Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies for absence and declarations of interest.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Harris.

Councillor Dean declared a non-pecuniary interest because his wife was a volunteer at, and a member of the trustees of, the Gardens of Easton Lodge.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 17 April 2018.

The minutes of the meeting on 17 April 2018 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Councillor Barker said she would like an answer on a question she had raised at the last meeting about how employment figures in the paperwork had been split. The Planning Policy Team Leader said he would respond to Councillor Barker about this.

The Chairman said the following meeting of the working group would take place at 6pm on 31 May. There would be 60 minutes available for public speaking.

Additionally, at the Cabinet meeting to consider the Local Plan on 12 June, there would be 60 minutes available for public speaking. At the Council meeting to consider the Local Plan on 19 June, there would 90 minutes available for public speaking.

To consider the report on the Local Plan evidence base.

In response to statements made by members of the public, the Chairman made the following points:

The Council had engaged Dentons, a law firm with specialist experience in the field. Dentons had advised that development plan documents have the same legal status as the Regulation 19 Local Plan. Advantages of these documents were that they would provide the depth of detail about the planned communities that public speakers were asking for, they would have the same period of consultation and would also be examined by an inspector.

The government had announced it would create its own methodology for calculating figures for housing need. The government’s methodology would calculate Uttlesford’s housing need figure as 16200 houses, as opposed to Uttlesford District Council’s (UDC) current figure which was 14000. It was important not to slip from the Council’s timetable for approving the Local Plan because otherwise the government would impose the higher figure of housing need on UDC.

The Council was not including any additional land in the West of Braintree site. The site might be developed through a development corporation and if so, UDC would work with Braintree District Council on that. It was possible the other two sites could be developed through development corporations too.

Access to all proposed garden communities was fundamental, both on arterial routes and more rural roads. There was a possibility to create a rapid transport system running from Stansted Airport to Easton Park. This could also be expanded further.

Highways England were considering the possibility of creating a smart motorway at Junction 8 North on the M11.

The potential for use of the Community Infrastructure Levy was being considered by UDC.

The Planning Policy Team Leader introduced the report. He said a lot of the detail regarding the proposed communities would be included in the development plan documents.

In response to questions from public speakers, the Planning Policy Team Leader said the Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) took the latest government household projections, translated those households into dwellings and then applied an adjustment to take into account market signals in order to achieve a figure for housing need. The calculations for these adjustments could be found on page 9 of the 2016 SHMA and page 5 of the 2017 SHMA.

The Planning Policy Team Leader introduced the paper.

Councillor Lodge said he believed it was necessary to specify in the Regulation 19 Local Plan that a development corporation would be the preferred delivery method for the proposed new towns.

In response to Councillor Lodge, the Chairman said development corporation legislation had not yet been enacted by central government. He said the Local Plan would state that garden communities would be delivered if necessary through development corporations. Both Dentons and an inspector had advised the Council do this.

In response to a question by Councillor Davis, the Planning Policy Team Leader said the Council’s proposed delivery rates had been informed by responses to the Regulation 18 Local Plan consultation and the documents these responses had referred to. Officers believed the delivery rate trajectory was realistic and had built in a buffer in case problems arose.

The Planning Policy Team Leader introduced the paper.

The Planning Policy Team Leader said the Council’s five year land supply figures would be calculated using the Liverpool method, whereby backlog from previous years would be spread out over the whole plan period. This method would be specified in the Local Plan, but could not be used in development decisions until the Local Plan was adopted.

The Principal Planning Officer introduced the paper.

In response to a question from Councillor Lodge, the Principal Planning Officer said limiting water use per person per day to lower than the statutory requirement was a policy set by Affinity Water with the Environment Agency. The Chairman said this was a general issue and was not particular to the garden communities. Officers would respond to Councillor Lodge about this.

In response to a question from Councillor Lodge, the Principal Planning Officer said Affinity Water had satisfied the Environment Agency that it would be capable of supplying the necessary amount of water to the district. The water cycle strategy was based on the existing parameters of Stansted Airport. The Chairman said officers would respond to Councillor Lodge about what measures would be required if the airport was expanded.

