Issue - meetings

      Report of the Chief Executive

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Finance, Development Management and Strategic Planning presented the report seeking Cabinet’s endorsement to recommend to Full Council that the pre-submission Draft Wiltshire Local Plan Review be formally published for a final stage of consultation; and set out the arrangements for the consultation and next steps.

Cllr Botterill reported that the Plan is one of the most significant strategic documents for the council and will pave the way for sustainable growth up to 2038. Updating the Plan is a key priority and will ensure that Wiltshire benefits from plan-led development that best meets the growing needs of Wiltshire communities. He emphasised that the Plan is evidence based, with significant engagement with the local community and statutory consultees and has responded to changes in national planning policy. The Plan addresses Wiltshire’s need for new homes, jobs and infrastructure between 2020 and 2038 and noted that it is based on 36,740 homes, a reduction of 8,890 compared to the 45,630 number of homes consulted on in 2021.

The Cabinet noted that the council has reached the final consultation stage, where representations are invited on soundness and legal compliance, which is known as the Regulation 19 stage. Publication of the Pre-Submission Draft Plan for consultation is proposed to start towards the end of September 2023 for a period of at least 6 weeks in line with legislation and the council’s adopted statement of community involvement. Following the consultation, once the outcomes have been considered a further report will be brought back to Cabinet and Council, so that the Plan can be approved for submission to an independent Planning Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State and examined in public.

Questions were received on time from the following:

·       Richard Curr

·       Nick Parry

·       Hannah Anderson-Jones

·       Richard Walker

·       Andrew Nicolson

The Leader acknowledged that the questions had received written responses which had been published on the Council’s website as a supplementary agenda prior to the meeting.

Mr R Smith, a member of the public, spoke in relation to this item. Mr Smith spoke positively about progress with the Local Plan but asked that Cabinet treats the published Local Plan as a ‘Regulation 18’ Plan to give the local community the opportunity for a further round of consultation, before the Council eventually moves to Regulation 19 stage. In response, Cllr Botterill stated that the Plan had already been subject to extensive consultation and that further delays at this stage would not be appropriate. He confirmed that the Local Plan would be subject to further consultation in the autumn at Regulation 19 stage and that the local community would have the opportunity to participate in the examination next year.

In addition to the above questions, a large number of statements and questions were received after the deadline from the following residents of Salisbury, which included concerns  about the allocations at Harnham (Sites  8 and 9), loss of greenfield land, inadequate road infrastructure and traffic generation arising from proposals:

·       Geraint Dingley

·       Dean Hillier  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62