Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader

The Leader introduced the report as follows:

-       it has been brought to Council for Members to approve CBC’s commitment to joint working with Gloucester and Tewkesbury; cross-boundary work is always a challenge, and she thanked Gloucester and Tewkesbury Members for their input;

-       by reviewing collectively our strategic and local planning policies, we can look at efficiencies in plan making and provide our communities, wider stakeholders and the development industry with a clear, single point of reference to the planning policies important to our areas.  The government is aware of this approach, and the Planning Advisory Service is providing support, recognising the value of three councils working collaboratively in plan-making;

-       Regulation 18 is a technical term, drawn from planning regulations, for the stage that presents a draft plan for review.  As reviewing planning documents can be time- consuming and challenging, we have introduced a two-stage Regulation 18 process and are consulting on Stage 1 now.  It sets out a vision worked upon by the Member working groups across the three councils, together with earlier engagement on the review of the JCS.  It introduces the key issues and priorities and tests these through the consultation to ensure they are in line with our Local Development Scheme (that sets the key milestones for plan preparation of the Strategic and Local Plan);

-       Stage 2 of Regulation 18 will be presented in early 2025, by which time we will have the appropriate evidence base, built-in comments and recommendations arising from the Stage 1 consultation, and continued active engagement with all on key issues.  We recognise that local communities have invested a lot of time previously in the JCS and the Cheltenham Plan, and it is our intention to build upon the strengths of our local policies. Engagement is key as is the value of people getting involved via a package of consultation mechanisms from face-to-face, online and social media. Members should remember that we are all ambassadors to push out the message and encourage engagement;

-       we are particularly keen to connect with younger people, who will be most affected by the plans we put in place now, and within the context of building on the quality of our heritage and wider built and green environments.  Also, as a council, we are clear that climate change and nature recovery are key drivers and will push sustainability policies to drive significant policy change;

-       thanks to the Planning Liaison Member Working Group for their work on the preparation of the SLP and their activity within the wider joint Member working group that has supported the preparation of the consultation document;

-       thanks also to the officer teams across the three authorities for their investment of time and positive challenge.  This will continue to be an important working group as we move through the phases of plan preparation.

In response to a question raised before the meeting concerning the length and detail of the consultation, she said the Citizen Lab platform being procured  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13