Issue - meetings

The material relevant to this item is the report on pages 19 to 22 in the agenda and its appendix on pages 275 to 289 of the agenda supplement which are to be considered by the Cabinet at its special meeting on Wednesday 14 November 2018.

Chichester District Council members have not been issued with a hard copy of the agenda supplement since its contents were circulated to them in the confidential agenda for the meeting of the Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel on Thursday 1 November 2018. They are requested to bring those confidential agenda papers with them to this meeting.

Having regard to para 2.1 of the agenda report but subject to the outcome of the Cabinet’s special meeting, it is anticipated that the Council will be asked to approve the following recommendation:

RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL

That the Cabinet recommends to the Council that it approves the revised Local Development Scheme 2018-2021.

The Council considered the recommendation made to it by the Cabinet at its special meeting on Wednesday 14 November 2018, as set out in the Cabinet report (pages 19 to 22 of the Cabinet agenda and pages 275 to 289 of the agenda supplement).  

Mrs S Taylor (Cabinet Member for Planning Services) formally moved the Cabinet’s recommendation and this was seconded by Mr A Dignum (Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Growth and Place).

Mrs Taylor presented the Cabinet’s recommendation saying that the Local Development Scheme (LDS) identified and timetabled the planning documents to be prepared by CDC for its plan area over a three-year period, and the version of the LDS appended to the report was for the period 2018 to 2021. She drew attention to the revised timetable for the Local Plan Review. As mentioned in the preceding agenda item, the timetable was now very tight and there was no room for slippage if CDC wished to attain its target date of July 2020. The Local Plan Review would require work to commence on development plan documents (DPD) such as Gypsy and Traveller Sites and the Site Allocation DPD. Dates had not yet been set but it was anticipated that work would start on them shortly. The LDS was constantly kept under review and updated. It was published on the CDC’s website to enable the community and stakeholders to find out about the planning policies for their area and the timetable for the production of the documents.

Mrs Taylor and Mr A Frost (Director of Planning and Environment) responded to members’ questions and comments on points of detail as follows:

·       The timetable was admittedly very compressed for preparing the various Local Plan documents but CDC was obligated to have them available for the 2020 deadline set for the Local Plan Review. Some categories of document eg the supplementary planning documents did not have to be produced until after the adoption of the Local Plan Review. Officers were committed to complying with the 2020 deadline and indeed the one after that in 2025. The Planning Policy team was now fully resourced.

·       A failure to meet the stipulated five-year review deadlines would put the Chichester Local Plan area at risk of speculative development because of the absence of a five-year housing supply and CDC would lose the benefit of the government’s 40% cap on housing. Whilst the approval by the planning inspector of the current Chichester Local Plan was contingent on a full five-year review, officers hoped that the 2025 review would only be a partial one.  

Decision

On a show of hands the members voted in favour of the Cabinet’s recommendation with no votes against and no abstentions. 

RESOLVED

That the revised Local Development Scheme 2018-2021 be approved.