Puffin development enquiry
HBM
Missing page adds to legal clash over homes
Lawyers representing council officials clashed with developers at a public enquiry into the fate of greenfield land in Beltinge. They went head-to-head in front of independent planning inspector Paul Jackson, over Kitewood's plan to put 40 houses on a plot west of Puffin Road.
Kitewood argues that it never received a response to its planning application. And it says the district does not have a deliverable supply of housing over the next five years.
The council claims the site was a reserve site in their local housing plan --and they are already 1,150 homes ahead of their strategic requirement, so the land doesn't need to be released for development.
A jargon-heavy series of clashes between council barrister Richard Ground and Kitewood representatives over policies and figures were thrown across the sombre Canterbury Guildhall. The two sides were forced to go through every single site being developed in the Canterbury district, as well as noting which houses or flats had (and had not) been sold, before the debate started in earnest.
Paul Jackson
Confusion briefly reigned after the council's barrister asked his opponents to turn to page 24 of one of the foot-thick piles of documents. But they claimed that their page was missing. All eyes turned to the inspector, who was shuffling his paperwork. He said:
"I don't have a page 24, either. This is very serious indeed. I very much doubt that there has been any funny business but I do want to preclude the possibility of any doubt so I am going to ask you to retire and make sure all your pages match."
Pages of supplementary planning documents, country planning acts, case statements and monitoring reports were juggled frantically to put things in order before the inquiry continued. The decision is expected to be published in a few week's time.
HB Times 3rd Feb 2012
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