LETTER: Time to get Local Plan published

Should we be surprised that North East Derbyshire and Bolsover District Councils have been slammed by government ministers (Derbyshire Times, November 30) over their failure to publish a Local Plan?

My previous attempts to draw attention to this failure in letters to this column appear to have drawn little interest and so my prediction of imposed policies looks set to become fulfilled unless Bolsover District Council (BDC) collectively pulls out a finger.

At Bolsover, the last published, full Local Plan is dated 2000. This was meant to have been updated by about 2005. They are always subject to a rolling review.

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BDC’s late submission of a revised Local Plan was rejected by government inspectors as being inadequate in 2014. These repeat failures are a joint responsibility of both officials and elected councillors in my view.

Councillors should see the need for and publication of a Local Plan to be their primary responsibility. A Local Plan has the potential to affect every aspect of in the lives of local electors from housing to shopping, jobs to transport, entertainment to environment and much more.

Unless readers of the Derbyshire Times want to have all of this decided from outside the district they should be bending the ear of the councillor who they elected.

David Blackwell

Greenside Close, Clowne