A leading opposition councillor is calling for the resignation of the borough council’s planning chief.
Liberal Democrat leader, Gavin James is urging Cllr Rob Golding to step down after the Government’s Planning Inspectorate overruled the council’s decision to block a plans for retirement homes.
Cllr Golding, cabinet member for planning, said he has no plans to step down.
Developers McCarthy and Stone Retirement Living had proposed building 94 assisted living apartments on New Road.
The £8m scheme was blocked by the council last year, forcing an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
On June 1, planning inspector Jonathan Roberts green-lighted the scheme and work is set to start later this year.
In Mr Roberts report, one reason cited for approving the appeal was the borough council could not prove it had a five years supply of land for future homes.
The report read: “The council is not able to demonstrate an up-to-date five-year supply of deliverable housing land.
“In such circumstances, applications for residential development should be considered favourably.”
Cllr James, who opposed the plans, branded the ruling Conservative administration as “negligent” for failing to plan ahead.
Cllr James said: “We have had years of posturing and pretense on housing numbers from the local Tories and now we are paying the price.
“Far from letting local communities take control, they have sat back and given the green light to developers to build what they want and where they want.
“The council has been reviewing housing land supply for several years, delaying the process at every opportunity. The Tory administration is paid to make tough decisions to protect Basingstoke. It has failed to do this.”
Cllr Golding said council committees were currently in the process of drawing up new housing plans for the borough and had taken more time than anticipated.
He said: “I have been saying for over a year now that we needed to make progress with the new plan and agree on the housing numbers because if we did not then the planning inspectorate would allow decisions on appeal.
“Members have had lots of discussions and spent lots of time looking at the new housing numbers.
“Time has been taken up by an extensive consultation with residents, which was the right thing to do.”
He said the new housing numbers should be approved by council later this year.
