APPENDIX 69
Memorandum by the Borough Council of Wellingborough
LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE
Our Members recently requested that I write
to our local Member of Parliament, (Mr Peter Bone, MP for Wellingborough
and Rushden) to raise in the House the matter of the difficulties
encountered by Local Authorities when seeking the delivery of
energy efficiency and renewable energy measures/within their areas
(see letter attached as Annex 1). There are two specific areas
that are currently causing concern, namely:
Target setting for renewable energy/energy
efficiency provision on new developments.
Micro-renewables (such as micro-turbines)
and the Development Control process.
Mr Bone has informed us that you are leading
an investigation into these issues through a Select Committee
and suggested that we present our views through this channel.
Whilst there is an increasing body of local
policy setting minimum targets for renewable provision in new
developments (the Merton 10% example being frequently cited) this
can only be regarded as guidance to developers and is difficult
to enforce without incurring significant costs. North Northamptonshire
is currently in the process of developing more prescriptive policy
through a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), however, in the
meantime this Authority is finding difficulties in applying its
current policy on this issue which is less stringent.
With B&Q's recent promotion of micro-turbines
(and misleading literature stating that Planning Permission is
not required for them, which is emphatically not the case at present),
there is an urgent need to review planning legislation in respect
to micro-renewables both to enable householders to more easily
adopt such technologies (and help achieve Government renewables
targets), and to reduce the demand on Development Control departments
who are currently experiencing a steep rise in workload due to
the new Growth Area proposals.
I hope that you are able to take these comments
into account when the Select Committee meets and would appreciate
if you could make this Council's views known to the Select Committee.
Given the difficulties of delivering renewable and energy efficiency
measures locally it's our Councillors' strong conviction that
a mandatory national code be adopted or that Building Regulations
be widened to require certain targets and that permitted development
rights be granted for the installation of renewable technologies
on existing residential dwellings. This Council would be able
to provide a certain amount of evidence for the Committee if required
in relation to the difficulties encountered.
Your assistance in this matter would be greatly
appreciated.
20 October 2006
Annex 1
LETTER TO PETER BONE MP, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
FOR WELLINGBOROUGH & RUSHDEN
RENEWABLE AND
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
MEASURES TO
BE RAISED
IN THE
HOUSE
Further to our meeting at Wellingborough Council
when you kindly attended our Corporate Management Team meeting
to discuss areas of common interest and methods of communication
I write to request your assistance in a matter raised by our Members
at the last Environment Committee.
Members are becoming increasingly frustrated
by the apparent inability of Local Authorities to ensure that
renewable and energy efficiency measures can be delivered on new
housing developments through existing planning policy and building
regulations (see enclosed Evening Telegraph letter). As you may
know the Council produced Supplementary Planning Guidance in April
2003 ("Building Better Places") outlining the ways that
developments can contribute to sustainable development which includes
the use of renewable energy technologies within new housing schemes.
However, this is guidance to encourage developers to undertake
these requirements and can only be enforced through a refusal
of the planning consent and a potential costly appeal process.
Time has moved on since 2003 and several Councils
have started to adopt policies which set minimum targets for renewable
energy generation on new schemesthe Merton Borough example
of 10% is often cited. Further work is also being undertaken to
assess the ability for national regulatory systems (eg Building
Regulations) to provide more compulsion for house builders to
incorporate these technologies within their new-build developments.
A new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) on climate change/renewable
energy may also provide more teeth to deliver these improvements,
however, both of these policy initiative are stalled and not of
immediate use.
In North Northamptonshire the Joint Planning
Unit will be developing a Supplementary Planning Document to support
policies in the Core Spatial Strategy which will provide a more
robust policy framework for Local Authorities to insist on renewable
energy targets within new schemes but this will also take a significant
amount of time to adopt.
In the meantime, I have been tasked to ask you
to bring the matter up as an issue in the House and to request
a Minister's response as to the progress in delivering more compulsion
within the construction industry to deliver more renewable and
energy efficiency measures within all new developments.
Our Members would appreciate your efforts in
lobbying Ministers and the Government to enable this and other
Local Authorities to have the powers to proactively deliver micro-renewable
energy schemes and to help reduce the contribution that residential
properties undoubtedly have in contributing to climate change.
I hope that you will be able to fulfil this
request and look forward to your response so that I can feed this
back to the Members.
Corporate ManagerSustainable Development
14 September 2006
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