Leverhulme Planning Appeal hearings at Wallasey town hall

The hearings in an appeal against the council’s planning committee decisions to refuse seven applications impacting Wirral’s Green Belt are currently taking place.

A significant number of members of the public attended the opening day of the Inquiry Wallasey town hall on Tuesday, 16 May.

Over the coming weeks the council will be vigorously defending the planning committee’s decision to refuse the applications to build on Wirral’s Green Belt. Development is by definition harmful to the Green Belt and while Leverhulme argues that benefits will outweigh this harm the council disagrees strongly.

Day one of the Inquiry dealt with opening statements and design evidence, day two continued with design and considered the evidence from WGSA, and day three considered more evidence from Wirral Green Space Alliance and a discussion on planning conditions.

The hearings are scheduled to last until the first week in July. More information about the appeal and hearings is on the council website and the full programme can be found on the Inspector’s website.

The Inspector allowed an hour to hear from members of the public and there will be a further opportunity on 8 June when there will be an evening session. Anyone wishing to speak at that session should notify the programme officer in advance. The best way to do so is by email to Inquiry@programmeofficers.co.uk

The hearings were and will continue to be livestreamed and can be accessed via the council’s webcast portal.

In the meantime, the Local Plan examination hearings are paused after the first two weeks of hearings to allow the Leverhulme Appeal to take place. The Local Plan examination will resume after the summer from 12 September at Birkenhead Town Hall, unless the Inspectors decide to hold any particular sessions online.

Only those who have submitted formal representations to the submitted plan and have registered their request can speak at these hearings.

If the Inspectors find the final Local Plan to be ’sound’ and legally compliant, then subject to any modifications they recommend, the council will be required to approve and adopt the final version of the Local Plan which the council will use to determine individual planning applications.

You can find out more details about the Local Plan and watch the hearings, including archived recordings of the hearings, via the Local Plan webpage. This site will also be updated as new documents are submitted to the examination inquiry.