Issue - meetings

(See report at Agenda Item 6 (pages 12-16) of the Cabinet papers of 7 June 2016. Appendix attached herewith)

RECOMMENDED BY THE CABINET

(1) That further public consultation be approved on the Site Allocation: Preferred

Approach Development Plan Document, as set out in the Appendix to the report,

for eight weeks from 28 July until 22 September 2016.

(2) That authority be delegated to the Head of Planning Services to enable minor

editorial and typographical amendments to be made to the document prior to

its publication.

The Council considered the draft Site Allocation: Preferred Approach Development Plan Document circulated with the agenda (copy attached to the official minutes).

 Mrs Taylor (Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning), seconded by Mr Dignum, moved the recommendations of the Cabinet. She explained that the Chichester Local Plan required delivery of 7,388 dwellings a year from 2012 to 2029. A large proportion would be in strategic development locations, but other sites would be identified in neighbourhood development plans or in the Site Allocation Development Plan Document (DPD). Public consultation on the DPD had taken place in January and February 2016, but since then progress on some neighbourhood plans and further information on a previously discounted site had resulted in some changed proposals requiring a further round of consultation. These changes related to:

·         A site at Highgrove Farm, Bosham, to meet the parish’s indicative housing number of 50, following removal of proposed housing allocations from the neighbourhood plan on the Examiner’s recommendation.

·         A new site for housing to the rear of Sturt Avenue, Lynchmere.

·         Definition of the Local Centre of East Wittering.

As a result of the additional consultation, the timetable for the DPD had been delayed by six months, with submission to the Secretary of State for examination now expected to be in March 2017.

Mr Barrett asked whether the Local Centre was entirely in East Wittering, as it appeared to him that part of it might be within the parish of West Wittering. Mrs Taylor replied that she expected that this would be clarified through the consultation process.

Mr Shaxson, Mrs Hardwick and Mrs Graves expressed concerns about the inclusion of the site at Lynchmere, which had been previously discounted, partly because it had a history of flooding. They asked for an assurance that the Council was not committed to development on this site, but would consider the results of consultation. Mrs Taylor confirmed that the results of the consultation would be considered; this would lead to the production of a pre-submission DPD, which would be subject to a further statutory public consultation before examination. The inclusion of the site in the DPD at present was, therefore, far from final and its potential would be carefully considered.

RESOLVED

(1) That further public consultation be approved on the Site Allocation: Preferred Approach Development Plan Document, as set out in the Appendix to the report, for eight weeks from 28 July until 22 September 2016.

(2) That authority be delegated to the Head of Planning Services to enable minor editorial and typographical amendments to be made to the document prior to its publication.