Agenda item

Report by Dr Carlton Brand, Corporate Director

 

Before calling on the Cabinet Member for Planning, Councillor Toby Sturgis, to present the item, the Chairman drew the meeting’s attention to the questions received from members of the public and Councillor Caswill and gave questioners an opportunity to ask supplementary questions.

 

Councillor Sturgis stated, in response to a question from Marilyn Mackay, that should the recommendations in the report be approved he would consider her proposals to make minor amendments to the text to bring clarity about the country parks.

 

Councillor Sturgis stated, in response to a question from Helen Stuckey, that he noted he issues raised in relation to traffic and transport; and stated that the contribution expected towards transport infrastructure identified was reasonable.

 

Mr Ian James made a statement relating to the item, welcoming the modified plan, and asked that brownfield development be prioritised.

 

Mr Malcolm Toogood stated that he had not had a reply to a previously submitted question to Cabinet and made reference to other questions on air quality recently submitted and need to challenge evidence from developers.

 

Councillor Toby Sturgis, Cabinet member for Planning  proposed, subsequently seconded by Councillor Fleur De Rhé-Philipe, the recommendations as set out in Report presented, incorporating amendments set out in the Addendum to Appendix 3 circulated in Agenda Supplement Two. In presenting his proposal, Councillor Sturgis highlighted the Proposed Modifications  to the Plan following further assessment of evidence.

 

The Chairman then invited comments from Group Leaders before opening up the item to wider debate.

 

The Baroness Scott of Bybrook, OBE, stated that she recognised the differences in public opinion on the matter, but hoped that now a pragmatic solution had been reached it could be implemented promptly to provide new jobs and housing.

 

Councillor Glenis Ansell expressed continuing concern regarding the impact of the proposals on air quality and that she would be seeking further reassurances on the matter. She stated that she hoped the Inspector would approve the plan as the absence of a five year land supply had had a negative impact on other towns within the housing market area.

 

Councillor Ernie Clark emphasised concerns regarding the five year land supply.

 

Councillor Ricky Rogers stated he would be interested to hear the views of the local members.

 

Councillor Christine Crisp stated that she was happy to see some of the revisions to the plan and thanked those involved for their hardwork in providing evidence to the review.

 

Councillor Jon Hubbard emphasised the impact of the delay on the increase in speculative developments in other areas, owing to the absence of a five year land supply. Reflecting his concerns over the handling of the Plan, Councillor Hubbard moved an amendment, duly seconded by Councillor Ian West as follows:

 

To insert a new paragraph (i) to read as follows

 

‘Following the repeated failures of the Cabinet member responsible for Strategic Planning, Development Management, Strategic Housing, Operational Property and Waste to deliver on this Plan and to protect the five year supply of housing for the County, this Council passes a motion of no confidence in him.

 

To include and renumber the subsequent paragraphs of the recommendations’.

 

A proposal was moved and seconded to move to the vote and on being put to the vote, this was CARRIED.

 

On being put to the vote, the amendment was LOST and a recorded vote having been requested by the requisite number of members, the voting was recorded as follows:

 

For the amendment (28)

 

Cllr Desna Allen, Cllr Glenis Ansell, Cllr Pat Aves, Cllr Nick Blakemore, Cllr Rosemary Brown, Cllr Jamie Capp, Cllr Chris Caswill, Cllr Terry Chivers, Cllr Ernie Clark, Cllr Brian Dalton, Cllr Bill Douglas, Cllr Dennis Drewett, Cllr Peter Edge, Cllr Jon Hubbard, Cllr Chris Hurst, Cllr David Jenkins, Cllr Bob Jones MBE, Cllr Gordon King, Cllr Magnus Macdonald, Cllr Ian Mclenna, Cllr Stephen Oldrieve, Cllr Linda Packard, Cllr Mark Packard, Cllr David Pollitt, Cllr Ricky Rogers, Cllr Ian Tomes, Cllr John Walsh and Cllr Ian West.

 

Against the amendment (53)

 

Cllr Chuck Berry, Cllr Richard Britton, Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Richard Clewer, Cllr Mark Connolly, Cllr Christine Crisp, Cllr Anna Cuthbert, Cllr Andrew Davis, Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe, Cllr Christopher Devine, Cllr Stewart Dobson, Cllr Mary Douglas, Cllr Peter Evans, Cllr Sue Evans, Cllr Richard Gamble, Cllr Jose Green, Cllr Mollie Groom, Cllr Mike Hewitt, Cllr Alan Hill, Cllr Atiqul Hoque, Cllr Keith Humphries, Cllr Peter Hutton, Cllr Simon Jacobs,  Cllr Julian Johnson, Cllr Simon Killane, Cllr Jerry Kunkler, Cllr Jacqui Lay, Cllr Alan MacRae, Cllr Howard Marshall, Cllr Laura Mayes, Cllr Jemima Milton, Cllr Bill Moss, Cllr Christopher Newbury, Cllr Paul Oatway QPM, Cllr Sheila Parker, Cllr Graham Payne, Cllr Leo Randall, Cllr Baroness Scott of Bybrook OBE, Cllr Jonathon Seed, Cllr James Sheppard, Cllr John Smale, Cllr Toby Sturgis, Cllr Melody Thompson, Cllr John Thomson, Cllr Richard Tonge, Cllr Tony Trotman, Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cllr Philip Whalley, Cllr Stuart Wheeler, Cllr Roy While, Cllr Philip Whitehead, Cllr Jerry Wickham and Cllr Christopher Williams.