Councillor Barker said one issue in her ward was that water pressure was low. The Council needed to ensure this was addressed.

The Principal Planning Officer introduced the paper.

The Planning Policy Team Leader said one of the advantages of the garden communities was that concentrating development in certain areas allowed for the delivery of significant elements of infrastructure. The Local Plan was seeking to avoid rat-running which could be caused by the development of the proposed North Uttlesford garden community, but detailed decisions about mitigation would be included in the development plan documents. He would respond to the question by D Hall in his public statement about the park and ride service in writing.

The Chairman said Cambridgeshire County Council had secured funding for a detailed study of the A505, and this was now on the Mayor’s infrastructure plan.

Councillor Dean said the development plan documents should not focus so much on the proposed garden communities that they ignore other parts of the district. The congestion on the B1383 and the likely increase in traffic in for northwest Hertfordshire were examples of issues that should be addressed.

In response to a question from Councillor Davis, the Principal Planning Officer said the Council used Essex County Council’s (ECC) guidance on car parking but this was not prescriptive on setting maximum standards. The Local Plan would also contain a policy on electric car charging points in new developments. The Chairman said officers should note that the Council should be protecting new communities in terms of where cars would go. Councillor Davis said he would be happy to provide input on the National Grid’s capacity to supply electric charging points.

In response to questions from Councillor Lodge, the Principal Planning Officer said all highway links within Uttlesford currently operated within capacity but not all junctions did. There would be a policy in the Local Plan requiring detailed transport assessments on planning applications. ECC review strategy on air quality as required but had not considered it necessary to review strategy for the proposed new developments.

In response to the statement made by J Deane, the Principal Planning Officer said the transport study had adhered to national guidance and standards. Additionally a sensitivity test had been introduced in the study, using peak methodology to calculate its figures.

The Principal Planning Officer introduced the paper.

In response to a question from Councillor Dean, the Planning Policy Team Leader said the Local Plan could be used to inform the master planning in the development plan documents.

The Planning Policy Team Leader introduced the paper.

In response to a question from Councillor Dean, the Principal Planning Officer said officers would look again at whether more specific wording was needed to reference the registered gardens of Easton Lodge on page 516, but that the list of mitigation measures on pages 500-501 was intended to address the registered park.

The Senior Planning Officer introduced the paper.

Councillor Mills said it was important that all the necessary detail came forward in the development plan documents.

J Herbert of Troy Planning and Design introduced the report.

Councillor Dean said he was concerned the Local Plan was not looking far enough ahead in terms of the expansion of Stansted Airport, if this expansion was to go ahead.

J Herbert said work could only be carried out in relation to the known scale of growth.

In response to a question by Councillor Loughlin about mitigation measures for Saffron Walden, J Herbert said Troy Planning had drawn on input from service providers such as Essex County Council, and from the transport study which identified improvements to particular junctions to help improve the flow of traffic. A wider package of sustainable travel measures was referred to in the mode shift in the transport study. The Principal Planning Officer said the results of a study about a link road had been published last year and were available on the UDC website.

J Herbert said the next road investment strategy would run between 2020 and 2025. Highways England were working on long term solutions for Junction 8 on the M11 and there should be an announcement about this in 2019. He would liaise with the transport consultants about transport infrastructure for Saffron Walden.

C Berry of Troy Planning and Design gave a verbal update on the study. So far the results of the study strongly indicated positive viability across different case studies. Work was still ongoing to test out the case studies and would be fed back in further detail at the next meeting.

The Planning Policy Officer gave a verbal update on the work.

In response to a question from Councillor Barker, the Planning Policy Officer said he would look into issues with parking occurring at Hatfield Forest.

The Planning Policy Officer gave a verbal update on the work. He said it left space for further discussion in the future.

The Senior Planning Officer gave a verbal update on the study.

Cllr J Redfern, J Deane, J Evans, D Hall, J Kingdom, K McDonald, S Merifield and M Young spoke on aspects of the Local Plan Evidence Base.

The date of the next meeting will be 31 May at 6pm.

The date of the next meeting was 31 May 2018. The starting time would be 6pm.

The meeting finished at 8.50.

ACTION POINTS