(Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
Durham County Council leader Andrew Husband writes in his latest Northern Echo column and tells how he is fighting back against HMOs
Politics certainly does bring out the worst in people as we have witnessed over the summer. We have had what I see as misleading petitions and Lib Dem posturing about building on a nature reserve, followed by Labour MPs denying all knowledge of their own government giving the green light to buy up more properties in the County to house illegals!
A Call for Sites is a standard planning tool used by councils (local planning authorities) across England when preparing or reviewing a Local Plan. The council invites landowners, developers, organisations and sometimes members of the public to submit land that they believe may be suitable for future development.
Over 850 sites have been submitted as we try to work out a way of delivering the HUGE number of new houses demanded by this Labour government.
Cllr Wilkes of the Liberal Democrats knows this and has weaponised this raw data, before it has even been considered by this council. The call for sites is not just about housing, it also captures green space & biodiversity as we look to future proof our spatial plan. Even though it was explained to them at full council on the July 15, Cllr Wilkes has continued to create videos and even produce petitions to “stop the building of houses on the nature reserve”. Unbelievable!
The council and cabinet will review the submissions in the new year and adapt a county plan.
Moving to MPs, this takes us to Labour! My colleague Darren Grimes has been like the defender of the realm, lobbying on two occasions to prevent the government from authorising Mears to buy properties in our county to house illegal immigrants. On July 30 we received a letter from the home office (supplied to the Northern Echo) which confirmed that the government are to re-start the acquisitions of our homes.
We want to know what our “local” Labour MPs are going to do about it? They have gone on the defensive on social media on a 'he said she said rant'. All we care about is why do you represent Labour if you are so against it?
Last month we had the same with the Burnhope solar farm. DCC spent nearly £90k rejecting the solar farm development only for it to be overturned by the Labour government. Legal advice confirmed we would lose a legal battle to take this to a Judicial Review. Another loss of democracy. We are losing control of planning at council level.
Read more:
- Travellers set up camp on showground as councillor brands it 'unacceptable'
- Six fire engines tackle blaze at North East van dealership as smoke seen for miles
- 60 homes evacuated as bomb squad move in with robot on County Durham street
The same goes for developers. Labour are moving the goal posts to give the power to developers. We are fighting back against HMOs more than ANY other county. Article 4 goes live on August 17, which will make planning much more difficult.
Our saturation model will prevent two HMOs from popping up within 100m of each other – the legal minimum we can take it do. We can’t stop HMOs as Reform aren’t in government, but we can make County Durham the worst place for HMO investors.
We would like to see every HMO licenced, we estimate that there are over 2,000 in our county already. Sadly, until the boats are stopped and our population growth is brought under control, we will see more demand in housing for the illegal immigrants. Until this government is replaced we will see net zero over rule common sense and the loss of food producing farmland forever. Our beautiful county is under attack and weak politicians are letting it happen.