From WildCookhamThe Windsor & Maidenhead 'Borough Local Plan' is up for discussion. Here's what we're saying for biodiversity and the impacts of climate change.
Many of you will be aware that the Borough Local Plan was sent back to the drawing board following the initial review of it by the official Inspector. It's now come back for further review and we have our chance to comment. The local Climate Emergency Coalition prepared a statement and related documents which were sent to all local Councillors, with WildCookham as one of the co-signatories, ahead of a public meeting this week. There is some great comment and data in these documents and we thought that our supporters might be interested to see them. So here they are: the accompanying letter is below and the two documents are attached.
You can comment on the Plan directly to the Council at www3.rbwm.gov.uk/blp
The letter sent to all Councillors
Dear Councillor
As you personally voted to declare an Environment and Climate Emergency you will no doubt agree with residents that The ‘RBWM Borough Local Plan Submission Version – Proposed Changes’ is not fit for purpose and it is your duty to ensure that it is neither approved nor put out to public consultation at the Extraordinary meeting of the Council on Wednesday 23 October, but instead is reviewed and rewritten.
In June this year, you and your council colleagues unanimously declared an Environment and Climate Emergency and committed to take necessary action to protect RBWM residents and our local environment from harm. This declaration also recognised the need to put in place a strategy to enable the Royal Borough to become carbon neutral by 2050. The Borough Local Plan (BLP) is ‘the key document that provides a framework to guide the future development of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead’ up to 2033 and should fully reflect and deliver our Council’s Environment and Climate commitments.
The BLP in its current form was first consulted on in 2009 and submitted for examination in 2018. In November 2018 the Inspector invited the Council to consider whether continuing with the examination of the presently submitted document was the most efficient and prudent course of action. Clearly the BLP as it stands will not deliver on the declaration and is not fit for purpose. This is not a party-political issue but a human issue and we expect that Councillors will agree.
We recognise that there are revisions to the current version of the BLP that indicate the council’s awareness of the Environment and Climate Emergency, in the inclusion of Policy ‘SP2 Climate Change’; Green and Blue infrastructure; and the endless use of the words ‘Sustainable’ and ‘Biodiversity’; but ‘tacking on’ references to these issues will not enable the necessary dynamic action to be taken to address this Emergency. The Sustainability Appraisal, only issued late on Friday 18 October, notes that the current BLP will in fact result in an increase in local carbon emissions by approximately 22.5%; and that the policies within the plan are not expected to fully mitigate the adverse impacts on the climate. The BLP in its current form cannot be justified and should be revised.
The only way to ensure that you and your colleagues meet your obligation to protect the welfare of local people and the environment is to vote to postpone moving to the public consultation and, subsequently, to work with experts to develop a revised BLP that addresses this state of Emergency in which we all live. The current revisions to the BLP were created in a matter of months (from May 2019); a new plan centred on addressing the environment and climate change emergency can be created in a similar time-frame with the right process. A scrutiny panel involving external experts set up using the “Overview and Scrutiny in Local Government” handbook would be required to ensure any new plan was fit for purpose. This scrutiny panel could be approved at the extraordinary Council meeting on Wednesday 23 October.
A significant number of residents represented by the signatories to this letter, and the 2,300 individuals who signed the Environment and Climate Emergency Petition, are angry and saddened by the lack of due emphasis given to the single largest threat to people and place the world has ever known. The science is indisputable, and we have included supporting data for your information. The Borough Local Plan should address the Environment and Climate Emergency in every policy area; to do any less will be catastrophic and the cost, both financial and human, will be immeasurable.
We trust that you and your colleagues will vote to postpone moving to the public consultation and will then work with experts to develop a revised BLP that addresses the Environment and Climate Emergency.
We look forward to supporting you and your council colleagues to develop a plan that delivers on your commitments and is an exemplar to other councils across the UK.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss this before the meeting on Wednesday where we hope that you will use your vote to not approve the Borough Local Plan SV Proposed Changes and demand the creation of a Borough Local Plan that is truly justified.
The RBWM Climate Emergency Coalition (CEC)
Email:
rbwmclimateemergency@gmail.comSupporting documents, attached:
1. RBWM CEC brief response to the current BLPSV
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/787bb290f76cb1a51fe3c7dee/files/cba3668f-ebe3-4124-95e1-cb2ff3d7fba2/RBWM_CEC_brief_response_to_BLP.docx2. Climate Emergency – the Facts
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/787bb290f76cb1a51fe3c7dee/files/c46a2928-ba40-40be-b2f8-f6bbfe277689/RBWM_CEC_Climate_Emergency_The_Facts.docx
