THE lack of a Local Plan has been blamed for the amount of money Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has had to pay on planning appeals since 2010.

New figures show the authority paid out nearly £500,000 in lost planning appeals.

The figures were obtained by Property consultancy Daniel Watney LLP through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

It found that the council is among the highest in the country for money spent on appealed planning decisions.

From the request 217 councils responded fully, with 178 paying out a sum over the past six years, which together totalled £11,965,077.17, of which the borough council has contributed £468,694.60 making it the sixth highest to pay out across the UK.

The borough lost 19 decisions on housing and other developments between 2010 and 2016, with many of the developments being granted on appeal.

Cabinet member for planning and infrastructure, Cllr Mark Ruffell said: “These figures go back to 2010 during which time we determined around 1,500 applications a year.

“The majority of the costs relate to a time period during 2014 and 2015 when a number of major development applications came in before we had an agreed Local Plan.

“Now that there is an approved Local Plan in place, there is a firm framework for the Development Control Committee to make decisions on such major applications.”

Leader of the Labour group in Basingstoke, Cllr Paul Harvey, criticised the Conservatives for taking so long to get a sound local plan approved.

He said: “Is it any wonder that we have been left in such a vulnerable development freefor-fall, and it has taken the conservative nearly 10 years to come up with a local plan.

“The blame for the amount of money being spent lays solely at the door of the Conservatives, who wanted to play politics with planning meaning the borough hasn’t got the much needed houses it needs.”

The delay in introducing a Local Plan was partly due to Government planning inspector Mike Fox’s refusal in December 2014 to approve a separate proposal to build 748 new homes a year – a number he claimed was too low.