Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillor R Finnigan.

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

There were no declarations of interests raised at the meeting.

To note for information the minutes of the meetings held 2^nd November and 14^th December 2021.

RECCOMENDED- To note the minutes of the previous meetings held 2 November and 14 December 2021.

To receive the report of the Chief Planning Officer provides an update on the Local Plan Update (LPU) and sets out the next steps as the plan moves towards a Publication draft. The report therefore includes four elements: 1) Appendix 1 is a Report of Consultation providing a final analysis of the statutory (Regulation 18) consultation which took place over the summer of 2021. 2) A discussion within the report on agreeing the final scope for the Local Plan Update. 3) An introduction to the rationale for assessing policy options and reasonable alternatives for their sustainability, 4) A headline review of the Government’s ‘Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener’ and its implications for the Local Plan Update.

Further to the minutes of the Development Plan Panel meeting held 2^nd November 2021, the report of the Chief Planning Officer provided an update on the Local Plan Update (LPU) and set out the next steps as the plan moves towards a Publication draft. The submitted report included four elements:

·  Appendix 1 is a Report of Consultation providing a final analysis of the statutory (Regulation 18) consultation.

·  A discussion within the report on agreeing the final scope for the LPU.

·  An introduction to the rationale for assessing policy options and reasonable alternatives for their sustainability.

·  A headline review of the Government’s ‘Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener’ and its implications for the LPU.

The Group Manager (Policy and Plans) introduced the report and provided the Panel with a PowerPoint presentation on key headlines of the submitted report and summarised comments received as part of Regulation 18 consultation in relation to the scope of the Plan and whether such comments require that the initial scope is altered. Further to consultation comments, a revised scope is proposed and seeks to amplify biodiversity and blue infrastructure and will include soil related issues in the Plan, with recognition that some topics will have an impact on historic environment.

In responding to the proposed final scope, Panel Members commented on the following issues:

·  The impact of housing requirement and spatial distribution on climate change.

·  The need to invest in local infrastructure and in particular, inner city and city centre locations.

·  Long term public transport aspirations.

·  Connecting all localities to nearby facilities.

·  The importance of ensuring that the “Ecological Emergency” should be added to the scope.

·  Although it was acknowledged that Electric Vehicle Charging is ‘too specific’ to be named as part of the scope, it was of the view that there wasn’t enough expertise and understanding of the requirements to enable people to use electric vehicles on a permanent basis. A member suggested that planning applications should seek to incorporate electric charging points as part of large home extensions.

Further to Panel Members comments, officers confirmed that the “Ecological Emergency” will be incorporated into the scope of the Plan, and additional thought on electric vehicle charging will be considered, particularly in relation to charging points.

As part of the PowerPoint presentation, Panel Members were provided with some context on the consideration of policy options and the emerging headline options, as well as additional policy options (as set out in the table below) in relation to the five broad topic areas.

To receive the report of the Chief Planning Officer which sets out the opportunities to revise the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) to take account of a successful ‘scoping’ consultation and other engagement activities the results of which reflect locally, more recent research that has taken place nationally.  The paper is intended to invite discussion on what the future SCI should look like and contain.

The report of the Chief Planning Officer set out the opportunities to revise the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) to take account of successful ‘scoping’ consultation and other engagement activities the results of which reflect locally, more recent research that has taken place nationally. The report invites a discussion around what the future of the SCI should look like and contain.

The Team Leader Neighbourhood Planning and the Planning Assistant introduced the report and summarised key points received from the SCI ‘scoping’ consultation. Following on from the Local Plan Update scoping consultation, recommendations of the Civic Voice report and on the consultation feedback, a number of opportunities to revise the SCI to become a more engaging document were identified. It was confirmed that a revised SCI could be split into three parts to become a more user-friendly document. Those being:

1)  A simple explanation of what the SCI is, the ‘consultation principals’, as well as setting out how communities can engage more effectively.

2)  Setting out the key statutory requirements.

3)  A new section that enables the document to be specific to Leeds and will link the importance of having deliverable and locally specific indicators.

The Panel discussed the following matters:

·  Methods of active engagement, such as liaison with Neighbourhood Forums and participation at Community Committees. Whilst it was confirmed that initially there is a focus on priority neighbourhoods, the suggestion to engage on a more local level will be considered and reported back at a future meeting.

·  It was agreed that the document should be as specific to Leeds as possible.

·  The difficulties to engage various communities across Leeds and the need to tailor the consultation in terms of minimal use of planning language / jargon, particularly for the harder to reach groups. Officers confirmed that the 3-part SCI document provided the opportunity to draft engagement strategies for the various communities. Progress already made in terms of good practice from methods used in the LPU scoping consultation will be used.

It was confirmed that a draft SCI document will be presented to the Development Plan Panel in March 2022.

RECOMMENDED­- To note the report and comments received from Panel Members during discussion of this item.

Tuesday, 1^st March 2022 at 1.30 pm.

RECOMMENDED- To note that the date and time of the next meeting, will be subject to dates being circulated to Panel Members via email with the aim of holding the meeting on either Monday 14^th or 15^th March 2022.

(The meeting concluded at 15:40)