Issue - meetings

Report No:   CAB/WS/20/048

Portfolio Holder: Cllr David Roach            

Lead Officers: Julie Baird and Marie Smith

RESOLVED:

That:

1.       the Local Planning Authority’s response to the Regulation 16 Great Barton Neighbourhood Plan submission consultation, as set out in section 3 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/048, be approved; and

2.       delegated authority be given to the Service Manager (Strategic Planning), to make minor non-material consequential changes to the response, as necessary.

(Councillor Sarah Broughton declared a pecuniary interest as she and her husband owned a parcel of land within the area covered by the Great Barton Neighbourhood Plan. She left the meeting during the consideration of this item and therefore did not take part in the debate or the vote.)

The Cabinet considered this report, which sought approval for the proposed West Suffolk Council response to the consultation on the Regulation 16 Submission of the Great Barton Neighbourhood Plan.

The Local Planning Authority (LPA) recognised that a significant amount of work had gone into the development of the Plan with extensive community involvement and the LPA commended the Parish Council for all the hard work to reach such an advanced stage in the neighbourhood plan making process.

This consultation opened on 10 June and would close on 19 August 2020.  The Council had responded to the previous Regulation 14 consultation stage which had raised concerns around the conformity of some of the Neighbourhood Plan policies and the Council’s identified local strategic planning policies. The LPA comments and the Neighbourhood Plan Group’s response to these comments were attached as Appendix A.

The Council’s response to the Regulation 16 consultation was attached at Appendix B, which was outlining three principal areas of concern where tensions arose between the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the LPA’s Strategic Policies and the Neighbourhood Plan, as summarised in section 3 of the report.

Following the close of the consultation, officers would reflect on the outcomes of the consultation process to ensure confidence in progressing to the next stage.  All comments received would be considered by an Examiner who would decide whether the basic conditions had been met and that the Plan could proceed to a Referendum.  However, it was noted that currently, no Referendums could take place earlier than May 2021.  It was anticipated that the Examination would take place in September 2020, following which the Examiner’s report would be received and the Council could then decide whether the Plan should proceed to Referendum.

The Cabinet agreed it was appropriate at this current Regulation 16 stage for the LPA to reiterate the previously identified issues to ensure a consistency of approach and to ensure consistency of response and reiteration of the concerns previously raised to the Great Barton Neighbourhood Plan Group and the Examiner.

RESOLVED:

That:

1.       the Local Planning Authority’s response to the Regulation 16 Great Barton Neighbourhood Plan submission consultation, as set out in section 3 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/048, be approved; and

2.       delegated authority be given to the Service Manager (Strategic Planning), to make minor non-material consequential changes to the response, as necessary.

(Councillor Broughton returned to the meeting.)