Agenda and minutes

To consider any appeals in accordance with Procedure Rule 15.2 of the Access to Information Rules (in the event of an Appeal the press and public will be excluded)

(*In accordance with Procedure Rule 15.2, written notice of an appeal must be received by the Head of Governance Services at least 24 hours before the meeting)

There were no appeals against the refusal of inspection of documents.

The agenda contained no exempt information

No formal late items of business were added to the agenda however the following supplementary documents were despatched to Members of the Panel prior to the meeting:

Item 6, Minutes – minutes of the meeting held 14^th June 2016 which were not available when the agenda for this meeting was despatched on 17^th June 2016

Item 7, Site Allocations Plan – revised schedule plans

To disclose or draw attention to any disclosable pecuniary interests for the purposes of Section 31 of the Localism Act 2011 and paragraphs 13-16 of the Members’ Code of Conduct

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest were made at the meeting.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 14^th June 2016 as a correct record

RESOLVED - That the minutes of the Development Plan Panel meeting held on 14^th June 2016 be approved.

Minute 8 – Site Allocation Plan Ward Member representations – The Chair drew Members’ attention to a CD which had been presented to them, in response to the request made by Members at the meeting on the 14^th June, as this contained all of the representations submitted by local ward Councillors to the SAP consultation.

Green Flag site, adjacent Pudsey Civic Centre – It was reported that the Inspector will be updated on all new planning permissions between April 2016 and submission, and these will count towards the overall housing target.

Grove Road planning inquiry – The Panel noted that a legal opinion from leading Counsel had been sought and that based on this advice the Council had decided to challenge the decision of the Secretary of State.

To consider the report of the Chief Planning Officer which provides Development Plan Panel with a summary review of the outcome of consultation on four Housing Market Characteristic Areas (HMCAs) - Aireborough, North, Outer South East and Outer South West.

The report identifies the key issues which go to the soundness of the Site Allocations Plan (SAP) – the basis upon which it will be examined in due course.  Based on the outcomes and further technical work undertaken, a relatively limited number of changes to the Publication Plan are proposed. 

Additionally, as part of this process, a number of factual and technical updates have also been made in relation to HMCA and site information.  This includes updated planning application approvals (up to 5th April 2016), which has resulted in some proposed new allocations becoming identified sites.  These changes are detailed for each HMCA covered in the report.  New sites have also been submitted for consideration either during the consultation process or as part of the SHLAA (which is updated annually).  These have been assessed (site assessment, including comments from infrastructure providers, and sustainability appraisal) and are summarised for each HMCA in turn. 

Further to minutes 23; 52 and 8 of the meetings held 19^th January; 10th May and 14^th June 2016, the Chief Planning Officer submitted a report presenting a summary review of the outcome of consultation on the Site Allocations Plan (SAP) Housing Market Characteristic Areas (HMCAs): for the Aireborough, North, Outer South East and Outer South West areas.

The report highlighted that based on consultation outcomes and further technical work undertaken; changes were proposed where issues raised were considered to go to the soundness of the Plan.

The scale of the consultation response was highlighted including a breakdown of the 9644 responses received by HMCA which raised over 45,997 specific points. Each of these had been inputted into the database, checked and analysed with further technical work undertaken where necessary and had been summarised in Appendix 1 of the report.

The report noted that a number of factual and technical updates had also been made in relation to HMCA and site information - this included updated planning application approvals up to 5th April 2016, where proposed new allocations had become “identified” sites already benefitting from allocation or permission which established the principle of development in the context of the Adopted Core Strategy. These instances were detailed for each of the four HMCA’s covered in the report along with a summary of new site submissions.

The report included the following appendices:

Appendix 1 - representations on each individual site.

Appendix 2 - plans showing changes to boundaries of sites or new sites. 

In introducing the report, the Chair reported that a recurring issue in the representations she had received directly from members of the public was concern that Panel Members did not see all the representations submitted. Councillor Venner reiterated that all 45,997 submissions had been analysed and summarised by officers and that all representations would be available to view on-line by the end of the week by members of the public and Panel Members. All representations would be available to the Planning Inspector at the time the Plan was submitted. Receipt of a petition just prior to the meeting was also reported.

Additionally, Councillor Venner clarified that the purpose of this particular consultation was to see if the Publication draft Plan was sound, it was emphasised that a single representation which focused on soundness issues could make a difference, rather than a large volume of representations that did not go to the soundness of the Plan. Finally, the Chair highlighted that further consultation would be held on the proposed pre-submission changes to the Plan.

Members had a number of queries and comments and the following key matters were discussed:

-  All representations received prior to the close of consultation had been processed. Additional representations received would be reported verbally at the meeting

-  The availability of ward Member responses prior to the meeting and sight of all public responses to the consultation, noting that Appendix 1 summarised all those received in support and objection and included a précis  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

To note the date and time of the next meeting as Tuesday 19^th July 2016 at 1.30pm

RESOLVED – To note the date and time of the next meeting as Tuesday 19^th July 2016 at 1.30pm