Agenda item

To seek Committee’s approval that the draft Direction of Travel Document to be used for early engagement with key stakeholders (e.g. infrastructure providers, government agencies, interest groups and Parish and Town Councils) in the winter 2023 on preparing the Arun Local Plan Update.

The Chair invited Kevin Owen, Planning Policy & Conservation Manager to present the report to the Committee. He explained the context for producing the Direction of Travel Document (DoTD) was because it formed part of the process for the Arun Local Plan update following the Council’s  lifting the pause in July 2023. The Council was in the early stages being at Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 of the process. The DoTD would be used to consult the public and stakeholders on their views on what the content of the Local Plan should be. Testing of the DoTD would take place with workshops planned for the following week with various stakeholders before being refined before public consultation in February 2024. The topics in the DoTD, outlined at paragraph 4.4, were grouped around the Council’s Vision and Objectives. He referred to the member briefing on the structure and content of the DoTD held on 7 November 2023. He emphasised that this was the start of the Plan Making process, before work began on what the Plan should look like.

The Chair then invited questions and comments from members. A discussion took place concerning the Committee’s consideration of the Direction of Travel document at this point in time. Members expressed concern that they were being asked to recommend the DoTD for approval for public consultation before member Stakeholder Workshops to inform the DoTD had taken place. Members were dissatisfied because further changes may be made to the document without the Committee being able to consider their suitability before going out to public consultation. A suggestion was made that the Committee should be allowed to attend the workshops as well to hear the views of the stakeholders.

The Group Head of Planning advised that there would be further opportunities for consultation on the plan preparation with members. The holding of the stakeholder workshops was part of the initial stage of the process and had taken place during previous Plan reviews. If the Committee was minded to defer consideration of the Direction of Travel document to enable them to consider the outcomes of the Workshops, members should be mindful of the timescales and process for the Council’s future plan making process and the effects any delays foreseen or unseen may have on the timetable. It was important that officers did not receive individual member comments, rather members as a Committee should agree the DoTD. Officers clarified that the stakeholder attendees included such organisations as the Environment Agency, Southern water etc at the DoTF workshops.

At the conclusion of the discussion Councillor Elkins, having listened to the views of members during the debate the Chair suggested that discussion of this item should be deferred pending the public and stakeholder workshops due to take place the following week. The amended DoTD could be brought to a Special Meeting of the Committee to consider the outcomes of the workshops and to assess the suitability of the amendments made and whether they would fundamentally change the content of the DoTD. This proposal was then recommended by Councillor Elkins and seconded by Councillor McAuliffe.

The Committee

RESOLVED

That a Special meeting of the Planning Policy Committee be arranged to consider amendments made to the Direction of Travel Document following the outcome of the Direction of Travel Document Stakeholder Workshops.