Agenda and minutes

Public Speaking: To register your intention to speak at a Council, Cabinet or Committee meeting, please contact Democratic Services on committee@uttlesford.gov.uk or 01799 510410, 510548, 510369 or 510460. Panel, Forum and Working Group meetings do not generally permit public speaking. Please refer to a specific meeting's pdf agenda pack for further information and registration deadlines.

Live Broadcast: For Council, Cabinet and Committee meetings the video player will be available on this page under the Media banner a few minutes before the meeting is due to begin. Please note that Panel, Board, Forum and Working Group meetings are not generally broadcast on the website. We believe that live streaming video of our formal decision making meetings, and publishing the recordings to be watched back later, is good for democracy – and you can find these videos on our website. This video technology sits alongside the longstanding practice of providing seats in the public gallery for members of the public and journalists to turn up and watch our in-person meetings live. Please understand that whilst we will continue to make every reasonable effort to ensure that our key public meetings at which important decisions are live streamed and recorded, any failure in that technology does not in any way invalidate the legitimacy of that meeting or of the decisions taken at it. Even in the event of such occasional technical failures, the public gallery will still have been open, as required by law, and the minutes of the meetings will still be made available in due course.

Zoom and YouTube have their own privacy and data security policies, which can be accessed at www.zoom.us and www.youtube.com.

Venue: Zoom - https://zoom.us/. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services  Email: committee@uttlesford.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence and Declarations of Interest

To receive any apologies and declarations of interest.

Minutes:

Councillors Freeman, Eke, Fairhurst, Asker, Coote and Light declared non-pecuniary interests in that they were members of Saffron Walden Town Council.

 

Councillor Barker declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Essex County Council.

 

Councillor Day declared a non-pecuniary interest as his wife was a Treasurer of Stop Easton Park.

 

Councillor Dean declared a non-pecuniary interest in that his wife was on the Board of the Gardens of Easton Lodge.

 

Councillor Criscione declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he had held a meeting with Mr Thompson of Stop Easton Park.

 

Councillor Pepper declared a non-pecuniary interest in that she had been actively involved with Stop Easton Park.

 

Councillor Foley declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of the Campaign to Protect Rural Essex.

 

Councillors Armstrong and Jones declared non-pecuniary interests as members of Dunmow Town Council.

 

Councillor Bagnall declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Takeley Parish Council.

 

Councillor Lemon declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Hatfield Heath Parish Council.

 

Councillor Isham declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Broxted Parish Council.

 

Councillor Merifield declared a non-pecuinary interest as a member of Stebbing Parish Council.

 

Councillor Evans declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Stebbing Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.

 

Councillor Sell declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Stansted Parish Council and Stansted Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.

 

Councillor Reeve declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of High Easter Parish Council.

 

Councillor Khan declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Stansted Parish Council.

 

Councillor Hargreaves declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Newport Parish Council and Newport and Quendon and Rickling Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.

2.

Local Plan - Decision following Inspectors' Letter pdf icon PDF 148 KB

To consider the report on the Local Plan – Decision Following Inspectors’ Letter.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Evans gave a summary of the report which recommended the withdrawal of the Local Plan following receipt of the Inspectors’ letter, and the preparation of a new Plan.

 

CouncillorCaton proposed the following amendment which was seconded by Councillor Dean.

 

To remove the recommendation in the report in full and replace with the following wording:

 

The Council recognises the deeply held and divergent views of members across the Council, which reflect personal principles and the range of views in our community.

 

The Council believes that in whatever future form (revised or new), our District's Local Plan should:

 

(1) Contribute to building a strong, responsive and competitive economy by ensuring that sufficient land of the right type is available in the right places and at the right time to support growth and innovation; and by identifying and coordinating development requirements, including the provision of infrastructure;

 

(2) Support strong, vibrant and healthy communities, by providing the supply of low/zero carbon housing of all types and costs, including truly affordable homes, required to meet the needs of present and future generations; and create a high quality, built environment, with accessible local services that reflect the community’s needs and support its health, social and cultural well-being; and

 

(3) Contribute to protecting and enhancing our natural, built and historic environment; and, as part of this, help to improve biodiversity, prudent use of natural resources, minimise waste and pollution, and mitigate and adapt to climate change, including moving to a low carbon economy, with the potential to create surplus energy.

 

The Council, however, is disappointed by the invidious position the current administration has placed our community in. In particular, it is concerned by:

 

(1) the distinct lack of public engagement and participation since January in the proposal to withdraw the current draft Local Plan;

 

(2) the estimated £1m spent by the administration on the Plan in the period since they declined to withdraw the draft plan when the Inspectors offered them that opportunity in the summer of 2019 and the likely £3m cost of developing a new plan;

 

(3) a lack of any indication of a revised spatial strategy before making a decision which indicates in broad terms where new housing will be allocated in any new plan and a readiness to rule out large Garden Communities as an option before any reconsideration; and

 

(4) the inevitability that the development of a new plan will require a two-fold increase in required housing under central government regulations, and

 

(5) that the district will increasingly be subjected to speculative applications for ad hoc developments without adequate infrastructure to address an even greater fiveyear land supply deficit.

 

Therefore, Council instructs the Cabinet Member for Planning and the Local Plan to refer consideration of the future direction of the Local Plan firstly to open and transparent discussion with Members and public participants within a forum such as the Planning Policy Working Group, or equivalent, before bringing back the matter to this Council with considered proposals.

 

Members arguing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.