Issue - meetings

The following Motion was proposed by Councillor Anderson and seconded by Councillor Williams:

Planning Bill

Whilst welcoming and participating in some of the Government’s proposed changes to the Planning system, for example the use of design codes and mapping, this Council is opposed to the reduction in community involvement, and requests that the Leader and Portfolio Holder for Planning write to the Secretary of State at Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government to express the Council’s objection to the reduction.

The Council has concerns about the removal of local policies from the Development Plans part of the system, and the other consequences of allowing certain planning proposals to bypass local decision making in the Development Management part of the system altogether through further permitted development and prior approval, and asks that these matters are included too in objecting to the Secretary of State.

An amendment to the Motion was proposed by Councillor Tindall and seconded by Councillor England. The amendment was to include the following paragraph to the preliminary Motion:

Further, following the passage of the Bill, with consequential amendments and additions to the draft Local Plan

a.    The Council recognises that community involvement would benefit from a re-run of the Regulation 18 consultation, and

b.     The Council believes that the draft Local Plan would be strengthened for local people by added provisions for social housing, distinct from affordable housing.

A vote was held on the amended Motion:

15 for,

20 against,

0 abstentions,

Therefore the motion was denied.

A vote was then held on the original Motion:

22 for,

0 against,

12 abstentions,

Therefore the motion was carried.

The following Motion was proposed by Councillor Anderson and seconded by Councillor Williams:

Planning Bill

Whilst welcoming and participating in some of the Government’s proposed changes to the Planning system, for example the use of design codes and mapping, this Council is opposed to the reduction in community involvement, and requests that the Leader and Portfolio Holder for Planning write to the Secretary of State at Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government to express the Council’s objection to the reduction.

The Council has concerns about the removal of local policies from the Development Plans part of the system, and the other consequences of allowing certain planning proposals to bypass local decision making in the Development Management part of the system altogether through further permitted development and prior approval, and asks that these matters are included too in objecting to the Secretary of State.

An amendment to the Motion was proposed by Councillor Tindall and seconded by Councillor England. The amendment was to include the following paragraph to the preliminary Motion:

Further, following the passage of the Bill, with consequential amendments and additions to the draft Local Plan

1. The Council recognises that community involvement would benefit from a re-run of the Regulation 18 consultation, and
2. The Council believes that the draft Local Plan would be strengthened for local people by added provisions for social housing, distinct from affordable housing.

Councillor Anderson said he wouldn’t accept the amendment and asked that his colleagues reject it. He explained we already had debate and Q&A’s on this very point this evening and now wasn’t the time to be prejudging whether we will be doing it or not.

Councillor Williams agreed with Councillor Anderson and said he couldn’t support the amendment. He advised he was sympathetic to the amendment but these two matters weren’t in the same Bill and if we passed the amended motion we would leave ourselves open to challenge.

Councillor Pringle spoke in support of the amendment. She said many of the residents she had interacted with were frustrated by the lack of social housing and some are living in completely unacceptable living conditions, yet the government continue to conflate the need for social housing with a free for all to allow developer’s access to our Green Belt.

Councillor England said: “This original Motion identifies that Community Involvement is important – The Local Plan is certainly the issue which brings the most public participation, but we need to make a commitment to build proper trust with residents:

We’ve convinced ourselves that 3% of the population commenting is great – it isn’t! The bar for considering a Local Plan consultation a strong success is set very low, by those about to jump it!

And it is my conviction that with a different approach to the R18 consultation many-fold more responses and ideas could be garnered. Those of us who dove into the engagement of this know that many more people have opinions, but are not willing to enter into the detail,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5