Issue - meetings

This report updates members on the issues affecting the progress of the Local Plan update and progressing a Vision and Objectives while anticipating significant Government planning and regulatory reforms. There are consequently, a number of options members may wish to consider on the approach to take for the Local Plan update and supporting evidence work, in view of the pending national planning reforms and also emergent critical issues arising under the ‘Duty To Cooperate’ affecting plan making and particularly delivery of development to the West of Arun in the A27 corridor.

(Councillor Jones left the meeting during this item.)

Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Planning Policy and Conservation Team Leader presented his report which updated Members on the issues affecting the progress of the Local Plan update and progression of the Vision and Objectives whilst also anticipating significant Government planning and regulatory reforms. He outlined a number of options Members might have wished to consider on the approach to take for the Local Plan update and supporting evidence work, in view of the pending national planning reforms and also emergent critical issues arising under the ‘Duty to Cooperate’ affecting plan making and particularly delivery of development to the west of Arun in the A27 corridor.

The options put before the Committee were:

1)    Continue with Full Plan Preparation as per previous resolutions

2)    Continue with Full Plan Preparation but with an Extended Timescale

3)    Pause the preparation of a revised Local Plan until details of the new plan making system were agreed.

Members (and one non-Committee Member) then took part in a full debate on the item where a number of points were raised including:

·       the recent change in the Secretary of State and indications made that he already wished to review and revise aspects of the bill, and the resultant delay this might cause

·       knowledge of other local planning authorities who had suspended progress of their Local Plans because of the imminent changes in the White Paper, so precedent for option 3

·       previous experiences with the development of Local Plans during periods when planning rules were changing and the added costs involved, and the possibility of spending on a Local Plan that would have to be reviewed as circumstances have changed

·       a lot of time spent time doing the Vision and Objectives earlier in the year, disappointment and uncertainty over why they were abandoned, and how could the Council proceed with the Local Plan update if a basic vision could not be agreed upon

·       the evidence base previously commissioned having been extremely useful and reluctant to waste the money spent on it

·       support for option 1 and proceeding with the original plan due to concerns over the risks involved with waiting or the process becoming stop/start

·       the efficacy between options 2 and 3, and whether there was any work that it would be safe to proceed with in an extended timescale

·       the possibility of the removal of the 5-year housing supply and the objective assessed housing need figure derived from it, and so unnecessarily planning for housing numbers that may not be required

·       concerns over deferral (option 3) and whether the situation should be reviewed by Committee on a regular basis to be more proactive due to the changing nature of policies

·       the Local Plan being classed as failing by the Authority Monitoring Report, so other issues that needed to be address in addition to 5-year housing supply

·       whether the Council exposed itself to risk from neighbouring Local Authorities due to delays in evidence updates, for example through  ...  view the full minutes text for item 338