Issue - meetings

1. The content of the Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance report (Appendix 1 – Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance Report & Appendix 2 – Clarifications to the Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance report) be reviewed and noted.

2.     The Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance report for public and stakeholder consultation be published.

3.     That Dacorum Borough Council’s assets within the area covered by the Masterplan be noted.

Decision

1. The content of the Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance report (Appendix 1 – Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance Report & Appendix 2 – Clarifications to the Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance report) be reviewed and noted.

2.     The Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance report for public and stakeholder consultation be published.

3.     That Dacorum Borough Council’s assets within the area covered by the Masterplan be noted.

Reason for Decision

To seek Cabinet agreement to publish the Draft Two Waters Masterplan Guidance report for public and stakeholder consultation.

Corporate Objectives

·        A clean, safe and enjoyable environment

·        Building strong and vibrant communities

·        Ensuring economic growth and prosperity

·        Providing good quality affordable homes, in particular for those most in need

·        Delivering an efficient and modern council

Monitoring Officer/S.151 Officer Comments

Monitoring Officer:  

The Masterplan will help to guide future development of the area and ensure consistent decision making.  It should reduce speculative applications and therefore less challenges to Council decisions.

S.151 Officer

Council-owned land at Two Waters Nursery has been identified as a potential school site purely to demonstrate that the cost associated with delivering a new school is viable within the proposed Masterplan area. 

Legal advice is that the use of any particular site to demonstrate viability in this way does not ‘earmark’ that site for a specific use in future. In other words, the Council’s future decision-making over the site is in no way fettered, and the valuation of the site will not materially diminish through its use as an exemplification within this Plan.

Advice

Councillor Sutton introduced the report and added that consultation and workshops had already taken place and were now seeking approval to publish.

Councillor Marshall supported the recommendations. She noted the aspiration to increase parking at the train station, but it was her understanding that DBC had advised the operators that they were not keen on having a multi-storey car park on the site.

J Doe gave assurance that parking needs were being assessed at this site and he hoped to see more detail of the specific station needs. He added that the document sets policy parameters in order to be able to look at this in the future.

Councillor Harden sought clarification for height restrictions of car parks suggested.

J Doe said that the height restrictions changed for each site, ranging from six storeys to 16. They did not want isolated towers but more variety.

Councillor Harden said that there had been great consultation and felt that the Development management Committee had to take their views into account.

J Doe absolutely agreed and said they added weight to the process.

Councillor Sutton complimented all the staff involved in producing a high quality, easy to understand plan.

Voting

None.