Issue - meetings

Joint report of the Leader and Cabinet Member Customer & Regulatory Services

The Cabinet Member for Customer and Regulatory Services introduced his report, saying that there is a statutory requirement to review periodically the SCI and bring forward a revised version of how we intend to involve people in the planning process at all levels.  He thanked Tracey Birkinshaw and John Spurling for all their work,  and the Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Culture, Tourism and Wellbeing for his input on hard-to-reach groups, which makes the document more up-to-date and relevant.

He highlighted the large section on neighbourhood planning, where the help and support of CBC officers is essential,  and will be needed to help facilitate the process in unparished areas considering this route. He also drew Members’ attention the council’s approach to individual planning applications – due to resource constraints, the standard approach of only notifying immediate neighbours was occasionally too narrow, and a small tweak will allow case officers to consult and notify more widely in some circumstances. The new head of Development Management intends to look into this. 

He concluded by saying that some government ministers are dismissive of the idea of careful and considerate planning processes with a lot of consultation, but he feels that we have to take time, to consider hard-to-reach groups, and consult with local communities and neighbours, all of whom have an important part to play in an accountable and fair process.

In response to a Member’s question, the Cabinet Member for Customer and Regulatory Services gave assurance that, in line with JCS policy SD12, the council will publish documents relating to viability assessments for affordable housing with the papers, making them open to scrutiny.  The Member was concerned that developers sometimes claim they cannot provide affordable housing by inflating costs and under-representing income, and there is no opportunity to scrutinise this.  

In debate, Members made the following observations:

-       noting the importance of neighbourhood plans, it is great that residents in non-parished areas have a voice, and that CIL money is available for their projects, but when creating a neighbourhood plan, a prerequisite is a neighbourhood forum of 21 residents, with the support of local councillors. In many cases, neighbourhood plans could be created across a division, not just in one ward, but it can still be difficult to get over the first hurdle of getting the requisite 21 residents together to create a neighbourhood forum;

-       the importance of the SCI shouldn’t be underestimated, as it is essential that we don’t passively sit back and only consider feedback from elements of the community who are most likely to take part in consultations.  Many relevant interest groups have the right to take part and can do a huge amount to help, including hard-to-reach groups such as the young, the old, disabled residents, schools, colleges, and special interest groups.  If the consultation on strategic planning is approved later in the meeting, Members should proactively ask everyone in their communities for feedback – no-one should be excluded;

-       community involvement is a critical part of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10