Issue - meetings

The report is at item 6 of the agenda for the Cabinet’s meeting on Monday 19 June 2017 and its appendix is in the agenda supplement.

It is anticipated that the following recommendations will be made by the Cabinet earlier in the day to the Council at this special meeting:

RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL

That the Council approves:

(1)  The Statement of Community Involvement for a six-week public consultation.

(2)  The delegation of authority to the Head of Planning Services following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning Services to enable minor amendments to be made to the document prior to and following public consultation.

The Council considered the recommendations made to it by the Cabinet at its meeting earlier in the day as set out on the face of the agenda (copy attached to the official minutes), the details in respect of which were contained in the report on pages 22 to 24 of the agenda for that meeting and also in the appendix to the report on pages 119 to 132 of the agenda supplement. All CDC members had received a copy of the Cabinet agenda and agenda supplement.  

Mrs Taylor (the Cabinet Member for Planning Services) formally moved the recommendations of the Cabinet which had been made earlier in the day and this was seconded by Mr Dignum (Leader of the Council). 

Mrs Taylor explained that it was a legal requirement for a local authority to produce a statement of community involvement (SCI), which would set out CDC’s approach to engage the public and other interested parties, including specific organisations that had to be consulted, in all planning policy and development management matters. An SCI explained the different categories of planning documents, the stages applicable to them and how the development management system worked. There were five engagement commitments to guide CDC in undertaking consultations (para 3.1 page 124):  (a) be clear about what we are doing; (b) be inclusive: (c) be accessible; (d) be transparent; (e) be accountable. The current SCI was adopted in 2013. Although not caught by the prospective requirement under the recently enacted Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017 to review an SCI every five years, given the review of the Chichester Local Plan: Key Policies 2014-2029 (CLP) now underway this was an appropriate time to review the SCI. The SCI was not the subject of amendments when considered by CDC’s Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel on 3 May 2017 (para 8.2 of the report). If approved by the Council the draft SCI would be made available for public consultation for a period of six weeks between 22 June 2017 and 3 August 2017.

During the ensuing discussion (full details of which are available via the audio recording on CDC’s web-site) members made comments and asked questions about various matters and received where appropriate answers from Mr Dignum, Mrs Taylor or officers, namely Mr Allgrove, Mr Frost and Mrs Shepherd. The subjects included:

(a)  The initiation of a neighbourhood development plan (para 3.14 on page 127 of the agenda supplement) - this had to be by a parish or town or city council in the case of the whole parish area or if less than the whole parish area eg a city or town centre area, then it could be initiated by a neighbourhood planning forum; whether there had been a change in the relevant regulations to require in the latter case the initiation and support by a parish etc council would be checked by officers.

(b)  The section 3.4 on page 125 ‘Who do we involve?’ and whether parish councils, particularly Chichester City Council, were entitled to nominate residents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 224

The Cabinet is requested to consider the agenda report and its appendixand to make the following recommendations to the special meeting of the Council at 14:00 on Monday 19 June 2017 namely that:

RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COUNCIL

(1)  The Statement of Community Involvement be approved for a six-week public consultation.

(2)  Authority be delegated to the Head of Planning Services following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning Services to enable minor amendments to be made to the document prior to and following public consultation.

RECOMMENDED TO THE COUNCIL

(1)  That the Statement of Community Involvement be approved for a six-week public consultation.

(2)  That authority be delegated to the Head of Planning Services following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning Services to enable minor amendments to be made to the document prior to and following public consultation.

The Cabinet received and considered the agenda report and its appendix in the first agenda supplement (copies attached to the official minutes).

The report was presented by Mrs Taylor.

Mr Allgrove and Mr Frost were in attendance for this item.

Mrs Taylor explained that it was a legal requirement for a local authority to produce a statement of community involvement (SCI), which would set out CDC’s approach to engage the public and other interested parties, including specific organisations that had to be consulted, in all planning policy and development management matters. An SCI explained the different categories of planning documents, the stages applicable to them and how the development management system worked. There were five engagement commitments to guide CDC in undertaking consultations (para 3.1 page 124):  (a) be clear about what we are doing; (b) be inclusive: (c) be accessible; (d) be transparent; (e) be accountable. The current SCI was adopted in 2013. Although not caught by the prospective requirement under the recently enacted Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017 to review an SCI every five years, given the review of the Chichester Local Plan: Key Policies 2014-2029 (CLP) now underway this was an appropriate time to review the SCI. The SCI was not the subject of amendments when considered by CDC’s Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel on 3 May 2017 (para 8.2 of the report). If approved by the Council later in the day the draft SCI would be made available for public consultation for a period of six weeks between 22 June 2017 and 3 August 2017.

Mr Allgrove and Mr Frost did not wish to add to Mrs Taylor’s presentation.

In reply to questions by Mrs Hardwick and Mr Connor, Mr Allgrove advised that (a) whilst para 2.9 of the draft SCI (page 122) did not refer to the opportunity for interested parties to comment during the examination, this could be inserted after the forthcoming consultation, whereas to add it now would delay its start by about a week which would be undesirable and (b) for those who did not have access to or felt able to use the online consultation, there would be the opportunity (which would be made clear) to participate using local libraries and written comments would be accepted.    

Decision

At the end of the discussion the Cabinet voted unanimously on a show of hands in favour of making the recommendations set out below.

RECOMMENDED TO THE COUNCIL

(1)        That the Statement of Community Involvement be approved for a six-week public consultation.

(2)        That authority be delegated to the Head of Planning Services following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning Services to enable minor amendments to be made to the document prior to and following public consultation.