Agenda and minutes

Planning Committee Working Group - Wednesday, 5th October, 2022 2.00 pm

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Venue: Teams

Items
No.	Item
1.	Apologies for absence and declarations of interest To receive any apologies and declarations of interest. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Fairhurst. There were no declarations of interest.
2.	Minutes of the previous meeting PDF 92 KB To consider the minutes of the previous meeting. Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 24 August 2022 were approved as an accurate record.
3.	Community Involvement Protocol PDF 1 MB To consider the Community Involvement Protocol. Minutes: The Development Manager said that the Community Involvement Protocol had been drafted in April 2021 and predated the pathway work undertaken following the East of England Local Government Association report. He said that: At the time a small group of parishes had been consulted Work on the document had been paused while the pathway work was undertaken This work now needed to be completed to ensure that developers signed up to engage with parishes in an appropriate manner It was vital that parishes also actively engaged with the protocol moving forward The S106 issues would be resolved early in the process The protocol was uncontroversial Councillor Pavitt said that developers having dialogues with parishes made sense. He said that: · There had been a lack of dialogue between the District Council and the Parishes which needed to be improved and a formal mechanism introduced to ensure the delivery of promises · There had been occasions where parishes had been told they would receive responses to questions from Officers, but did not and had been unable to influence the S106 before it was signed off as a result The Development Manager said that in the context of a new application coming forward the protocol would implement a pre-application with a S106 rolling along side it. He said on occasion developers engaged strongly with the Parish Council but not with the District Council and that all stakeholders needed to remain in clear communication. Following comments from Councillor Loughlin the Development Manager said that the wording within the protocol would be reconsidered to more accurately reflect the consequences for developers that did not sign up to the protocol and how that could impact the success of their application when it reached the Planning Committee. Councillor Freeman said that: The protocol was a good document to have, albeit difficult to implement and expensive in Officer time It included a number of items that would rarely require consideration He was concerned that ward councillors could be accused of being in bed with a developer or indeed the District Council Once in place the protocol would rapidly identify what worked and what needed adapting The Chair said that knowledge was power and that the protocol would enable a Parish Council`s voice to be heard to. The Director of Planning confirmed that this draft protocol was the most bespoke document that he had seen in his experience. The Development Manager said that: The Planning Performance Agreement process could be labour intensive The pure Pre-Application process would cease and would save some time in upfront work The process would be more predictable to control, expectations would be clearer for developers and the rush that currently exists at the start of the planning process would be mitigated Councillor Lemon said that some but not all Parish Councils had planning sub-committees and that Parish Councils needed to be encouraged to engage. The Chair said that: Parish Councils needed to understand that being involved and talking to a developer would not make the ... view the full minutes text for item 3.