PLANNING Minister Nick Boles said there was "no excuse" for North East Lincolnshire taking so long to prepare an updated Local Plan.
Responding to comments from Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers, he said: "I am not suggesting for a moment that putting together a Local Plan is easy or straightforward, or that it is uncontentious, but 76 per cent of local authorities have managed to produce a draft plan and 54 per cent have managed to have it passed through examination and be formally adopted, so there simply is no excuse for your local authority not having managed to make more progress.
"I have to confess that I can see absolutely no reason or excuse for the suggestion that North East Lincolnshire Council will not be able to put a plan in place until November 2017. World wars have been fought and won in the same amount of time. It is extraordinary that an authority will spin its wheels for so long.
Mr Boles added: "The preferences of local people and local communities as to where development should happen will unfortunately not carry the weight that they would have carried if the local authority had a five-year land supply and a Local Plan.
"I completely understand local people's frustration and dismay that their opinions are effectively being overridden by such decisions, but we have to return to the fundamental point that we can transfer the power to say yes or no to development proposals only if local councils have taken responsibility for identifying how they will meet those needs.
