Issue - meetings

That:

1)        the Local Plan Update: Draft Plan (as set out in Appendix 2 to the report) and other supporting documents be agreed for consultation;

2)         the proposed consultation framework be agreed;

3)        any minor changes to the Draft Plan and material produced to support the consultation be delegated to the Director of Locality and Customer Services, in consultation with the Lead Member for Planning and Enforcement; and

4)        the Local Development Scheme 2019 (as set out in Appendix 3 to the report) be adopted.

The Executive considered a report seeking approval to carry out consultation on a proposed Local Plan Update: Draft Plan which once adopted would guide how development was managed.

The Leader of Council introduced the report and clarified that what was being considered was only the carrying out of a planned consultation and not approving the final Local Plan.  The consultation, which was the beginning of the due process for adopting the Local Plan, would be the means by which people could formally comment on the proposals in the draft Plan.   Councillor Halsall pointed out that there were a number of steps that were required to be taken before the adoption of the Local Plan including: signing up with the Government for the HIF bid; seeking protection for the Council’s planning policies; and referral to Executive and Council to consider representations to this consultation and approve any amendments to the Local Plan going forward.  If approved by Council then it would still need to go through the Examination in Public process. 

Councillor Haitham Taylor, Member for Shinfield South, voiced her disappointment with the proposals for a new town in Grazeley particularly when these proposals followed on from the tremendous and unprecedented response from residents against the Government’s housing targets during the Council’s ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign. 

From a ward perspective Councillor Haitham Taylor felt that this was a ‘kick in the teeth’ for residents who had already suffered mass development from the last Core Strategy local plan which had changed the nature and character of Shinfield, Three Mile Cross, Ryeish Green and Spencer’s Wood.  She believed that a new town could never be self-contained as promised in the draft Plan.

In addition Councillor Haitham Taylor stated that because of the following reasons, and the fact that she did not believe that residents’ responses to the consultation would be taken seriously, she would not be able to support the draft Plan:

·         The Local Plan Update was based on the assumption that the Council would be successful in winning the HIF bid which would unlock a £252m infrastructure fund to forward fund projects to make Grazeley sustainable.  However she did not believe that due to the time limit imposed on the funds that the money could be spent within such a short timeframe;

·         It assumes that the Government would allow a moratorium on development numbers for the rest of the Borough which would stop speculative sites coming forward; however there was no guarantee that this would happen.  It could however end up with a new town the size of Wokingham in a totally unsustainable location and hundreds of speculative applications elsewhere;

·         It dismisses many other viable and very sustainable developments in other parts of the Borough and it was likely that developers would still submit planning applications for these sites which could lead to more appeals being lost at a substantial cost to the Council;

·         Grazeley, as a much smaller development site, was proposed over 20 years ago and it failed at the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70