Agenda item

To receive a progress update on the emerging Local Plan, including the consultation processing.

The Strategic Director of Planning briefed members on a recent visit from the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) which had been recommended by Senior officials from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC).

He said that PAS had provided initial feedback, and a final copy of their review would be provided to DLUHC and likely seen by the Secretary of State. PAS had reported that the Local Development Scheme had challenging timescales; however, the well-advanced evidence base and full Regulation 18 plan meant that the Council should be able to progress to Regulation 19. There were four recommendations which would be considered by officers before they were taken to the Scrutiny Committee.

The Strategic Director of Planning also addressed recent comments regarding the online portal for the Regulation 18 consultation responses and said that, whilst everyone was used to easier software used by large corporations, they needed to manage expectations. All comments were available online and searchable by reference ID, and a video guide had been created for further accessibility.    

Councillor Evans highlighted that some local authorities had simply listed consultation responses in alphabetical order and often published them in PDF format which was not searchable. The Council had taken each representation and cut them into bitesize parts which were individually searchable. The Interim Planning Policy Manager added that the software did have limitations and officers were not able to make quick changes to this. However, they had worked to make it as accessible as possible, such as producing an instruction video, and would be investigating alternatives for the Regulation 19 consultation.

The Interim Planning Policy Manager then provided a progress update on the emerging Local Plan, including the consultation processing. He explained that the team had five main workstreams; producing a report on Regulation 18 comments, updating the evidence base, re-engaging with stakeholders to address issues raised in the consultation, working with Site Promoters to update information for Regulation 19 and drafting a Regulation 19 Consultation plan.

He said that the report on Regulation 18 comments would summarise and group all comments, by topic as well as provide an officer’s response. This would be presented policy-by-policy, topic-by-topic in a format which was guided by Planning Inspector’s requests at other Plan examinations. In total there were over 5000 comments, after all the responses were broken down into their particular themes, and officers had generally found that there was a balance in the views presented.

In response to questions from members on the progress update, officers clarified the following:

·         A report would be created following the Regulation 19 consultation with responses to individual comments submitted. This would be part of the documentation submitted with the final Local Plan to the Secretary of State, along with the report with responses to the Regulation 18 consultation.

·         The report on Regulation 18 consultation responses would group similar comments together, listing each individual along with a summary of their comments and an officer response.

·         Officers were currently updating the evidence bases which consisted of around 30 different studies.

·         The Regulation 19 Housing supply numbers would factor in known commitments up to April 2024. This would be a larger figure than supplied in Regulation 18 which would create the opportunity to reduce the allocations and create larger head room.

·         Officers would continue to work with the Site Promoters for the sites chosen within Regulation 18. However, there was potential that this be extended in some circumstances to those that were unsuccessful.

Members highlighted the importance of considering the implications of community infrastructure which could be lost as a result of reductions to site allocations. Officers said that they were having discussions with relevant infrastructure bodies around the provision of future infrastructure during the plan period, and offered reassurances that the potential reductions would not be a case of simply netting off numbers without thought for infrastructure.

Work had not yet commenced on the drafting the Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy but preliminary work is underway. Further down the line. officers were intending to engage with Parish and Town Councils to consider on how a percentage of this may be transferred to them. The Charging Schedule would complement the Regulation 19 Local Plan and is planned to be adopted around the same time. 

The report was noted.