Agenda item

That the revised timetable for the Local Plan and other updates to the Local Development Scheme appended to this report be agreed and authority be delegated to the Assistant Director, Planning, Development and Regeneration  to make any final minor editorial and typographical revisions to the document including any necessary to reflect the Cabinet’s discussions and decision

Decision

That the revised timetable for the Local Plan and other updates to the Local Development Scheme appended to this report be agreed and authority be delegated to the Assistant Director, Planning, Development and Regeneration  to make any final minor editorial and typographical revisions to the document including any necessary to reflect the Cabinet’s discussions and decision

Corporate objectives

The Council’s Local Plan helps support all 5 corporate objectives:

·        Safe and clean environment: e.g. contains policies relating to the design and layout of new development that promote security and safe access;

·        Community Capacity: e.g. provide a framework for local communities to prepare area-specific guidance such as Neighbourhood Plans, Town / Village Plans etc.;

·        Affordable housing: e.g. sets the Borough’s overall housing target and the proportion of new homes that must be affordable;

·        Dacorum delivers: e.g. provides a clear framework upon which planning decisions can be made; and

·        Regeneration: e.g. sets the planning framework for key regeneration projects, such as Hemel Hempstead town centre and the Maylands Business Park.

Deputy Monitoring Officer:  

Preparation of a Local Development Scheme and Local Plan are statutory requirements pursuant to the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and Town and Country Planning  (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.

There is a duty to ensure that a Local Development Scheme is maintained as an up to date document.

S.151 Officer

There are no budgetary implications arising as a direct result of the recommendations in this report.

Advice

Councillor G Sutton introduced the report to members. This report is to lay out the new timetable for the Local Plan. He thanked the team for all their hard work on this plan despite the current Covid-19 situation.

J Doe brought members attention to page 7 of the report which contained the revised timetable.

Councillor Tindall asked if the council had received the full reasons from the Inspectors about St Albans Local Plan yet.

J Doe said the St Albans website contained a lengthy letter from the two Planning Inspectors, which is provisional for the Council to add their comments and at this time, there isn’t a timetable set for this. St Albans has issued a press release with comments from the planning spokespeople of each political group.

Councillor Williams said this report asks Cabinet to set a new timetable up to 2022, from initial thoughts from St Albans, is there any prospect of any issues coming out from them that may affect our timetable.

J Doe said not at the moment and the team will look carefully at issues that the Inspectors will conclude on like the duty to cooperate and the strategy that is put forward to meet development needs. At the moment, we are relatively comfortable that November 2020 is the right time.

Councillor Anderson asked if there is anything we can do to reduce the risk of another timetable slip.

J Doe said we are making sure that our work around infrastructure planning for the early years sites are as robust as possible. There is a need to look closely to ensure there are robust statements of common grounds in place with other neighbouring authorities and other statutory bodies as prescribed in legislation.

Recommendations agreed.