 7 years to produce something the planning inspector pulls apart and misses out key items such as housing and development.”
What do you think is it time to start again with a Penrith Neighbourhood Plan or scrap it?
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