Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member Development and Safety

The Cabinet Member Development and Safety introduced the report and explained that Cheltenham Borough Council had a statutory duty to advise or assist communities in the preparation of Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDP). The Localism Act 2011 sets out the Local Planning Authority’s (LPA) responsibilities including designating Neighbourhood Plan Areas by inserting provisions into the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (as amended).

An application to designate a neighbourhood plan area and designate the West Cheltenham Neighbourhood Forum as the neighbourhood forum for that area has been received. This application has been assessed against the requirements set out in the legislation and is considered to meet the requirements to enable designation of the neighbourhood area and of the neighbourhood forum. The Council’s Neighbourhood Planning Protocol has been used to guide officers in assessing the application (see Appendix 6).

Approval of this application enables the West Cheltenham Neighbourhood Forum to prepare a NDP for the area covered by the designation.

The Cabinet Member Development and Safety said that ordinarily there would be no issue in terms of the area of designation illustrated in Appendix  of the report. However, due to the delay in the Joint Core Strategy (JCS), the area included undeveloped land in the West of Cheltenham which had been earmarked as housing and employment land. He therefore had concerns at approving the application in this format at this time. Other Members commented that due to the lateness of the inclusion of West Cheltenham in the JCS local residents had been focussing their efforts on this and had missed the consultation. They also highlighted the importance of having a dialogue with Tewkesbury Borough Council on this issue. The Leader wished to highlight that the council was supportive of the neighbourhood planning process, but due to the complexities of where the boundary should be drawn clarity was sought as to the councils legal obligations in making the proposed decisions.

The Senior Planning Policy Officer was invited to address Cabinet to clarify the process. with reference to National Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) “Neighbourhood Planning he explained that this item was the consideration of 1. The West Cheltenham Neighbourhood Forum, and 2. The West Cheltenham Neighbourhood Area, which were separate decisions. He stated that it was possible to agree the neighbourhood area and make a separate decision on its boundaries. A neighbourhood forum could put forward the neighbourhood area that they considered  appropriate for neighbourhood planning; this does not have to follow administrative boundaries, but in this case it does.  

When asked whether it was possible that the neighbourhood area boundary could follow the strategic allocation i.e. cross into Tewkesbury Borough the Senior Planning Policy Officer said that this was possible providing this was agreed by Tewkesbury Borough, in dialogue with any relevant Parish.

Where a neighbourhood area was proposed that crossed the administrative boundaries of two or more local planning authorities, the authorities were encouraged to agree a lead authority to handle neighbourhood planning in a particular neighbourhood area.

In terms of rules concerning designation the Borough must designate a neighbourhood area if it received a valid application

In certain circumstances, the local planning authority must designate all of the area applied for. These circumstances were where a parish council applied for the whole of their parish to be designated or where the time limit for determining the application had not been met.

The Senior Planning Policy Officer said Cabinet must decide on this quickly, because if the time period was not met then the whole area applied for must be designated. The time period expired on the 14^th of December.

In other cases the local planning authority should take into account the relevant body’s statement explaining why the area applied for was considered appropriate to be designated as such.

However, since this application was being considered in the time limit, Cheltenham Borough could refuse to designate the area applied for if it considered the area was not appropriate. Where it does so, the local planning authority must give published reasons, which should be based on the reasons given in PPG.

The authority must use its powers of designation to ensure that some or all of the area applied for forms part of one or more designated neighbourhood areas.

The key things to be considered in relation to deciding the boundaries of a neighbourhood area were as follows :

•village or settlement boundaries, which could reflect areas of planned expansion

•the physical appearance or characteristics of the neighbourhood

Other comments made included the following :

If the area between the Principal Urban Area and the Borough Boundary is not designated, then the Neighbourhood Forum is unlikely to have as direct a say in the spending of CIL money if the strategic allocation at West Cheltenham is developed

It was the Officer’s view that the application met the validation criteria for a neighbourhood forum.

The Director Planning suggested that the decision was deferred to the next meeting of Cabinet (Tuesday 13^th of December) so that the application was not out of time, and to allow for a dialogue to take place between CBC and TBC on the issue and the relevant TBC parish.

Members supported this proposal.

RESOLVED THAT

The decision be deferred until the 13 December Cabinet meeting.