Councillor Toby Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Waste, Property Environment and Development Control Services, will give a brief overview of that area of responsibility, followed by a chance to ask questions.
Minutes:
Councillor Toby Sturgis, Cabinet member for Waste, Property, Environment and Development Control Services; gave an overview of some areas of his responsibility.
Development Control
The Planning application process was going through several changes, more than had been seen over the past 15 years. The second draft of the Core Strategy would be available in 2012, with the sustainable development element having an effect on development control.
Localism Bill
This was released last month; however the timetable for actions was not yet available and would possibly be announced in February 2012 which would see changes starting to be implemented by August 2012.
Neighbourhood Planning
This enables people to have more say on development in their area. However it does not mean that development can be stopped.
Core Strategy
The South Wiltshire Core Strategy was given approval by the Inspector in October 2011. The Draft Core Strategy for the rest of Wiltshire was hoped to be approved by Cabinet in January 2012 and would then go out for consultation towards the end of 2012 or early 2013.
Environment
There is great importance in saving energy; the Council would be looking at renewable energy and secure energy supplies over the next few decades. The Council was looking at a renewable heat initiative where boilers could be converted to produce renewable heat. There was a possibility that these boilers could be installed in 32 schools across the summer holidays, resulting in a reduced carbon output and increased investment.
Property
The smaller office properties around Wiltshire would gradually be sold as staff move into the hubs. Although the first full year’s energy ratings for Bourne Hill had not yet been produced, Councillor Sturgis had been informed that the property was performing as had been planned and there would be an energy saving of 40%.
Area Boards had been handling applications for community asset transfers, but this procedure had frequently been held up due to the legal process. To tackle this, the Council had brought in a way to speed things up by transferring the assets under license.
Questions and comments were then taken, these included:
· Is it right that the Council has brought in a development tax and that money from this will go towards building new housing projects, which developers can bid for? Answer: Yes this is correct; however it is called an Affordable Housing Levy. In the South there is a lower price per plot than in the North of the county, as from next week this will be put on hold until the Wiltshire Core Strategy is adopted. The Draft Core Strategy for Wiltshire proposes one figure in between the highest and lowest, which would then be applied across the whole of Wiltshire.
· An update on the Thorney Down waste site was requested by a Firsdown resident. Answer: Tracy Carter, Service Director for Waste Services had provided an update on the Thorney Down waste site at the Board meeting in August 2011, following that meeting Tracy had acquired additional information which was then included in the minutes of that meeting and shown below:
Information received from Tracy Carter following the meeting:
Thorney Down Waste Transfer Station is included in our Proposed Submission Draft Waste Site Allocations document which was consulted on during 13 June - 8 Aug. The site has been assessed and is considered potentially suitable, in principle, for composting and inert waste recycling/transfer facilities however to my knowledge no new planning application has been submitted.
Tracy added that the current use of the site by Wiltshire Council would end in 2016.
· A Landford resident complimented the Planning website as he found the information easy to find due to it being listed by parish. He asked if each parish could be provided with a monthly list of enforcement orders for its own area and also asked that some consideration could be given to the quality of the uploaded documents, as they were of poor quality and could not be read when downloaded. Answer: The Council had recently procured a new IT system which would hopefully make the system better and faster, improving the quality of the uploaded documents. The new system should be up and running from May/June 2012.
· A Laverstock resident was concerned by the number of shops and businesses in Salisbury which kept their doors open during the winter months, which resulted in a loss of heat and was a waste of energy. He asked if the Council could do anything to lead on an initiative to ask these businesses to keep their doors closed? Answer: The Council is trying to retain heat in its own buildings by using a negative pressure patch, however it has no powers to request that private companies do the same.
· Councillor Britton explained that the Board was very supportive of Village Design Statements (VDS), encouraging parishes to submit them to the Board for audit and support. However Wiltshire Council currently had no policy in place to deal with the adoption of the VDS after they had been through the Area Board. He asked Cllr Sturgis when a process would be in place? Answer: Councillor Sturgis agreed to look into the matter and feedback with an update on what was happening with VDS.
Councillor Britton asked if a formal statement could be provided to the Southern Wiltshire Area Board.
Action: Councillor Sturgis to feedback a formal statement on the process for VDS’s.
The Chairman thanked Councillor Sturgis for attending the meeting.