Minutes

Apologies received from: Lee Bevens, Stephen Buddle, Mark Greenwood, Emma Nasta, David Rowen, Anna Goodall and Councillor Will Sutton  

Present: Dino Biagioni, Matthew Hall, Nick Harding (Chair), Councillor Mrs Dee Laws, John Maxey, Tim Slater, Will Hodgson. Shanna Jackson, David Thomas, Jordan Trundle, Graham Moore and David Wyatt.

The action schedule was agreed.

Nick Harding gave an update to the Forum with regards to the Local Plan.

He explained that the draft plan went to Cabinet in June  and that document with some revisions was approved for public consultation.

This consultation will be for 8 weeks which will be in August and September and when it is published alongside it as part of the evidence base there will be the assessment that was undertaken at each of the sites that were put forward and for allocation in the plan with an explanation of why it was included. Those sites which were not successful will also have an explanation as to the reasons why and if any assessments need to be challenged by Agents and Developers then this document should be consulted in order to ask the Council to reconsider whether to allocate that particular site or not.

Nick Harding referred to the rest of the Local Plan timetable  and stated that once the consultation has been completed, all the comments that have been received will be reviewed  and they will be published on the website and then an assessment will take place of any additional sites that get passed to officers for reconsideration.  

This information will be published in November /December 2022 and in early 2023 the public consultation on the submission version of the plan will take place, which is then submitted to the Government  for public examination in late Summer 2023 and the Inspectors report should be published in early 2024 and following this the plan should then go on to be adopted.

Nick Harding explained that the consultation exercise will take place through the council’s website and all of the documentation such as the maps, evidence base and consultation information can be found on the website in the document library.

Nick Harding explained that nothing has been implemented since the last meeting of the forum.

He explained that the Levelling up and Regeneration Act has reached bill stage and has been published in May 2022.

The key points contained within that bill  are:

There is going to be a national set of development management policies  and the scope of Local Plans will be brought down so that it is only dealing with particular local matters and in doing so the local plans can be prepared more expediently than has currently been the case.

Other proposals include digitisation of the planning system and the Government expectation that from start to finish on the preparation of a plan to its adoption within 30 months. Nick Harding  stated that in his opinion that is optimistic, unless significant changes are made to the system and most local plans contain policies which are local issues and, in his view, he does not feel that it will much be as much of a time saver as is being suggested.

Nick Harding explained that the Government are also considering the removal of the requirement for local planning authorities to maintain a 5-year land supply in order to expedite  the preparation of  their new local plans where the authority already has an up-to-date local plan. H e expressed the view that it makes sense  in terms of the five-year rolling review of the local plans but it should not be forgotten that there will always be a housing delivery target.

Nick Harding explained that each local authority is expected to have a design code which will act as a framework from which subsequent detailed design codes will come forward on specific areas or sites. He added that he has looked at what is coming out nationally on the issue of design and in his opinion, he finds it quite bland in terms of content and very general and not very specific. He added that it must be very difficult generally to know how to apply the statements that have been published to any particular site because whatever is written could mean different things to different people. Nick Harding expressed the view that what is need is something that is straight to the point and identifies boundaries on particular design issues in order for it to make progress as there will always be certain situations whereby subjectivity on design matters is going to vary from one case officer to another.

Nick Harding referred to applications being determined in accordance with the development plan, and he  explained that the principle concerning that is not proposed to be changed except for the insertion of the word strongly which in his opinion is not likely to make any meaningful difference.

He referred to the next item concerning street votes, which is around the community getting together to allow for greater flexibility on what gets built in their local area and he has interpreted it to mean that it is potentially going to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Nick Harding explained that from November 2023 developers must demonstrate that their scheme will deliver biodiversity net gain of at least 10% which must be maintained for 30 years or more.

He referred members of the forum to the link below which provided a training session which he recommended to all, and he referred members of the forum to the notes of the April meeting which contained other weblinks which show the detail of how the spreadsheet works for both small and large sites.

