Agenda and minutes

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 14 December 2017.

The minutes of the meeting on 14 December 2017 were approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record subject to the following amendment:

PP12 – Councillor Lodge said the legislation was there for development corporations to take on an area of new town development.

This line was to be changed to read: Councillor Lodge said the legislation was there for development corporations to take on all new town development.

The Chairman said officers would write to all members of the working group to follow up on the action points raised at the last meeting.

The Planning Policy Team Leader said officers were currently drafting the Regulation 19 local plan and would be bringing it to the working group on 31 May. All actions from the previous working group would be considered.

Councillor Mills said an additional action point from the previous meeting was that further work should be carried out regarding how appropriate the use of the Community Infrastructure Levy in the local plan would be.

The Planning Policy Team Leader said officers had been considering how to incorporate the Community Infrastructure Levy into future decisions on planning in Uttlesford. This would entail developing a regulation 123 list and consulting upon it. In order to do this, officers were looking into whether it was appropriate to include reference to the levy in the draft local plan.

The Chairman said the issue of the Community Infrastructure Levy would be raised at the next group leaders meeting and then officers’ work on the matter would be brought back to the working group. There would then be clarity around the decision-making and the final conclusion.

Councillor Lodge said members needed an opportunity to have another discussion on planning policies. The Chairman said another session on this matter could be arranged.

In response to statements by public speakers, the Chairman said the number of houses Uttlesford District Council was working towards in its local plan was 14,100, and this figure had been examined a number of times. This was in comparison to the number generated by central government’s new methodology which was 16,200. If the Council’s plan went through on time, then Uttlesford would only need to build 14,100 houses.

In response to a statement from Tony Clarke, the Planning Policy Team Leader said the purpose of the report was to inform the local plans for Uttlesford and other councils in the FEMA area. Evidence used in the local plan had to be as up to date as possible, but there would always be new evidence emerging. The evidence in the report was recent and was appropriate to base the local plan on. The industrial land space requirement was 22ha and office requirement of 2-5ha, which was not a large requirement in the context of 16,000 jobs, but it was only taking into account the B-use elements of the forecast. The local plan would identify the land to meet this requirement. He would respond to Tony Clarke’s question about how many jobs there were in Uttlesford District at present and how many there would be in 2033.

In response to a statement from Michael Young, the Planning Policy Team Leader said the jobs growth figure for Stansted Airport related to a high level of growth. The estimated growth of jobs at the airport by the end of 2030 was about 10000, including direct on-airport, direct off-airport and indirect and induced jobs.

The working group considered the report.

Councillor Barker said there was a discrepancy between the moderated and preferred baseline figures for total FEMA jobs created between 2011 and 2016, despite the fact that this period had already passed. She asked who had decided what the preferred scenario was and what the rationale was behind the large difference in the moderated baseline figure and preferred baseline figure between 2011 and 2033.

In response to Councillor Barker, the Planning Policy Team Leader said he would speak to the consultants for an explanation on Councillor Barker’s point. This explanation would be circulated to the working group.

Councillor Dean said housing needed to be planned for. The process of working out the total number of jobs needed to be reconciled with the total housing number.

The Chairman said there needed to be the right amount of employment space in Uttlesford to match the planned number of houses. The report indicated the balance of employment space to houses. Employment would be a key aspect of the new communities.

Councillor Lodge said he would like to see further analysis of the figures in the report. He asked what the real effect of employment in new towns on commuting in Uttlesford would be.

The Planning Policy Team Leader said that garden community principles aimed to make the proposed new towns as self-contained as they could be. They  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

The working group considered the report.

In response to a question from Councillor Dean, the Planning Policy Team Leader said he would look into an explanation to why the response rate to the survey in Uttlesford was so low.

In response to a question from Councillor Dean, Councillor Barker said there were no responses in South End because there were no pitches in South End

The date of the next meeting will be 23 May 2018.

The date of the next meeting was 23 May 2018.

The meeting finished at 9.15.