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CPRE Bedfordshire requests crematorium call in
CPRE Bedfordshire has requested a call in for the crematorium in Flitwick as it is on Green Belt designated land.
What is a call in?
The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has the power to take over (‘call in’) planning applications rather than letting the local authority decide. The secretary of state will normally only do this if the application conflicts with national policy in important ways, or is nationally significant.
Why has CPRE Bedfordshire requested that this application be called in?
We believe it raises issues of National Importance, sets planning precedents which will adversely impact on Green Belt land and should be determined by an independent Inspector.
• The site is not allocated for development in Central Bedfordshire Council’s (CBC) Adopted Local Plan.
• The Site is within the Green Belt and there are no Very Special Circumstances to justify development.
CBC removed around 420 acres of land from the Green Belt as part of the recent Local Plan Review and have recently granted planning permission on an unallocated Green Belt site for a food store – we need to protect what is left.
Call in refused
CPRE Bedfordshire has now (4th April 2022) heard from the Planning Casework Unit at the Department for Levelling Up Housing & Communities. They said that:
The purpose of the Direction is to give the Secretary of State the opportunity to consider whether or not he wishes to call-in applications which fall within its scope for his own decision. He is very selective about calling in applications and, in general, will only do so if they raise issues of more than local importance and those issues need to be decided by him rather than the local planning authority. In this case it was decided that the Secretary of State should not intervene. He was content that the application should be determined by Central Bedfordshire Council.
CPRE Bedfordshire are incredibly disappointed with this decision. The request for a call in over the A6-M1 Link Road was also refused on similar grounds. We are left wondering who is willing to defend our Green Belt and AONB from inappropriate development?
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