St Albans MP Daisy Cooper is calling on the planning inspector overseeing an inquiry into homes in Chiswell Green to suspend the hearings.
The Cala Homes and Polo Fields plans would see hundreds of dwellings constructed on Green Belt land bordering the village.
Daisy Cooper MP has appealed to the Planning Inspector to suspend the inquiry, pending input from the Secretary of State.
Ms Cooper has been at the forefront of a campaign calling for measures that would strengthen Green Belt protections and incentivise development on brownfield sites first instead.
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The government took action by launching a consultation to update the National Planning Policy Framework in December last year. At the moment, the Planning Inspector has been made aware that substantial changes to planning rules are imminent, but can’t take them into account because the Conservative Secretary of State hasn’t yet confirmed when the new rules should take effect.
Yesterday (April 19), she urged the Planning Inspector himself to write to the Secretary of State to seek clarity on whether and when any new protections would be introduced, in case it changed the outcome of the inquiry.
At the planning inquiry on Tuesday, Daisy said: “During the passage of the Levelling Up Bill in Parliament, I tabled a series of amendments. Although neither the Secretary of State, nor in fact the other MP whose constituency includes part of the St Albans District, chose to back my amendments, they were a catalyst to a more substantial promise of urgent action by the government.
“A rebellion against the Bill as a whole was threatened by his own backbenchers if the Secretary of State continued to turn a blind eye to his indefensible position. The position that he kept repeating, that the Green Belt should be protected, has not been made – even partially – a reality.
“Having been dragged kicking and screaming to listen to concerns across the country by a revolt of their own MPs, the government promised and duly delivered a consultation on the NPPF in December, which closed in March.
“But we are in limbo. The NPPF is in limbo.
"This inquiry is unable to pay heed to that direction of travel. But in a few weeks, it might be able to. So I would ask the Inspector to write to the Secretary of State, to seek permission to suspend determination of these appeals until those changes are given effect.”
The inquiry is considering applications from two developers who have applied to build a combined total of more than 600 houses on neighbouring pieces of land.
Both schemes were separately refused by St Albans District Council’s planning committee because of the harm they will cause to the Green Belt and our natural environment.
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