The Council adopted the strategic planning document in April last year following an independent examination by a planning inspector who concluded in his report that the document was sound.
The University of Bristol, which has submitted plans for a 1,000-home urban extension on green belt land in Long Ashton, subsequently brought a legal challenge against the Council seeking to quash the adoption of the plan.
The university claimed that the inspector had failed to give adequate reasons in his report (23-page / 243KB PDF) for concluding that the plan was sound in respect of its housing figures, which were based on West of England household projection forecasts rather than North Somerset figures.
It also said that the inspector’s modified housing requirement figure of 14,000 did not make “sufficient allowance for latent demand”.
The judge said that the inspector’s reasons did not explain why the figure included sufficient allowance for latent demand, having regard to the differing assessments of latent demand and differing population characteristics as between the West of England and North Somerset.
The judge said that although the inspector did “reach a conclusion on the main controversial issue” in relation to the method used to calculate the housing requirement, he did not “say why”.
“Paragraph 25 [in the inspector's report] simply says that the use of North Somerset instead of West of England Figures would have the disadvantage identified by the Council – continuation of the previous trend towards out commuting – without addressing the (unchallenged) evidence that they understate the likely growth of households in North Somerset by virtue of differing population structure,” the judge said.
The university also claimed that the Council had failed in its duty to co-operate in its preparation of the plan and that the plan should have included a green belt review. However, the judge dismissed those grounds of complaint.
"We will continue to promote our strategy of jobs-led growth in North Somerset while protecting the green belt from the threat of urban sprawl," said the Council’s deputy leader Elfan Ap Rees in a statement.
The judge will make a ruling on the actions that need to be taken in relation to the Core Strategy on 4 March.
