Will green checklist 'shame' developers in Dorset into providing sustainable schemes?
Dorset Council is considering it
Developers in Dorset might soon find themselves ‘shamed’ into making their schemes sustainable.
Dorset Council is considering a checklist they will be expected to fill in when asking for planning consent.
It comes after years of a lack of action from the Government on legislating for ‘green’ issues in planning law, despite local lobbying for it to do so.
Dorset councillors have often asked for solar panels, electric vehicle charge points, rainwater harvesting systems or bike-friendly routes on new developments, only to be told that there is nothing, in law, to insist they are included.
While that position remains Dorset Council hopes that its proposed checklist for new builds and some change of use applications will highlight to developers what is expected of them to go along with the council’s declared policies on sustainable design and construction included in adopted local plans.
The idea has been welcomed by councillors on a place overview committee.
Cllr David Walsh, portfolio holder for planning, said that the checklist would clearly show developers what was expected and would ask them to explain why they could not include some items in their proposals.
“Developers will know what’s coming because we’ll be telling them and their agents what we want…it will look pretty shameful if we have a developer who then says ‘I don’t give a damn’ – let’s shame them into it,” he said.
Cllr Toni Coombs, who chairs the eastern area planning committee, welcomed the concept but said she feared it could lead to developers then saying that they had to make a choice, on grounds of viability, between affordable housing and sustainability.
The council is also to look at improving its guidance for the owners of Listed Buildings when considering energy efficiency works.
It aims to show ways in which changes can be considered without putting the architectural or historic importance of the building at risk.