COUNCIL chiefs spent almost half a million pounds on a major housing blueprint for south Worcestershire.
The results of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request passed to The Standard revealed £439,980 was forked out between October 2010 and November 2015 on work to put together the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP).
The blueprint sets out where 28,000 homes can be built across Wychavon, Worcester City and Malvern up until 2030.
According to the FOI, spending on consultants made up the bulk of the costs totaling £265,933.
Council chiefs said they were required because the SWDP needed a large amount of technical evidence and support from specialist consultants on issues such as the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, Water Cycle Studies, retail assessments and economic forecasting’s.
£120,349 was also spent on inspector’s fees which the council was required to do by law.
Since 2012 a further £151,186 has been paid out on the hiring of agency staff.
Wychavon District Council has defended the spending, which doesn’t take into account how much Worcester City and Malvern Hills Councils has contributed to the SWDP, by saying it wouldn’t have been possible to produce the document any cheaper.
Gary Williams, Head of Housing and Planning for Wychavon District Council, said the SWDP was not like a typical local development plan.
“It is a ‘major sub-regional document which will guide hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment in housing leisure and infrastructure across South Worcestershire up to 2030.
“By working together across South Worcestershire we’ve also been able to cut costs, such as having only one counsel to represent all South Worcestershire councils instead of three and we’ve had to pay for just one examination instead of three separate ones.
“It would not have been possible to prepare an individual plan any cheaper.”
He added a large amount of technical evidence was needed during the process which meant they had to employ consultants with specialist expertise and experience as there was no-one in house with that knowledge.
“Due to the thousands of responses we have received to the various consultations on the plan, both locally and nationally, we have also had to temporarily recruit extra staff at times to ensure we could meet those demands.
“We have also had to pay for the hire of suitable venues and equipment as existing council venues were not large enough or unavailable.”
He said some costs, such as those of the Planning Inspector, were required by law, adding it was important the inspector supported the plan.
The SWDP has now been adopted.
