Agenda item

Report of the Leader

The Leader introduced the report and explained that the JCS was adopted in December 2017 with a commitment to undertake an immediate review on the issues of housing supply for Gloucester and Tewkesbury and the retail policies for the whole area. This was recommended by the government appointed Inspector who examined the plan and concluded that this immediate review was necessary in order to find the plan to be ‘sound’.

The Leader added that while the immediate review was to be focused on these particular issues the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) had subsequently been published which put new requirements on local plans. This meant that the scope of the review would need to be expanded to be in conformity with national policy.

He explained that fundamentally the JCS review would again look at the growth needs over a 15 to 20 year timescale, what the best strategy was for delivering that growth, and the allocation of strategic sites to help meet these needs. However, it was also an opportunity to review all of the policies contained with the current adopted plan to see if they continued to be effective and consistent with the NPPF.

The Leader then highlighted that the Issues and Options stage of plan making sought to review and generate feedback on the key issues that were affecting the area and set out some of the options that were available to address them. It therefore did not propose a strategy, new sites or policies; this would be for the next stages of the plan.

The Leader informed that an 8 week consultation would commence in November and conclude in January 2019. The aim would be to complete the review by the end of 2022. He suggested that a full review should take place to add value to the JCS and include new ideas such as those emanating from the Gloucestershire 2050 debate. The aim of the questionnaire in the consultation was to encapsulate such issues.

Members made the following comments and responses were given:

• A Member felt that a full review should extend to 2041 as he believed there was a major temptation to ‘tweak’ the current JCS rather than looking at things more fundamentally.
• Some Members questioned the assumption that development should be achieved via the urban extensions by using green field land or by releasing Green Belt land. The nature of both employment and transport was changing and it was felt that urban extensions had now been taken over by events. One Member gave the example of the environmental impact of travel with the shift towards electric and low emission vehicles. There therefore needed to be a fundamental reassessment.
• A Member made reference to a more sustainable development model in terms of developing new small villages on a satellite basis and building more human scale communities in rural areas, i.e. a far more dispersed approach.
• A Member questioned if the 5 year land supply issue could not be solved in in the wider JCS area if it could not be accommodated
• It was acknowledged that the JCS had been 14 years in the making. There were tensions with local development due to sensitivities. A Member felt that we should be open and pragmatic to change. The authority should be accountable for development within its control.

In response to the points made the Leader referred to the methodology outlined in the NPPF for housing numbers which calculated the same number already determined in the JCS area. He acknowledged that the 5 year land supply issue was due to the delay in the planning application for North West Cheltenham and the time it took for the Inspector to report.

The Leader thanked Members for their input and urged them to feed their views in to the consultation process which will commence in November.

RESOLVED (unanimously) THAT

1. the JCS Review Issues & Options consultation document set out in Appendix 2, be approved for public consultation under regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012;
2. authority be delegated to the Director of Planning, in consultation with the Leader to make any minor amendments to the text of the document and make appropriate changes to the design prior to its publication for consultation.