Community Governance Review - Midhurst
At its meeting on 6 July 2017 the Boundary Review Panel made the following recommendations to the Council at this meeting.
RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL
That a community governance review of the parish arrangements for Midhurst and Cocking should not be undertaken at the current time for the following reasons:
(1) The planning process (including the option of having a neighbourhood development plan) is the more appropriate basis for Midhurst Town Council to achieve its objective and
(2) The South Downs National Park Authority is the local planning authority for the land which is the subject of Midhurst Town Council’s request and is currently producing its local plan and it would not be appropriate for Chichester District Council to interfere with that process by acceding to that request.
Minutes:
The Council considered the first of four recommendations relating to community governance reviews (CGR) made to it by the Boundary Review Panel (BRevP) at its meeting on 6 July 2017, the text of which was set out on the face of the agenda (copy attached to the official minutes).
At Mrs Hamilton’s invitation the recommendation was proposed by Mr J Ridd, the BRevP chairman and seconded by Mr J Ransley, a BRevP member.
Mr Ridd presented the recommendation. He explained that contrary to the usual boundary governance issues the BRevP was used to considering, this matter was both unusual and even inappropriate having regard to the BRevP’s terms of reference. It was in the BRevP’s opinion principally a planning matter. The request by Midhurst Town Council (MHTC) for a community governance review related to a piece of undeveloped land in the adjacent parish of Cocking, which MHTC considered was suitable for housing development. There was no allocated housing need for Cocking parish and the site was outside its development area. The BRevP felt that MHTC should pursue its objective by for example seeking to have a neighbourhood development plan and in any event since the site lay within the South Downs National Park it should liaise with the South Downs National Park Authority, which was in the process of preparing its local plan. These two points featured in the two reasons contained in the BRevP’s recommendation.
There was no discussion of this item.
Mrs Hamilton proposed that the recommendation on the face of the agenda be the subject of a vote by the Council.
Decision
The Council voted on a show of hands in favour of making the resolution set out below with no votes against and two abstentions (Mr G V McAra and Mr S F Morley).
RESOLVED
That a community governance review of the parish arrangements for Midhurst and Cocking should not be undertaken at the current time for the following reasons:
(1) The planning process (including the option of having a neighbourhood development plan) is the more appropriate basis for Midhurst Town Council to achieve its objective and
(2) The South Downs National Park Authority is the local planning authority for the land which is the subject of Midhurst Town Council’s request and is currently producing its local plan and it would not be appropriate for Chichester District Council to interfere with that process by acceding to that request.