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Councillor Monique Bonney declared a non-pecuniary interest because she was Chair of the Five Parishes Group.

In introducing the report, the Project Manager (Planning Policy) explained that Members of the Planning and Transportation Policy Working Group (PTPWG) were briefed on the Whole Plan Viability Assessment in July 2024 and this included a detailed question and answer session with the consultants who produced the study. Members had noted the findings of the Assessment including the Policy recommendations set out, at that briefing.

The Project Manager (Planning Policy) said the intended Local Plan Regulation 18 consultation would cover the vision, objectives and development management policies of the plan and it was appropriate to publish this evidence, as it included the achievability of affordable housing contributions for the borough and provided the key evidence for the Affordable Housing Policy that was part of the Regulation 18 consultation. He said the viability evidence demonstrated that across the borough, the Council could seek a 30% affordable housing contribution on greenfield sites and a 10% affordable housing contribution should be sought to help the delivery of brownfield sites.

The Project Manager (Planning Policy) explained that as part of the viability testing, a series of typologies were developed to assess the draft Local Plan policy requirements of which affordable housing was included.  He said the typologies ranged from brownfield sites in urban areas to greenfield sites outside of built-up area confines and the assessment of the typologies would then inform the likely achievability of sites that would come forward in future plan drafting.

The Project Manager (Planning Policy) said the study also considered available strategic sites and it should be noted those strategic sites had been tested at a high level to inform the viability element of future drafting of the plan, and were not reflective of any live planning applications. He added that the Council’s policy direction would inevitably evolve through drafting and consultation of the Local Plan, development of its evidence base and through changes in national policy, resulting in a need to provide a partial update to the viability assessment as part of preparing the Regulation 19 consultation intended for Summer 2026. 

Members were invited to ask questions and make comments and these included:

·         Requested that for very large documents such as this, hard copies of Agendas be made available as early as possible;

·         colour coding in the charts made it clear and was helpful for visual learners;

·         how did affordable housing sit alongside the National Planning Policy Framework’s (NPPF) recommendations?;

·         highlighted some errors in tables and column headings;

·         would the evidence be updated at the Regulation 19 stage?;

·         as larger sites naturally carried abnormal costs, it was really important that the Council took particular consideration of this when costing;

·         drew attention to the differences in some of the areas that had been grouped together and suggested this should be better clarified;

·         highlighted the risks on strategic sites, in delivery and time frame;

·         sought clarification on whether the viability of strategic sites was on economic terms only?’;

·         referred to the ‘shopping list’ of developer contributions in table 8.4 in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 422.

The Principal Planning Officer (Policy) introduced the report which sought Members’ agreement to note the findings of a study that the Planning Policy team commissioned on the development of Net Zero Policy for Swale Borough Council. She said the study followed on from the Council’s net zero ambitions, as established in the Climate and Ecological Emergency Declaration and Action Plan, and the need for new development in the borough to be carbon neutral. The Principal Planning Officer (Policy) explained that the consultants worked for a number of local authorities on climate policy, and several local authorities that had received policy recommendations had adopted local plans with ambitious climate policies, using the approaches and more accurate metrics advocated in the study.  She added that the recommendations in the study had been tested by viability consultants.

The Principal Planning Officer (Policy) said Members had been involved in the policy choices, and she highlighted the workshop that took place for all Members in September 2024 where a steer towards the most ambitious, best practice, option was given as the path the local plan should follow. She said the policy recommendations set out the evidence base study had fed directly into policies C1-C5 in the draft Regulation 18 document which was the next item on the Agenda to be discussed. She acknowledged that whilst ambitious, the policies were considered robust and achievable and would enable new buildings in Swale to be truly net zero.

Members were invited to ask questions and make comments which included:

·         None of the new policies had yet been formally agreed by Members and felt uncomfortable they were included without indicating they were draft policies;

·         welcomed the draft policies put forward in draft ready for consultation but had concerns on Policy C5 District Heat Networks as they were not low carbon solutions and there were increased costs to residents;

·         pleased to see the draft policies;

·         would the viability report be updated to reflect any policies that were agreed?;

·         referred to the development management policies that were in the Regulation 19 from 2021 as the starting point and policy criteria tweaks that had been made since;

·         the climate change policies were new policies that needed to be tested through the viability update;

·         said the planting of trees in the borough was a natural way of reducing CO2 and was pleased that so many trees had been planted in the borough and encouraged more planting;

·         referred to page 300 in the Agenda, and asked whether the current Government stood by the statement made by the previous Government in 2023 on local efficiency standards?;

·         there needed to be proper in depth discussions by Members on new policies before it went out for consultation;

·         sought clarification on the route the new policies would take as Members had not had proper input;

·         raised concern over Policy C5 – renewable energy development and infrastructure, and the risk of where it might be located due to the generic wording in the policy;

·         needed to pay attention to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 423.

The Planning Policy Manager introduced the report and reminded Members that the PTPWG agreed to consult on the Regulation 18 in July 2025. She referred to the NPPF being updated in 2024 along with the associated Planning Practice Guidance, several new pieces of evidence base and the Swale Climate and Ecological Emergency action plan documents being updated, a new Swale Affordable Housing Emergency being declared in April 2024 and the Town and Country Planning Association Healthy Homes Pledge being signed in May 2024. The Planning Policy Manager also drew attention to the adoption of a new Corporate Plan (2023-2027), setting out new objectives and priorities. She said all this information would be reflected in the Local Plan and the consultation would provide an early opportunity for the public and stakeholders to engage with elements of the Local Plan.

The Planning Policy Manager spoke about the style a Local Plan Regulation 18 could take and said Members had agreed the scope at a previous PTPWG meeting in July 2025 and these were visions, objectives, the portrait of the borough and the Development Management policies. She said a section on ‘Implementation and Monitoring’ would be included, but would be more detailed at the next stage of the Local Plan process.

The Planning Policy Manager drew attention that there were no strategic policies sitting above the Development Management policies within the Regulation 18, but they would be included at the Regulation 19 stage.  She said extensive informal engagement work was undertaken with Members during 2024 to draft Development Management Policies, and Policies had also been updated to reflect the revised December 2024 NPPF and other updated relevant evidence guidance base documents.  The Planning Policy Manager referred to the five new draft policies that Members had not previously seen, in the Climate Change chapter, and said they reflected the ambitions of the Council’s Climate and Ecological Emergency and had been discussed under a previous item on the Agenda.

Referring to the Sustainability Appraisal Scoping report, the Planning Policy Manager set out the process, and said that a Scoping Report was undertaken for the Local Plan Review in 2018 but had been refreshed due to the time that had lapsed, and was included in Appendix III.

The Planning Policy Manager drew attention to the challenging timeline and consultation process between Regulation 18 and Regulation 19, set out in Appendix 4.  She advised that in order to meet the deadlines, it was proposed that the Regulation 18 consultation ran for six weeks, from Monday 12 January 2026 until 5pm on Monday 23 February 2026, and officers were liaising with the Communications team on a range of engagement opportunities to enable wide ranging participation.

The Planning Policy Manager advised that the consultation questions within the document would be able to be responded to online via the consultation portal Objective, and general comments could be included.  She said all libraries and Council offices would hold hard copies of documents and The Swallows Leisure Centre, Sittingbourne would hold a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 424.

The meeting was adjourned from 8.07 pm until 8:17 pm.