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 refusal of inspection of documents.

There was no exempt information.

There were no formal late items.

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

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors K Brooks and R Finnigan.

To agree the minutes of the meeting held Tuesday 18^th May 2021, as a correct record.

RESOLVED- That the minutes of the Development Plan Panel meeting held on 18^th May 2021 be approved as an accurate record.

Matters Arising

Minute No 68 – Leeds Local Plan Update. The Head of Strategic Planning informed the Panel that Executive Board endorsed the consultation material and it was confirmed that pre-publicity will begin 12^th July, with formal consultation beginning 19^th July until the middle of September 2021.

The report of the Chief Planning Officer sets out how the Council is responding to specific areas of work as a result of wider Government reforms. These are:

o  testing the National Model Design Code (NMDC) on behalf of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) which arises from the Government’s planning reforms

o  preparing for First Homes which arises from the Government’s planning reforms

o  preparing for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) which arises from the Environment Bill

The report provides clarity on the status of these issues and what work is being done to understand their impact on the City for the future. 

(Report attached)

The report of the Chief Planning Officer set out how the Council are responding to specific areas of work as a result of wider Government reforms. The report provided clarity on the status of the following issues:

·  Testing the National Model Design Code (NMDC) on behalf of Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) which arises from the Government’s planning reforms

·  Preparing for First Homes (FH) which arises from the Government’s planning reforms

·  Preparing for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) which arises from the Environment Bill.

The Head of Strategic Planning, Senior Nature Conservation Officer and Senior Design Officer, introduced the report and provided an update as follows:

National Model Design Code – Leeds are testing an area-type approach of the NMDC for 6 months before Government publishes the final guidance. This will provide useful messages to Government.  Progress has been made in relation to identifying how a city can be divided up by ‘area-types’ and evidencing housing densities to support the national typologies. It was confirmed that there are two main streams of work: to consider how much consistency is within an ‘area-type’ in terms of design and what might be sought from new developments, and how others are engaged with when preparing area-type level design codes. It was confirmed that Panel Members will be provided with a workshop in September 2021 in relation to the draft testing findings.

Members raised the following points:

·  To determine how the various community areas will be split into typologies and there were concerns with areas that have a diverse range of house types. A suggestion was made to refer to Census data when defining the demographic of areas;

·  The definition of a typology and its categories, and how they relate to design;

·  Concerns regarding the development of a design code that will reflect qualities of poorer communities;

·  Clarity on the process of engagement;

·  Ensuring design codes do not preclude place-making, particularly in relation to greenspace.

Officers confirmed that the Council was not preparing a design code for Leeds.  Instead looking at issues in relation to whether typologies can work in cities like Leeds, to be fed back to MHCLG and it is yet to be identified whether Leeds will be able to be split into typologies. It was confirmed that the typologies included ‘urban neighbourhoods’, ‘inner suburbs’, ‘outer suburb’, ‘town/city centre’ etc; it was noted that developing a code for a particular area that fits into more than 1 category would be considered.

Further clarity around the demographics of areas, had been provided. It was confirmed that the Local Authority (LA) will consider how big an area should be based on how the design codes fit different parts of Leeds; there is no correlation between existing Housing Market Characteristic Areas (HMCAs) and settlements and typologies.  It would be for the actual development of the codes to assess what that looked like in Leeds. For clarity, it was confirmed that this testing was helpful in creating a baseline for the whole of Leeds  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The report of the Chief Planning Officer sets out the 3-year programme of plan-making through a Local Development Scheme. The LDS has been updated to take account of good progress on Neighbourhood Planning, the Site Allocations Plan Remittal, an interim Statement of Community Involvement, the Local Plan Update (approved by Executive Board for Regulation 18 consultation on 23.06.21) and what future Local Plan Updates will be about.  It also reflects current and proposed Government changes to the planning system.

(Report and Appendix attached)

The report of the Chief Planning Officer set out the 3-year programme of plan-making through a Local Development Scheme (LDS). The LDS takes account of good progress on Neighbourhood Planning, the Site Allocations Plan (SAP) Remittal, an interim Statement of Community Involvement (SCI), the Local Plan Update (LPU) and what future LPUs will be about. Additionally, the report reflects current and proposed Government changes to the planning system.

Appended to the submitted report included a draft version of the LDS (Appendix 1) and a risk assessment (Appendix 2) with mitigation actions relating to external factors such as changes to national guidance, capacity, and resource issues.

The Head of Strategic Planning introduced the report, and provided an overview of the changes made to the LDS to clarify:

·  The progress of Neighbourhood Plans and Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) in preparation;

·  The status of the Adopted SAP and its current SAP Remittal process and the LPU;

·  Next steps for plan-making processes and the timescales for when they will be considered;

·  The next LPU (2) and its direction of travel on all planning matters.

It was noted that the Panel will receive discussion papers at upcoming meetings to consider a review of matters including policies not prioritised for Update through LPU (1) such as Housing Requirement, Affordable Housing, Employment Requirement, Local and Town Centres, Housing & Employment Allocations, Minerals & Waste and Gypsies and Travellers.

The Panel discussed the flexibilities on adapting policies in relation to forthcoming Government changes to interconnect Development Plans. Officers explained that although the fine detail of the Governments reforms are unknown, the Council can set local priorities and strategic policies and transitional arrangements are likely to help guide local authorities through any Government changes; revised policies will be subject to the Councils priorities changing and will ensure they’re able to reflect wider Government planning changes, whilst still being fit for purpose.

RESOLVED – To note:

a)  The contents of the submitted report and draft LDS (Appendix 1) along with the risk assessment (Appendix 2) and comments made during discussion of this item;

b)  The intention to receive discussion papers at upcoming meetings, relating to a review of policies under the LPU (1).

c)  That once approved, the updated LDS will be published on the Council’s website.

To note the date and time of the next meeting as Thursday 9^th September 2021 at 1.30 pm.

RESOLVED – To note the date and time of the next meeting as Thursday 9^th September 2021 at 1.30 pm.

(The meeting concluded at 14:40)