Issue - meetings

      Report of the Chief Executive.

Cllr Toby Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Spatial Planning, Development Management and Property presented the report setting out the next steps for consulting on the Wiltshire Local Plan Review.

Questions were received from the following:

Steve Perry – the question was covered under minute 138 above

Mike Blanchard

Kim Stuckey

Isabel McCord

Myla Watts

Peter Cousins

Helen Stuckey

Chris Caswill

Sue McGill

Cllr Nick Murry

Cllr Whitehead acknowledged that the questions had received written responses which had been published on the Council’s website prior to the meeting.

A supplementary question was asked by Chris Caswill about the impact of COVID-19 on the proposed consultation.  Cllr Toby Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Spatial Planning, Development Management and Property explained that guidance from the Government has urged all local planning authorities to continue to prepare their Local Plan and not to suspend work during COVID-19. To stop preparations would incur the risk of speculative ad hoc development being permitted outside the Council and communities’ control.

Cllr Sturgis highlighted that Local Plans are informed and shaped by the government’s requirements for growth that each area needs to accommodate, in this case in the period up to 2036. He explained that much of the required level of growth - around 45,600 homes - had already been planned for and that based on the position at April 2019, there was a residual or shortfall of around 17,000 homes. He reminded Cabinet that they approved a timeline for the Wiltshire Local Plan Review at their meeting in March 2020 to enable consultation to be undertaken with the community and stakeholders on how the Council might deliver the required level of growth across Wiltshire. By undertaking consultation prior to any actual allocations being made in a draft Local Plan, people will have the opportunity to put forward their views and inform the Council’s thinking in early 2021. These views will then inform the details of the draft Plan.

The report presents the proposed content for an extensive consultation on the

direction of the Wiltshire Local Plan Review. Cllr Sturgis, along with other Cabinet Members requested that all Councillors encourage their local communities to become involved in the consultation.

In response to questions from Cllr Laura Mayes about (i) clarity in relation to the overall housing requirements; and (ii) the role of neighbourhood plans, speculative applications and current 5 year housing land supply position (using the example of Devizes), Cllr Sturgis explained that (i) the residual figure at  April 2019 clarified how much of the overall housing requirement for each settlement was left to be planned for - for Devizes this is 330 homes; and (ii) an action plan was in place to improve housing supply and a number of planning permissions had been granted as a result.   

Cllr Richard Clewer, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Heritage, Arts & Tourism, Housing and Communities referred to Appendix 4 and how the Local Plan Review proposes to address climate change and biodiversity net gain, which would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 141