R4U has designed the new Local Plan process at UDC to improve decision making, provide better scrutiny of work, and put residents at the centre.
John Evans (R4U)Cllr Evans continued “Our new Residents Administration is determined not to repeat the failures of the previous one. We have re-engineered local planning at UDC to create a better result. There are many changes, but 3 are of key significance. First, the previous administration steered what they wanted politically by having the Local Plan Working Group make recommendations to themselves. Their cosy little arrangement was undemocratic and an appalling way to make decisions, so we’ve put an end to it.”
“Secondly their inadequate monitoring of ongoing work on the Plan created huge gaps in the evidence that they didn’t even know about. These were found by the Inspector who rejected their Plans. To fix that we’ve created an independently chaired scrutiny function that runs in parallel to prevent mistakes.”
“Thirdly the Conservatives and many Liberal Democrats, who both underwrote the failed Plans, took residents for granted and ignored them. We’ve got rid of that culture. Residents are at the centre of our new Local Plan. We’ve set up Residents Plan Forums which give residents, parish and town councils, and other interested bodies an ongoing seat at the table and input throughout. UDC has kicked off this programme, so look out for information from the council over the next few weeks.”
Cllr Evans concluded “R4U was elected to overturn the mistakes of the previous UDC administration. With a re-engineered process and residents help, we intend to deliver a new Local Plan that will be evidence led, put infrastructure first, tackle housing affordability, and very importantly have effective local control by residents.”