 Biodiversity Metric 3 Training for Planners | Local Government Association

Tim Slater asked whether it included all developments excluding householders and is it for major applications only. Nick Harding explained that it is for all developments excluding minor development and it also includes a standalone single property. Tim slater asked whether it was going to be a validation requirement or a determination requirement  as in his view it is going to mean a lot of extra work  which will need to be undertaken. Nick Harding explained that the legislation looks as though it will be a conditional or Section 106 requirement to sign up to the 10% biodiversity net gain and he added that when considering large developments, it will be difficult to simply add a condition on an application for 10% biodiversity to be achieved when there is no context at all with regards to what the percentage actually relates to and how  achievable it is. He added that  it is something that will need to be considered as to how it will fit into the application process in terms of content of  the submission from a validation perspective and determination perspective.

Tim Slater expressed the view that it will be a difficult subject to explain to clients because on a generic outline application there are a large number of questions to answer before the topic of biodiversity net gain. He asked whether the council are pooling contributions and enhancing facilities elsewhere such as country parks and he questioned whether Fenland has any plans to create its own biodiversity pool.

John Maxey stated that very often proposals get varied during the course of the determination process and it may not be possible to identify what 10% biodiversity net gain looks like until the final form of the proposal is known and in his view there needs to be a clear intent for it to be provided at the application stage and an indication on how it needs to be provided. He added that the detail could be something hat has to wait until the final form of the application and then rerun the calculations at that stage to demonstrate that it is meeting 10%.Nick Harding explained that he agrees and added that making the calculation will be challenging, however as a developer or land owner he appreciates that they will want to know what the level of commitment is going to have to be as it is an important consideration. John Maxey stated that it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Nick Harding provided an up date with regards to performance and staffing situation in the Planning department.

Validation

3 week backlog

Planning Applications

Major - 80%

Minor - 66%

Other - 85%

He added that all of the vacant Senior Posts have now been filled apart from one and a vacancy for a Principal Planning Officer is being readvertised.

John Maxey stated that he has been made aware of the delays being caused with major applications and Section 106 agreements appears to be due to the Legal Team. Nick Harding explained that PCC have vacancies in their Legal Team and the team at PCC are providing a spreadsheet on a monthly basis which will detail the progress on applications that they are dealing with on behalf of Fenland. He explained that Fenland have written to the Executive Director that covers the legal service at the County Council to relate the concerns that Fenland has with regards to the County Council over complicating matters and this is being looked into.

Councillor Mrs Laws stated that the County Council appears to be the main issue which she knows is being addressed.

Councillor Mrs Laws referred to validation and praised the staff who have been working hard to reduce the delays with validation.

She asked Nick Harding to provide data on how agents and developers are performing with regards to validation, and she added that at one point it was 4% right first time and then it increased to 9%, however Fenland has the lowest figure for local councils getting it right first time. Nick Harding agreed to provide the data and share it.

Tim Slater referred to a recent Planning Committee meeting where members had made it clear that applications would be refused where information was missing to enable them to be determined. He added that it was stated that agents and developers would not be contacted to request the missing information and he explained  that it is his view that if information is required then it should be on the validation list and if it is not present, It should not be validated. He added that it is his understanding that there is 28 day time period following a submission of an application in which information that is required can be provided and he was very concerned to hear the statement made by the Committee.

Nick Harding stated that the actions taken need to be measured and considered and there are number of elements that need to be looked at.

He explained that there may be an application which is submitted, and it contains enough information which means it is sufficient to be made valid but it is an application where it is felt that the best course of action is to determine it sooner rather than later. He added that there are other applications which is almost in an approvable condition and in those cases, officers would look to work with and resolve the issues as much as possible.

Nick  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Nick Harding explained that the Whittlesey Neighbourhood Plan has been submitted and it is out for  consultation until 1 Sept 22- Whittlesey Neighbourhood Plan Examination - Fenland District Council

The Wisbech Energy from Waste proposal has been submitted to the Inspectorate (NSIP project) to see whether they are going to accept the application and the decision is due by the 4 August. If it is accepted, a consultation on the documentation will take place along with the examination.