Issue - meetings

Councillor Elson, Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy, introduced the recommendations from the Executive in respect of the approval of the review of the Development Management Policies DPD.  The Council had a statutory duty to review its development plan documents at least once every five years to determine whether they needed to be updated.  A review had been conducted and it was recommended that no immediate modification was required.

Attention was drawn to the uncertainty caused by the Government’s Planning White Paper and the 2021 Queen’s Speech regarding laws to modernise the planning system.  The situation would be monitored and the Council would be advised in the event the DPD needed to be modified in accordance with changes in national policy.

Reference was made to the consultation and, although no points raised had been significant enough to justify an immediate modification of the DPD, Councillor Hughes moved and Councillor Barker seconded an amendment to add the following to the recommendations before the Council to ensure the responses were retained for future consideration:

“(v)    the evidence collated during this review from stakeholder engagement to be retained and considered in future revisions and iterations of the DPD.”

The Portfolio Holder welcomed the amendment and advised that the Planning Policy Team would ensure the information received through the consultation would be retained and used in the future.

REsolved

That  (i)    the review of the Development Management Policies DPD, included in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved;

          (ii)   the Development Management Policies DPD continue to be up to date for the purposes of managing development across the Borough;

          (iii)  the details of the review be published on the Council’s website as soon as it is reasonable to do so after Council’s approval;

          (iv)  authority be delegated to the Director of Planning, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Planning, to approve any minor changes to the review to reflect new information, including any national guidance before it is published; and

(v)   the evidence collated during this review from stakeholder engagement to be retained and considered in future revisions and iterations of the DPD.

Reporting Person – Giorgio Framalicco

Councillor Elson, Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy, introduced a report which recommended to Council the approval of the review of the Development Management Policies DPD.  The Executive was advised that the Council had a statutory duty to review its development plan documents at least once every five years.  Councillor Elson reported that a review had been conducted and it was recommended that no immediate modification was required.  Attention was drawn to paragraph 1.8 of the report which set out uncertainty caused by the Government’s Planning White Paper and the 2021 Queen’s Speech regarding laws to modernise the planning system.  Officers would be monitoring the situation closely and would notify Members if the DPD needed to be modified in accordance with changes in national policy.

Discussion ensued on the consultation responses.  It was noted that all the representations had been considered and many worthwhile comments had been received.  However none of the responses had been significant enough to justify an immediate modification of the DPD.

Following a question regarding climate change, the Executive was informed that the Council had embarked upon a review of the Climate Change Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) and a draft of the SPD would be received by the Executive in due course.

REcommended to Council

That  (i)    the review of the Development Management Policies DPD, included in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved;

          (ii)   the Development Management Policies DPD continue to be up to date for the purposes of managing development across the Borough;

          (iii)  the details of the review be published on the Council’s website as soon as it is reasonable to do so after Council’s approval; and

          (iv)  authority be delegated to the Director of Planning, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Planning, to approve any minor changes to the review to reflect new information, including any national guidance before it is published.

Reason:   To enable the Council to meet its statutory duty to review the Development Management Policies Development Plan Document in accordance with paragraph 33 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).