Agenda and draft minutes

LPSC 01/23 APPOINTMENT OF THE CHAIR OF SUB-COMMITTEE

Councillor Sarah Nelmes moved, duly seconded, that Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst be nominated as Chair of the Local Plan sub-committee.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst be appointed Chair of the sub[1]committee for the Local Government Year 2023/24

LPSC 02/23 APPOINTMENT OF THE VICE-CHAIR OF SUB-COMMITTEE

Councillor Sarah Nelmes moved, duly seconded, that Councillor Matthew Bedford be nominated as Vice-Chair Chair of the Local Plan sub-committee.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Matthew Bedford be appointed Vice-Chair of the sub[1]committee for the Local Government Year 2022/23.

To receive any apologies for absence.

None received.

To receive the minutes from the Local Plan sub-committee meeting held on 28 February 2023

It was confirmed that the Minutes of the Local Plan sub-committee meeting held on 6 June 2022 were a correct record and would be signed by the Chair.

Items of other business notified under Council Procedure Rule 30 to be announced, together with the special circumstances that justify their consideration as a matter of urgency. The Chairman to rule on the admission of such items.

None received.

To receive any declaration of interests.

None received.

Under Council Procedure Rule 35(b) a Member of the Joint Residents Association spoke on the report. 

The Chair used their discretion under Council Procedure Rule 35(d) to allow another member of the public to speak on this item.

Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst moved, seconded by Councillor Chris Lloyd, the following amendment to the recommendations as provided in the officer report.

Recommendation 11.1

That the Local Plan Sub Committee:

·         Note the contents of this report 

·         Agree the approach to housing need as detailed in the report and Green Belt where only sites in areas of moderate Green Belt harm or less, as set out in the Stage 2 Green Belt Review, are considered acceptable for residential development unless the site is considered strategic and the benefits of the site are considered and can be justified with supporting evidence  to outweigh the harm caused by its release from the Green Belt.

Notwithstanding the above that Officers, 

1.    Conduct a further search for brownfield land, with publicity to landowners and the public.

2.     In preparing any draft Local Plan it will be an evidence-based approach to safeguard undeveloped Green Belt land.

3.    That final decisions on any proposed Green Belt release and thus the indicative housing numbers only be considered after all the above has been undertaken and agreed by councillors.

Councillor Chris Mitchell moved, duly seconded, that in bullet point 3 that the word “final” be added before the word indicative.

This amendment was accepted by the proposer of the motion.

The Head of Planning Policy and Conservation advised the report detailed the relationship between housing need and the Green Belt and whether an alternative method to the government’s standard method would be appropriate, and details on a constraints-based approach to the Green Belt.

In 2020, the Local Housing Needs Assessment was completed, which replaced the Strategic Housing Markets Assessment.  For this work we used the standard method, which concluded there were no exceptional circumstances for using an alternative method.

The R18 consultation in 2021, also used the standard method, which provided a housing total of 12,624 dwellings.  Taking away completions, commitments (planning permissions) and a windfall allowance of what would be expected to come forwards outside of the plan, this left a target of 10,678.

The potential sites in the R18 plan added up to 8,973 dwellings, which was 1,705 short of the standard method target. We did receive some additional sites and went out for consultation on those that were considered suitable, however, we didn’t manage to meet that standard method target.

The government have consulted on proposed changes to the planning system; where they reiterated that the standard method would remain unchanged until the new Households’ Projections data from the census is published in 2024.

It was proposed that the NPPF should make it clearer that the standard method is a starting point but is not mandatory. Members noted the housing figure could then go down not just up.  No changes have yet been made to national policy, the regulations  ...  view the full minutes text for item LPSC7/23