Question:
In answer to my question 28.1 at the Executive meeting held on the 27th of July 2017 you stated that
“We recognise the important contribution that Parish and Town Councils can bring to the planning process and will be actively engaging with them and Borough Councillors in the site assessment work which will inform the Local Plan Update. We will shortly be starting to engage with them on our initial assessments. The intention is to batch those sites up into wards, then invite Parish and Town Council representatives and ward Members to discuss the initial assessments”.
Can you update me on how you consulted with the Members, Parish/Town Councillors and residents prior to the public announcement that Master Planners will be funded to look at development opportunities in Barkham, Grazeley and the Twyford areas.
Minutes:
In answer to my question 28.1 at the Executive meeting, held on the 27th of July 2017, you stated that:
“We recognise the important contribution that Parish and Town Councils can bring to the planning process and will be actively engaging with them and Borough Councillors in the site assessment work which will inform the Local Plan Update. We will shortly be starting to engage with them on our initial assessments. The intention is to batch those sites up into wards, then invite Parish and Town Council representatives and ward Members to discuss the initial assessments”.
Can you update me on how you consulted with the Members, Parish/Town Councillors and residents prior to the public announcement that Master Planners will be funded to look at development opportunities in Barkham, Grazeley and the Twyford areas.
Answer
The Council must follow the clear process and requirements set out in legislation and government policy in updating the Local Plan. This includes assessing all sites promoted through the process, and consulting on potential approaches towards managing development.
Over 260 sites have been promoted into the local plan process by landowners and others. In a few instances, individual sites or clusters of sites are extremely large and complex. To ensure that analysis captures holistic impacts and opportunities, including the correct infrastructure should the site be deemed suitable, a masterplanning approach has been chosen. Members were updated on this through the related report to Executive in July 2017, which you referred to in your question.
Undertaking detailed work now provides residents and others with the opportunity to engage and influence assessments early in the local plan process, allowing us to address a number of lessons learned through our successful Core Strategy.
Masterplanning is simply a sensible way to approach large and complex sites. The relevant Ward Members and Parish Councils will be fully engaged in the process as it moves forward. There will also be an opportunity for residents to comment on the outcomes of that process.
In addition to the work currently being undertaken on masterplanning for the three large sites promoted, we will have met with all the Town and Parish Borough Ward Members during November to discuss all 260 sites submitted. In addition, I have met with seven Town and Parish Councils and requested a meeting with all the others to explain in detail the process we are going through to update our Local Plan.
Supplementary Question
As you might have expected, I emailed the Prime Minister, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, Alok Sharma, Minister of State for Housing and Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Only Sajid Javid had the courtesy to reply. Needless to say, the reply was not encouraging. What I find interesting is that Executive Members had meetings with Alok Sharma, Sajid Javid and, finally, some of you even met the Prime Minister recently. In the cause of openness and transparency could you make a public statement to us all on the outcome of these meetings?
Supplementary Answer
I am sure that David Lee would be very happy to do that once we have the responses from all the Ministers’ concerned.