Inspector suspends Ribble Valley Core Strategy examination

The inspector suspended the examination after sending a letter (4-page / 31KB PDF) to the Council in November, in which he said that the housing evidence and the economic development evidence the Council had used to support its Core Strategy was out of date.

The inspector noted that some of the documents used in the evidence base to identify the Borough's housing needs dated from 2008 and 2009. He said that the circumstances of some of the sites identified in the documents may have changed and that it was therefore "not possible to conclude with the necessary degree of certainty" that the sites remain deliverable in the terms set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.

The inspector further noted that the Council's Employment Land and Retail Study (ELRS), which was used as evidence base for economic development policies in the Core Strategy, was from 2008. He said that, although an update to the document had been adopted in 2011, the update largely rested on analysis in the ELRS and was not as "robust and detailed" as the ELRS in assessing market demand. 

The inspector has suspended the examination in response to a request from the Council. The Council said that the extra time would enable it to undertake the necessary work and to assess the implications. The Council said it had resolved to put in place a focused working group to help progress the work as a priority and to ensure the examination can resume in a "timely manner".

The inspector said he welcomed the steps taken by the Council, but warned that six months "appears an ambitious timescale for completing the significant level of work involved, and is likely to prove challenging to say the least".

The examination is set to resume on 1 July.