(Councillor Sarah Broughton declared a
pecuniary interest as she and her husband owned a parcel of land
within an area in Great Barton identified within the West Suffolk
Local Plan Preferred Options consultation document. She left the
meeting during the consideration of this item and did not return,
and therefore, she did not take part in the debate or the vote.
Councillors Broughton, Griffiths and
Mildmay-White declared localnon-pecuniary interest as appointed
shareholder representatives of Barley Homes (Group) Ltd.
Councillors Griffiths and Mildmay-White remained in the meeting for
the consideration of the item and voted (Councillor Broughton had
already declared a separate pecuniary interest and had left the
meeting.))
The Cabinet considered this report, which was
recommending to Council, approval of the West Suffolk Local Plan
Preferred Options document, for the purposes of public
consultation.
The West Suffolk Local Plan would cover the
period up to 2040. Upon adoption it
would set out the Council’s policies to address housing and
employment needs and other associated economic, social and environmental priorities.
It was an important tool in supporting
delivery of West Suffolk Council’s strategic priorities and
essential for the continuation of an effective planning service. In
addition, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004), required
local planning authorities to prepare and keep an up-to-date local
plan.
The Preferred Options document (Appendix A)
represented the next stage of the plan making process. It was
proposed to consult on the Preferred Options Local Plan and
supporting documents for eight-plus weeks from Thursday 26 May to
Tuesday 26 July 2022.
Appendix A was divided into three parts,
namely:
Part One: strategic policies
Part Two: non strategic policies
Part Three: site allocations
A summary of the content of each part was
detailed in paragraph 2.2 of the report.
Councillor David Roach, Portfolio Holder for
Planning, drew relevant issues to the attention of Cabinet,
including that, subject to Council approval, it was important to
note that the plan was still evolving, and no firm decisions had
been made at this stage. The Council
would continue to gather evidence throughout the local plan
preparation and this consultation was an important aspect of this.
Therefore, this was not what the final plan would look like.
The response received from this consultation
would help shape the next version of the local plan. That version would be the document which the
Council proposed to submit for examination to the Planning
Inspectorate and would be subject to a further round of
consultation prior to its submission.
Councillor Roach made specific reference to
the work undertaken on the Employment Land Review. Emphasis was
placed on the fact that gathering the evidence base for this
element of the local plan was still ongoing and evolving.
It had been brought to the Council’s
attention that there was an omission in the Employment Land Review
that was published in December 2021.
The Jockey club were listed in the document having been surveyed as
a stakeholder when they had not been.
The Council had responded to ...
view the full minutes text for item 353.