Agenda item

A report of the Head of Planning and Regeneration, enabling the Group to review the development of a new Single Local Plan.

A report of the Head of Planning and Regeneration, enabling the Group to review the development of a new Single Local Plan, was submitted (item 7 on the agenda filed with these minutes).

The Cabinet Lead Member for Planning, Inward Investment and Tourism Strategy, the Head of Planning and Regeneration and the Team Leader Local Plans assisted with consideration of the item and provided the following responses to issues raised:

(i)         The Council had collected evidence regarding the delivery of housing from sites that had been identified for development.  That evidence showed that the Council had identified sufficient sites but that it had not been possible to deliver the planned number of houses within the plan period.  The Council was therefore considering how much committed development would be delivered with the period of the new plan, ie to 2036.  Some of the housing in the sustainable urban extensions identified in the Core Strategy would be delivered after 2036.

(ii)        The Council could consider different scenarios to address possible issues regarding the delivery of planned sites.  With a low growth scenario there was a risk that the Council could not sustain a five year housing land supply.  A high growth scenario would provide the Council with more flexibility and control but could result in more houses being provided than were needed.  Over the next year the Council would calculate the amount of new housing that was needed.  Reserve sites could then be identified if development of the sites identified to deliver that housing was delayed.

(iii)       It was not necessarily significant how many times a particular issue was raised during the consultation.  If an issue was raised that had merit it had the same weight whether it was mentioned in one response or in many.

(iv)       The Council would seek evidence from the local education authority and clinical commissioning groups regarding capacity issues.  The response received from an individual school was related to the impact of possible changes to the limits to development in that location.

(v)        Consultation at this stage of the process of developing the Local Plan was in addition to the requirements set out in legislation.  Additional periods of consultation had been included in the Council’s Statement of Community Involvement in order to let people (including infrastructure providers and developers) know what stage the Council had reached and to try and reach a consensus on matters such as the settlement hierarchy.  A greater number of responses would be expected in future stages when specific proposals were made.

(vi)       No comparison had been made with the number of responses received during other consultations.  A comparison could be made with the corresponding stage in the development of the current Core Strategy.

(vii)      Work on the Local Plan was being undertaken with the draft revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in mind.  The revisions would have an impact in a number of areas when implemented.  It was expected that the revised NPPF would be published by the Government in July.  If that was the case it would not impact on the timetable for developing the Local Plan.

(viii)     The impact of migration was included in the preparation of the Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment.  If the standard methodology proposed in the revisions to the NPPF was introduced then calculations of housing need would be updated with Government housing projections figures which also took into account migration.

Members of the Group made the following comments:

(i)         There could be a fine balance between pursuing a policy of urban concentration in order to enable infrastructure to be provided in those locations to support new development, and focussing on too few sites which could add to the pressure on infrastructure.

RESOLVED

1.         that the report be noted;

2.         that information be provided to members of the Group on the number of organisations and the number of individuals contained in the database used for the consultation.

Reasons

1.         To acknowledge the information received.

2.         To provide further information regarding how the consultation had been undertaken.