Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Swale House, East Street, Sittingbourne, ME10 3HT. View directions

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Items
No. Item

172.

Emergency Evacuation Procedure

The Chair will advise the meeting of the evacuation procedures to follow in the event of an emergency. This is particularly important for visitors and members of the public who will be unfamiliar with the building and procedures.

 

The Chair will inform the meeting whether there is a planned evacuation drill due to take place, what the alarm sounds like (i.e. ringing bells), where the closest emergency exit route is, and where the second closest emergency exit route is, in the event that the closest exit or route is blocked.

 

The Chair will inform the meeting that:

 

(a) in the event of the alarm sounding, everybody must leave the building via the nearest safe available exit and gather at the Assembly points at the far side of the Car Park.  Nobody must leave the assembly point until everybody can be accounted for and nobody must return to the building until the Chair has informed them that it is safe to do so; and

 

(b) the lifts must not be used in the event of an evacuation.

 

Any officers present at the meeting will aid with the evacuation.

 

It is important that the Chair is informed of any person attending who is disabled or unable to use the stairs, so that suitable arrangements may be made in the event of an emergency.

Minutes:

The Chair drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure.

173.

Minutes

To approve the Minutes of the Local Plan Panel Meeting held on 24 March 2022 (Minute Nos. 725 - 731) as a correct record.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Local Plan Panel Meeting held on 24 March 2022 (Minute Nos. 725 – 731) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

174.

Declarations of Interest

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

 

The Chair will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

 

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

 

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary Interests (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

 

(c)          Where it is possible that a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that the Member might be predetermined or biased the Member should declare their predetermination or bias and then leave the meeting while that item is considered.

 

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

Minutes:

No interests were declared.

175.

Additional item - Minutes of the Planning & Transportation Policy Working Group

Minutes:

The Chair asked Members to consider and agree that minutes be taken for the Working Group, rather than action points.

 

This was agreed by Members.

176.

Actions discussed at informal working group (22.06.22)

Minutes:

The Chair referred to the action notes from the informal working group which were tabled for Members.

 

The Chair proposed the following amendment which was seconded by Councillor Monique Bonney:  That the action notes be amended as follows:

 

Action 5 should read:

 

“It was agreed that although working groups did not normally meet in public, it was advisable to discuss some matters regarding the local plan and transport in public.”

 

“The remit of the working group was also to discuss areas of enforcement and Policy which due to names and addresses being identifiable are more appropriate to be discussed in a confidential setting.”

 

The additional sentence be added “It was further agreed that other issues would be dealt with within informal gatherings.”

 

A Member said he had understood that it had been agreed at the informal working group that all matters relating to the Local Plan would be held in public and minuted.  Some Members disagreed.

 

In response to a query from a Member, the Interim Head of Planning Services clarified that any items that required a recommendation to the Policy and Resources Committee would be considered at the public working group and agreed to provide some wording to clarify this within the action notes. 

 

The Chair also asked that the word Minutes be changed to Action Notes.

 

Resolved:  That the action notes be amended as minuted.

 

In response to a comment from a Member, the Interim Head of Planning Services said that officers would be consistent in their approach to the title of the working group moving forward.

 

The Chair said the work plan would be brought forward to a future meeting and the informal action notes would be circulated to Members.

177.

Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill pdf icon PDF 92 KB

Minutes:

The Interim Head of Planning Services introduced the report which provided a brief summary of the proposed measures in the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill that would impact on how Swale Borough Council (SBC) carried out its planning duties.  She advised that the Bill had been debated at Parliament recently and agreed to circulate the link of that debate to Members. 

 

The Interim Head of Planning Services reported that it had been suggested that district-wide Design Guides be “dropped” due to resource implications.  She outlined some of the proposed changes as outlined in the report which included: changes to the environmental impact assessment and strategic Environmental Assessment with a system regime of Environmental Outcomes Reports; proposed replacement of most development management policies and local plans with national development management policies; changes to the protection to heritage assets; changes to the compulsory purchase process; the repeal of the duty to cooperate and its replacement with an alignment test; the Infrastructure Levy would replace the Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy; and the intension to remove the need for a five-year supply of deliverable land for housing where a Local Authority’s local plan was up-to-date.

