Issue - meetings

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – REGULATORY

To provide additional detail on planning policies and sites, the Council can produce Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD) to provide clarity to applicants and case officers when determining planning applications.

RESOLVED: That the draft Developer Contributions SPD, attached as Appendix A to this report, were endorsed and approved for a five-week public consultation.

REASON FOR DECISION: To allow the Developer Contributions SPD to be progressed so that it may be adopted at the same time as, or shortly after, any future decision to adopt the new Local Plan.

Audio recording – 78 minutes 47 seconds

The Executive Member for Planning and Transport presented the report entitled ‘Draft Developer Contributions SPD’ and provided Members with the following updates:

·         An SPD was a Supplementary Planning Document and was produced as a suite of documents to sit alongside the Local Plan.

·         The Local Plan Inspector’s Report has now been received and examination has closed on this and a date will be set for this to be considered at Full Council.

·         A number of changes were required to the SPD from its initial production in 2020, these centred around Greenspaces, First Homes, biodiversity gains and Levelling Up. Full details were provided at 8.2 in the report.

·         The recommendation was for this to be put out for public consultation for 5 weeks.

·         The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) had been explored previously and was last discussed in 2021 where it was agreed to maintain Section 106. It was expected that there would be changes made to the CILs and therefore, without confirmation of these changes, it was difficult to adopt.

In response to a question from Councillor Keith Hoskins, Councillor Brown advised that there was some discussions about whether CILs would be more lucrative and it certainly would not be for larger sites. Given the changes proposed in the Levelling Up policy, which included a mandatory Infrastructure Levy, it would not be worthwhile changing at this point.

In response to a question from Councillor Steve Jarvis, the Senior Planning Officer advised that there was a section in the draft SPD which covers the biodiversity net gain and would require a biodiversity net gain of 10% by 2023. This is outlined and details of reporting were included in the SPD. There is no target included in the Local Plan, as this is not mandatory, until required by the Environment Act 2021.

Councillor Ruth Brown proposed and Councillor Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the draft Developer Contributions SPD, attached as Appendix A to this report, were endorsed and approved for a five-week public consultation.

REASON FOR DECISION: To allow the Developer Contributions SPD to be progressed so that it may be adopted at the same time as, or shortly after, any future decision to adopt the new Local Plan.

N.B. Following the conclusion of this item, the Chair allowed for a 5 minute comfort break.