Agenda item

The report of the Chief Planning Officer details that the purpose of Authority Monitoring Reports (AMRs) is to report on the performance of specific planning policies, summarise progress on the Local Plan against milestones set out in the Local Development Scheme (LDS), and provide up-to-date information on the implementation of neighbourhood plans.

The report of the Chief Planning Officer detailed that the purpose of Authority Monitoring Reports (AMRs) was to report on the performance of specific planning policies, summarise progress on the Local Plan against milestones set out in the Local Development Scheme (LDS), and provided up-to date information on the implementation of neighbourhood plans.

The Team Leader from Policy and Plans, presented the report, providing Members with the following information:

·  The context and purpose of the report was to track the performance of policies, summarizing the progress of the Local Plan against the milestones set out in the LDS. The LDS was the timetable for monitoring plans and provided up to date information.

·  It was a legal requirement to publish the AMR annually, with the document going beyond required criteria to provide detailed information across a wide scope of topics.

·  Existing Local Plan documents, including the Core Strategy and monitoring framework set out indicators which reviewed the effectiveness of policies. Some specific policies, such as housing delivery, had set targets.

·  As the Local Plan was updated, the monitoring framework opened discussions to determine new, revised or deleted policies, which were to be detailed in future iterations of AMRs.

·  This version of the AMR covered progression over 2022/23, with the report noting a time lag between reporting and publication as a period of time was needed to collect and collate data. The report contained a mix of data collected by Council Departments, as well as other bodies, including Government carbon emissions data.

·  The AMR was a data heavy document but was useful for accessing information related to evidence bases for Local Plan development. The format had been revised from previous years in order to be more accessible and easier to navigate.

·  Performance indicators from year to year fluctuated as substantial developments may raise output figures, so it was useful to identify trends over five years to generate an understanding of general trends.

·  The AMR was divided into twelve sections; housing, transport and accessibility, minerals and waste, climate change, natural environment, environmental quality, built environment and infrastructure, population and health, centres and neighbourhoods, economy and historic environment.

·  The cover report provided highlighted performance targets against key indicators, including, housing growth, affordability, specialist housing, commercial developments, carbon emissions, renewable energy, air quality and public health.

·  The next steps following consideration by Panel was for the AMR to be approved by the Chief Planning Officer and published on the Council’s webpage.

Members discussed the following key matters:

·  Members requested the inclusion of data for the amount of housing planning permissions which had been granted against those that had been delivered to outline the productivity of internal decision makers versus development that had not come into fruition. This was to provide clarity for expectations of housing stock and to note that the Council was not holding back on provision.

·  The information for planning permissions against the number of houses which were then actually built was noted to be useful to present to Parliament to encourage legislation change to hold greater accountability for developers to play their role in housing delivery.

·  Officers noted the number of approvals and the number of houses built were contained in the report, but more work was to be done to correspond this data and express the disparity between approvals and development. The date of decision and date of expiry of permissions was also outlined to be relevant information to include.

·  It was welcomed to see the number of affordable houses had increased but in relation to policy, the level or target of affordability was queried. In response, the Core Strategy expressed a need and not a target, which was for 1,230 affordable homes, whilst accepting the plan had limited powers to delivery these houses on its own, but improvements were noted. 

·  With the increase in carbon emissions by 3.7% noted in the report, this was due to the data being from 2021, which was the most recent set available, and compared with the previous year of 2020 where Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns had reduced emissions heavily. This needed flagging in the report and improvements were expected in the new annual AMR.

·  Further explanation to clarify the air quality monitoring sites was provided, noting, it required a clearer expression of its meaning. Five out of the six monitoring sites had shown improvements, meeting the standard, and one falling short.

RESOLVED – That the report, along with Members comments be noted, prior to the AMR being approved by the Chief Planning Officer and published on the Council’s website.