 

The Interim Head of Planning Services advised that officers were awaiting details on some of these changes and following correspondence from the Chair of the Levelling-up Housing and Communities Committee, the Secretary of State for Department for Levelling-up had raised the issue of lack of detail and transitional arrangements in Parliament.

 

The Chair invited questions from Members.

 

Members raised points which included:

 

·         With regard to Street Votes would there be parameters on what the public could vote on? In order to manage residents expectations;

·         requested an update on timings in respect of consultations and how consultations would be dealt with?;

·         would the design code include the Local Authority influencing change in terms of climate change?; and

·         would this Bill influence what sort of local plan the Council submitted?;

 

In response to questions raised, the Interim Head of Planning Services said: there would be some parameters in respect of Street Votes possibly appearance, bulks, massing and scale; officers were expecting a Prospectus to be published July 2022 which would outline the areas of change in respect of consultations and this would be forwarded to Members; clarified the last sentence in the penultimate paragraph on page 6 of the report in relation to Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) should read “They will be independently examined and there are limits on the scope of such documents…”; unsure how the National Model Design Code would act if there were no local design codes but Members could decide to have a local design code; and officers were keeping a very close eye on the transitional arrangements for the Bill and were concerned that it could come into effect just before submission of the local plan.

 

Recommended:  That the report be noted.

178.

Local Development Scheme pdf icon PDF 84 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Planning Policy Manager introduced the report which provided a revised Local Development Scheme (LDS), as set-out in Appendix I of the report, to reflect the changes to the programme necessary to ensure the additional work in respect of the further traffic modelling evidence could be completed and fed-into the emerging local plan review.

 

The Planning Policy Manager referred to the revised timeline for the Regulation 19 consultation as set-out in paragraph 3.2 on page 12 of the report.

 

The Chair invited questions from Members.

 

Members raised points which included:

 

·         Concerned that there was still not enough time to consider design issues properly;

·         were officers confident that the timescales could be achieved?;

·         Members had been told previously that there would be a separate SPD for Milton Creek?;

·         had there been any discussion with neighbouring authorities about taking some of Swale’s housing numbers under the duty to cooperate?; and

·         could the traffic modelling assessments be trusted?.

 

In response to a question from the Chair, the Interim Head of Planning Services explained that changes to the Regulation 19 document could not take place until after it had been submitted to the Secretary of State, as it was the document that would be examined, however there would be a modification stage following examination.  She said it was important to note that the Evidence Base would continue to develop right up to examination so officers could add evidence up to the examination if required.  The Interim Head of Planning Services said that the transport modelling assessments were prepared by experts so could be relied upon, but it was right that Members were critical of them.  The Planning Policy Manager advised that the Council had independent consultants providing assistance with transport modelling assessments.

 

The Planning Policy Manager said whilst it was an ambitious programme she was confident that with the team of officers they had and progress already made the timetable would be achieved.  Members would be made aware of any risks to the timetable.  She said that officers had recently received the first draft updated Strategic Housing Market Area Assessment (SHMAA) and were close to securing further evidence that would be completed by the end of September 2022.  Officers were engaging with the Council’s Sustainability Appraisal consultants and workshops were planned to ensure Members were fully informed of what was coming forward. The Traffic Modelling Evidence was expected that week and the Retail Needs Assessment was being updated and there was progress on the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).

 

A Member asked whether the Council’s Park Homes SPD should be included under paragraph 4.2 of the LDS?  The Planning Policy Manager said it was an interim policy and could be included.  Members agreed that it should be added.  The Planning Policy Manager said that a Masterplan Development Brief would be included for Milton Creek rather than an SPD.

 

The Chair explained that in relation to the common ground duty to cooperate,  officers were in discussions with other authorities.  He said that nothing had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178.