A GREEN belt campaign group believes the St Helens Local Plan should be thrown out by the Government’s planning inspector as it fails to meet a key legal requirement.

The much-delayed Local Plan will be sent to the Secretary of State next month after St Helens Borough Council’s cabinet gave the green light last week.

The Secretary of State will appoint an independent planning inspector to examine the plan and all of the representations made throughout the three public consultations.

The planning inspector will then assess the plan’s legal compliance and whether it meets the ‘tests of soundness’ set down in national policy.

They will then decide when the public examination will be conducted.

Council chiefs are confident the submission draft Local Plan will stand up to scrutiny, but Rainford Action Group disagrees.

Planning law states that green belt boundaries may only be changed in “exceptional circumstances”.

Rainford Action Group believes the council has failed to provide the evidence that shows exceptional circumstances exist, and therefore the plan should be thrown out.

James Wright, chairman of Rainford Action Group, said: “This version of the plan was ready two years ago but since then the council has dithered and delayed.

“It’s an improvement on the terrible proposals put forward in 2016 yet we remain unconvinced there is any justification to build on protected land in St Helens, a borough with a declining population and plenty of unprotected land in need of development.

“With the economic shocks of Covid-19 and Brexit about to hit, and with the climate crisis worsening all the time, protecting prime agricultural land should be an overriding priority not a commitment that can be overruled at the request of private sector developers and wealthy landowners.

“The law is clear; protected land can only be built on in exceptional circumstances. The council has again failed to show such circumstances exist in St Helens and that means we’re heading for further delays to this process, wasting more time and costing taxpayers more money.

“We need a robust and realistic plan in place so St Helens can look forward to a better future.“

Currently, 65 per cent of the borough is in the green belt. The preferred options plan set out intentions to cut this to 56 per cent.

The submission draft Local Plan proposed that 59 per cent of the borough will remain in the green belt.

Other green belt sites that were previously earmarked for housing in the preferred options plan from 2016 have also been ‘safeguarded’.

This means it will be removed from the green belt and ‘safeguarded’ for future development.

One area to be safeguarded is the 49-hectare former Eccleston Park Golf Club site, which is owned by Lymm-based developers Mulbury Homes Ltd.

Another green belt site that was previously earmarked for housing that has now been safeguarded is a 50-hectare site on land south of the A580 between Houghtons Lane and Crantock Grove in Windle.

One site that is no longer safeguarded under the new plan is a 133-hectare site at the Bold Forest Garden Suburb.

Construction of up to 480 homes is expected before 2035, with more than 2,500 homes earmarked for after 2035.

St Helens Borough Council has insisted that it is proposing a “balanced plan” that is “continuing its commitment to a brownfield first policy”, although this is refuted by opposition parties and green belt campaigners.

Cllr Richard McCauley, St Helens Borough Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and planning, said: “We have developed a plan that allows us to meet the required Government targets on housing, and that can accommodate the growth we want to achieve in St Helens Borough.

“This plan sets out our ambitions to create jobs, build a mix of high quality, affordable homes and shape infrastructure investments utilising brownfield first and foremost.

“It gives residents some certainty about our development plans and future use of land in the borough. It shows where development is planned, and therefore where resources and possible additional infrastructure, such as roads or new schools, are needed to support it.

“It will protect the vast majority of our open green spaces, develop our town and district centres, and help to prevent decisions being made on developments that may not be in the best interests of our local community, as without it we are at the mercy of developers who would be able to cherry-pick development sites without our input.

“Our Local Plan will help us to achieve all the things that matter to you as residents, and to us too.”