Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies.

There were no declarations of interest stated.

Consideration was given to a report updating Members on the review of the options for preparing a Local Plan for the Borough. A copy of the report which would be taken to Cabinet tomorrow (13^th) was included in the agenda.

The Council’s Head of Planning and Development, Shawn Fleet gave a presentation entitled ‘Update on the Local Plan’ which outlined the background, review and delivery.

The Borough already had a Development Plan in place which was adopted in 2003 followed by the Joint Core Strategy in 2009. Two Neighbourhood Plans had also been adopted and there were more in the pipeline.

There were also a number of national inputs that had to be taken into consideration such as the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) website.  There were also a number of Acts and Case Law.

The Joint Local Plan came about following the Joint Core Strategy, this was followed up at Newcastle with a Site Allocations and Policies Plan and it was then considered to start work on a Joint Local Plan with Stoke on Trent City Council.

Work started on the Joint Local Plan and there were three core stages of consultation.  In 2019/20 there was more focus on evidence base and viewing – preparing for the first consultation document.

Four key areas then emerged in 2020:

·         The Planning White Paper brought in some significant changes including zoning, growth and regeneration.  There were also changes around Permitted Development.

·         Brexit

·         Covid-19

·         HS2

All of the above gave uncertainty as to how they would affect property markets in the future.

This led onto a review with a consultation on the future direction, summary and Lichfields Review and consideration by Cabinet on 13 January.

Residents were very much in favour of a Newcastle Local Plan although businesses were largely in favour of the Joint Local Plan.

Three core areas were identified:

·         Duty to cooperate – continuing to liaise and negotiate with neighbouring authorities

·         Housing Delivery. The baseline was currently 355 dwellings p.a.

·         Greenbelt.  There was a split opinion on this between preservation groups and developers.

The Lichfields Review identified that, after seven years, the Joint Local Plan still had not progressed to consultation.  If the Borough was in control of the process an environment should be created where quicker progress could be made.  In addition, a Borough Local Plan would need to address the affordability of housing affecting younger people and an under-provision of housing against delivery target.  The Review concluded that a Borough Local Plan was achievable by 2023 although resource implications would need to be considered.

To deliver a Newcastle Local Plan, consideration would be given to the Neighbourhood Plans, Project Management and Collaborative Working.

Shawn Fleet was thanked for his presentation, a copy of which would be forwarded to Members of the Committee.

The Chair asked Shawn Fleet to outline the hierarchy of how the plans would operate together.

Councillor Moffat asked about the Statement of Community Involvement and how the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

There was no Urgent Business.