Bath and North East Somerset Council has become the second authority to abandon a blueprint for 105,000 homes across the West of England that was blasted by Government officials.
Councillor Tim Ball said lessons must be learned from the failed joint spatial plan after it wasted six years and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
Residents of Whitchurch urged the council to take the chance to scrap plans for their village they said would destroy the green belt.
Cllr Ball, the cabinet member for housing, planning and economic development, told a special B&NES Council meeting on 16th January: “It’s very clear that as the plan developed it suffered from political interference and that officers’ clear advice was ignored.
“The Government inspectors saw straight through the errors that were made.
“Lessons must be learned from the errors of this failed plan and we must never again waste six years and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money by bungling a process that should have given this area great prestige and be able to deliver the best for our residents.
“We now have to start again to formulate a new plan for the West of England Combined Authority area.”
Government planning inspectors admonished the four West of England authorities for trying to make the evidence fit into their housing, jobs and infrastructure strategy for the next two decades, rather than being led by it, and ordered them to go back to the drawing board.
North Somerset Council was the first to formally withdraw and South Gloucestershire Council will take a vote next month, but Cllr Ball said Bristol City Council’s reticence was holding up the process.
The JSP sparked concerns for residents of Whitchurch and Whitchurch village – which sit on the border between Bristol and Bath and North East Somerset – including plans for 2,500 houses and a new ring road.
Public speaker Mary Walsh said: “This is the first time we’ve been treated fairly. The inspectors could see what we were saying but no one else seemed to understand. We always felt Whitchurch was a dumping ground for B&NES Council to fulfil housing numbers from central government.
“Fairness is all we ask. Small developments should be built to enable locals to live in the villages where they grew up.”
Whitchurch ward member Cllr Paul May said houses had been planned in the green belt at Whitchurch to tackle a housing problem in Bristol but other sites were more suitable.
“The JSP proposals would have created significant urban sprawl, no jobs, no facilities for the village, and it certainly wouldn’t add to the economy of Bath and North East Somerset,” he said.
“There’s been a blight on my lovely village for too long now. We need this threat removed.
“The need for housing remains. Whitchurch will take a reasonable share to develop our community, not destroy it.”
Faye Dicker, who launched the Stop Bristol Wrong Road campaign group, said: “We’re very concerned that the proposed ring road remains on the table.
“Whitchurch village can’t take any more houses. South Bristol can’t take any more.
“[The ring road would] be a backwards step in the time of a climate emergency.
“Please talk to us, listen to us and make the right decisions for the next generation.”
In response, Cllr Ball said the housing allocation came from Bristol failures over many years, so B&NES Council is expected to find the space.
He said withdrawal from the JSP would affect work on the joint transport plan that had proposed the new ring road.
Stephen Sumner, Local Democracy Reporter
