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.

There were no exempt items.

There were no late items.

To disclose or draw attention to any interests in accordance with Leeds City Council’s ‘Councillor Code of Conduct’.

Members did not declare any interests at the meeting.

To receive any apologies for absence and notification of substitutes.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor C Campbell, Councillor J McKenna, Councillor H Hayden, Councillor A Carter and Councillor R Finnigan, with Councillor A Lamb substituting for Councillor A Carter and Councillor K Dye substituting for Councillor J McKenna.

To receive and consider the attached minutes of the previous meeting held on the 18^th of July 2023.

RESOLVED- That the minutes of the Development Plan Panel meeting held on the 18^th of July 2023, be approved as an accurate record.

Referring to the intention for a report regarding the Biodiversity and Nature Recovery Update to be submitted to the Executive Board in September 2023, detailed at minute 7 at page 7 of the report pack, The Head of Strategic Planning noted this had been deferred. Reason for this were due to outstanding information regarding the legal implications of the Council acting as a Habitat Bank against the Environment Act 2021 with a response from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs awaited prior to progressing the report to Executive Board and also attempting to identify alterative options.

To receive and consider the attached report of the Chief Planning Officer, outlining that following detailed consideration of consultation responses to the Publication draft policies of the Local Plan Update, a range of changes are proposed to the draft policies before the Plan is submitted to the Secretary of State. The report requests endorsement of the revised Local Plan Update 1 Draft policies and a recommendation to Executive Board to approve further public consultation on this pre-submission draft as well as accompanying consultation documentation.

The report of the Chief Planning Officer outlined that following detailed consideration of consultation responses to the Publication draft policies of the Local Plan Update, a range of changes were proposed to the draft policies before the Plan will be submitted to the Secretary of State. The report requested endorsement of the revised Local Plan Update 1 (LPU1) Draft policies and a recommendation to Executive Board to approve further public consultation on this pre-submission draft as well as accompanying consultation documentation.

The Head of Strategic Planning presented the report, providing Members with the following information:

·  The revised suite of policies were noted to be ambitious and had been influenced by the Council’s three pillars of the Best City Ambition (Health and Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon), with policy developed to improve built development quality and travel infrastructure, whilst protecting nature.

·  The LPU1 polices had been subject to two key consultations and was on a final round prior to submission to the Secretary of State and Planning Inspectorate. The final consultation was for discreet, specific changes.

·  The following key amended, and newly developed policies were presented to Members for their views and suggestions:

·  Replacement Policy EN1B Carbon Reduction – This policy had been changed in response to comments received from bodies within the built development industry regarding a transitional period to enable the industry to adjust to net zero developments. The original proposal had been ambitious and challenging and also exceeded current and projected Building Regulation standards, set nationally by the Government, including the introduction of metrics surrounding energy use intensity (EUI) and consideration of the fabric and orientation of buildings. Developers and architects had noted feasibility issues and that the industry was not yet equipped to respond, largely due to supply chain issues. The transition period that had been developed into the policy was, that from the point of adoption (likely late 2024) up to December 2027, developments will be expected to meet interim EUI and Space Heating Demand targets, but not be expected to pay an off-setting contribution from any carbon that they could not address on-site as the evidence showed this way too expensive and, from January 2028, required to meet EUI and Space Heating Demand targets and off-set any carbon that they could not address on-site.

·  EN2 – Sustainable Design and Construction – Originally intentions were for commercial developments to meet BREEAM Outstanding standards, however, as Outstanding had only been achieved by 1% of the top buildings in the UK, and following consultation with industry bodies, it had been deemed largely unfeasible. The new expectation was an Excellent rating as a minimum for commercial developments and noting a Communities rating for mixed use developments comprised of over 100 residential units or 10,000m2 floor space, which would overlap with wider design coding through the requirements of the Regeneration and Leveling Up bill.

·  New Policy EN3 – Renewable Energy Generation – In response to comments from Natural England, nesting bird locations on functionally linked land, as part of,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

To receive and consider the attached report of the Chief Planning Officer which outlines the proposals by the Government, which are presently out for consultation between 25 July to 18 October 2023, on implementation of plan-making reforms. Plan-making sets out the planning strategy and priorities for an area and is used to help decide on planning applications and other planning related decisions.

The report of the Chief Planning Officer outlined the proposals by the Government, which were out for consultation between 25 July to 18 October 2023, on implementation of plan-making reforms.

The Head of Strategic Planning and Principal Planner from City Development, presented the report, providing Members with the following information:

·  The Government consultation specially related to proposals regarding plan making, as part of the Leveling-Up and Regeneration Bill and alongside the planning reform white paper of 2020.

·  Key points from the consultation were noted as vision, plan content, shorter and simpler timeframes, frontloading the process, consultations, access to information, monitoring and digitalization.

·  Previous consultation responses had been incorporated and taken into account before the Government had resubmitted the consultation.

·  The proposals had been broadly welcomed but had raised some concerns and this Bill formed part of bigger reforms and plans being taken forward.

Members discussed the following key matters:

• The 30 month turnaround timeframe was noted to be short considering the wide scope of debate and consultation that go alongside complex policy development and adoption. It was noted that the initial scoping was not included in the 30 month timeframe and had no attached time limit.
• The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) and the open consultation with the public conducted in Leeds, was considerable and the response to the Government will outline this as a concern as well as querying whether the SCI will remain or be replaced by project initiation documents.
• It was confirmed that the reform was proposed to cover all development plan policy, including Site Allocation Plans, however it was unclear whether it will also cover neighbourhood policy.
• As the development and adoption of policy can be delayed by factors outside of the Council’s control, the response noted that the 30 month timescale was unreasonable, especially given the planning system’s resource issues, within Local Authorities and Planning Inspectorates. Policy progressed at the pace of the slowest responder.
• Comments from other Local Authorities had been similar, and although there was sense in the consultation, the 30 month time frame being unachievable had overshadowed the overall contents.
• It was not known whether sanctions will be in place for not meeting timeframes, but the gateways will be a point of determining achievability and a request had been made for the same Planning Inspectorate to deal with each policy development, to allow consistency.
• It was outlined that a specific timeframe the Council could propose to work to had not been included within the response but given the complexity and scale of the process in Leeds, it was difficult to define a plan time frame.
• As part of the Council’s response, it had noted gateway 3 was an appropriate time to pause the clock on the timeframe and allow consultation to reach agreements with Government as to much time was required to complete the process.
• The gateways were to frontload and de-risk the process, allowing early contact with a Planning Inspectorate to encourage peer support and identification of unnecessary work at an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

To note the date and time of the next meeting as the 14^th of November 2023 at 1:30pm.

RESOLVED – To note the date and time of the next meeting as the 14th of November 2023 at 1:30pm.

The Head of Strategic Planning noted that Planning Officers will be consulting with Members to seek their availability to hold workshops covering LPU1 and Leeds Local Plan 20240.