 

Abstentions (5)

 

Cllr Tony Deane, Cllr Russell Hawker, Cllr Nina Phillips, Cllr Horace Prickett and Cllr Pip Ridout.

 

Councillor Chris Caswill gave notice of amendments as displayed to the meeting he would be moving on this item in relation to Appendix 3, which set out the proposed modifications. He thanked officers who he considered had approached the revisions with an open mind and carried out a considerable amount of work to come up with their proposals. He reminded members that the submitted Plan had been approved by the full Council and therefore all members shared a collective responsibility for the present situation. Councillor Caswill explained the rationale behind his amendments which he so moved in turn and duly seconded by Councillor Bill Douglas.

 

Councillor Caswill - Amendment

(1)  Add after '(Appendix4)'  the following additional change, to Appendix 3, page 6, S9:

 

ADD after '...1780 homes'  "but after taking reasonable account of other brownfield sites in the town, that number is adjusted downwards to at least 1600 homes."

 

Councillor Toby Sturgis responded to the amendment. He emphasised that the Council must have certainty of delivery and that the residual requirement took into account committed windfall and already made an allowance for 250 homes at Langley Park. There would be no certainty about how much and when additional windfall sites could come forward. Therefore they could not be regarded in the Plan at this stage. To rely on uncertain windfalls would put the Plan at  risk and undermine the 5 year land supply.

 

Following debate and on being put to the vote, the amendment was LOST.

 

Councillor Chris Caswill then withdrew amendment (ii) as shown below, noting that the points raised within it were already addressed in the Amendments to Appendix 3 (Agenda Supplement Two). 

 

(2) Add after '(Appendix4)' the following additional change, to Appendix 3, page 7, S11

 

Replace the current text with “This site will deliver:

A link road between Malmesbury Road (A350) and Maud Heath Causeway”.

 

Delete "will become the first section of an eastern link road through to the A4"

 

Councillor Caswill – Amendment

 

Councillor Caswill considered this was an unnecessary part of the Plan and its deletion would not damage the overall Plan.

 

(3)Add after '(Appendix4)'  the following additional change, to Appendix 3, page 11, S15, 4.18 :

 

Delete all after "...wider role in the network."

 

Councillor Toby Sturgis did not support the amendment explaining that it related to permitted development and that the section in question had not changed from the pre-submission draft Plan. Councillor Sturgis was asked to clarify whether or not this had in fact changed from the pre-submission Plan. In the meantime, Councillor Caswill was asked to present his fourth amendment.

 

Amendment – Councillor Caswill

 

(4) Add after '(Appendix4)'  the following additional change, to Appendix 3, page 11, S15, 4.20 and onwards :

 

Delete paragraph 4.20, and all subsequent references to the inclusion of the Rawlings Green site in the revised CSAP.

 

Add a new para.4.20, headed Forest Farm:  "Forest Farm (D1) is a site which can deliver up to 480 houses without requiring any additional infrastructure, 200 houses in a first phase, without any major environmental detriment. It is deliverable without major infrastructure development and does not suffer the several deliverability risks which surround the alternative Rawlings Green site. The Site Selection evidence paper (pages 101-110 of the CSAP  Sustainability Appraisal Report makes clear the merits of the site, while at the same time several of  the few less favourable comments are clearly open to challenge).

 

Make changes to the subsequent sections of Appendix 3 to reflect these amendments.

 

Councillor Caswill explained the purpose of his amendment. He considered there was a degree of risk attached to the Rawlings Green site which was still in the Plan and in his opinion, had a number of serious defects compared to the Forest Farm site. The Council should be putting forward proposals which were designed to succeed before an Inspector and not a site which he considered would be heavily challenged.

 

The Chairman adjourned the meeting for lunch at this point which would also enable Councillor Toby Sturgis, to consider his response to amendments iii) and iv) proposed by Councillor Caswill.

 

Meeting adjourned from 13:00 and reconvened at 13:45

 

Councillor Sturgis reiterated that he did not see the need for amendment iii) and could not support it. He did undertake however to clarify the position for the purpose of consultation on the Plan, to only show the section which had been altered highlighted as an alteration rather than the whole paragraph. 

 

Amendment (iii) was not accepted.

 

Councillor Sturgis explained that he could not support amendment iv) as the Forest Green site had, following a balanced assessment, not scored as highly as other preferred sites. Additionally, he considered that having undertaken detailed evidenced based work on the site selection process and to then at this stage substitute one site for another, would undermine the site selection process and therefore put at risk the soundness of the Plan.  He also responded to points raised by Councillor Caswill

 

A debate ensued on the amendment.

 

On being put to the vote, amendment (iv) was LOST and a recorded vote having been requested by the requisite number of members, the voting was recorded as follows:

 

For the amendment (16)

 

Cllr Glenis Ansell, Cllr Nick Blakemore, Cllr Chris Caswill, Cllr Terry Chivers, Cllr Ernie Clark, Cllr Bill Douglas, Cllr Peter Edge, Cllr Jon Hubbard, Cllr Chris Hurst, Cllr Bob Jones MBE, Cllr Gordon King, Cllr Magnus Macdonald, Cllr Stephen Oldrieve, Cllr Nina Phillips, Cllr David Pollitt and Cllr Ian West.

 

Against the amendment (59)

 

Cllr Desna Allen, Cllr Pat Aves, Cllr Chuck Berry, Cllr Richard Britton, Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Richard Clewer, Cllr Mark Connolly, Cllr Christine Crisp, Cllr Anna Cuthbert, Cllr Andrew Davis, Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe, Cllr Christopher Devine, Cllr Stewart Dobson, Cllr Mary Douglas, Cllr Peter Evans, Cllr Sue Evans, Cllr Richard Gamble, Cllr Jose Green, Cllr Mollie Groom, Cllr Mike Hewitt, Cllr Alan Hill, Cllr Atiqul Hoque, Cllr Charles Howard, Cllr Keith Humphries, Cllr Peter Hutton, Cllr Simon Jacobs, Cllr David Jenkins, Cllr Julian Johnson, Cllr John Knight, Cllr Jerry Kunkler, Cllr Jacqui Lay, Cllr Alan MacRae, Cllr Howard Marshall, Cllr Paul Oatway QPM, Cllr Jemima Milton, Cllr Bill Moss, Cllr Christopher Newbury, Cllr Paul Oatway QPM, Cllr Linda Packard, Cllr Mark Packard, Cllr Sheila Parker, Cllr Graham Payne, Cllr Horace Prickett, Cllr Leo Randall, Cllr Pip Ridout, Cllr Baroness Scott of Bybrook OBE, Cllr Jonathon Seed, Cllr John Smale, Cllr Toby Sturgis, Cllr Melody Thompson, Cllr John Thomson, Cllr Tony Trotman, Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cllr Philip Whalley, Cllr Stuart Wheeler, Cllr Roy While, Cllr Philip Whitehead, Cllr Jerry Wickham and Cllr Christopher Williams.

 

 

Abstentions (6)

 

Cllr Jamie Capp, Cllr Brian Dalton, Cllr Tony Deane, Cllr Dennis Drewett, Cllr Simon Killane and Cllr James Sheppard.

 

The meeting then returned to the debate on the substantive motion. For the avoidance of doubt, Councillor Toby Sturgis clarified that the recommendations before Council included the Addendum to Appendix 3 as circulated under cover of Agenda Supplement No. 2.

 

A number of comments were made including concerns over air quality and traffic issues, the need to cater for the continuing increasing demand for housing, the need to agree a Plan for the benefit of the Town, the negative impact on the town and surrounding areas arising from a further delay in its implementation, preferences over a link road scheme, concerns over continued speculative applications in the absence of a 5 year land supply. 

 

Councillor Chris Caswill emphasised his desire to get the right plan for the community.

 

In closing, Councillor Toby Sturgis stated that modifications had been proposed to the plan to reflect the most appropriate strategy following the Inspector’s request for additional information and reiterated the plan did protect the potential for a southern and an eastern link road if they were required in the future. He guided members through the key documentation, the site selection process and conclusions reached on this. 

 

Having been put to the vote, the meeting;

 

Resolved

 

That, having considered the outcome of the Schedule of Work and accompanying evidence:

 

(i)           To approve the Proposed Modifications to the Plan as set out in Appendix 3 of the report presented incorporating the amendments set out in the Addendum to Appendix 3 as circulated in Agenda Supplement 2 subject to amendment in (iii) and the Equalities Impact Assessment (Appendix 4);

 

(ii)          To note that consultation will be undertaken on the Proposed Modifications and revisions to the evidence base through implementing the Schedule of Work and the results of the consultation sent to the Inspector;

 

(iii)         To authorise the Associate Director for Economic Development and Planning in consultation with the Associate Director for Legal and Governance and the Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Development Management, Strategic Housing, Operational Property and Waste be delegated authority to:

 

a)    Finalise the accompanying evidence documents which comprise the outcomes of the Schedule of Work and make any necessary minor changes to the Proposed Modifications in the interests of clarity and accuracy before they are submitted to the Inspector and published for consultation;

 

b)   Make arrangements for the above consultation and any subsequent consultations that may be requested by the Inspector;

 

c)    Respond to the consultation(s) and recommend any further modifications to the Inspector that may arise in response to the consultation or as part of the Examination; and

 

d)   Implement any consequential actions in relation to the Examination process.