Agenda item

Toby Forbes Turner, Planning Policy Manager:

a)    presented members with an annual report detailing work undertaken by the Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee (CLJSPC) over the period 1 April 2019 through to 31 March 2020

b)    explained that for the coming year, it was anticipated that the impacts of Covid19 on society, the economy and plan-making would start to be understood

c)    reported that the plan would need to adapt to these impacts as they emerged, however, as officers working on the plan were working from home, progress continued on developing the evidence and the drafting of the plan

d)    highlighted that the work of the Local Plan Team included:

·         Progressing and finalising key evidence for the Local Plan;

·         Drafting the Local Plan;

·         Undertaking the Regulation 18 ‘Further Draft’ consultation on the Local Plan;

·         Carrying out statutory plan-making functions such as fulfilling the Duty to Cooperate and undertaking a Sustainability Appraisal and a Habitats Regulations Assessment; and

·         Maintaining existing functions such as responding to neighbouring plan consultations, producing and publishing the five-year land supply report, providing planning application and appeals support where requested, and dealing with queries from the public

e)    highlighted evidence-based work on climate change with specialist consultants appointed in July to assess the extent to which the new Local Plan should address the issue, including the establishment of a position statement to set out the role the Local Plan could play in delivering climate change objectives; identifying what the plan could and could not influence in respect of carbon reductions. define what net zero carbon meant for the plan and what needed to be done to achieve it

f)     attached the budget for 2019/20 as set out in Appendix 1, representing the first year of a three-year budget which was approved by Members of the Joint Planning Committee on 13 January 2020

g)    reported that overall, the Local Plans budget was in a healthy position, with the following material variances to note;

·         There was a saving on employee costs arising from a vacancy within the Local Plans Team. The Team was now fully resourced following a successful appointment of a Planning Policy Officer.

·         There were additional consultancy costs associated with the commissioning of evidence base to support the plan making process, which reflected the scope of the issues that the revised Local Plan was seeking to address.

h)    invited members’ comments and questions.

Question: Members asked what collaboration took place with North Kesteven?

Response: The City of Lincoln Council was joined with North Kesteven District Council and West Lindsey District Council for the local plan. Growth for the whole area was considered when a planning application was submitted for consideration such as impact of traffic etc. There was a thorough process that was in place for applications going to Planning Committee where the developer had to prove that they met certain constraints.

Question: Members asked for anticipated consequences when the eastern bypass was completed and whether there would be any more room for development?

Response: The ring road would open areas of land. Developers would look at these pockets of land but would still have to go through the planning process. The green element of the plan was very important, especially in the current time as more people were using open spaces.

Question: Members asked what happened to the information gathered by consultants around climate change and how this was moved forward?

Response: There were two strands of work, climate change in respect of the local plan and the own authority’s climate change work. This work would steer what was to be done over the next 30 years to reduce carbon footprints. The findings from the consultancy work would hopefully be endorsed by the joint committee. All officers across authorities were working together to make sure the work was embedded across authorities and not duplicated.

RESOLVED that the annual report of activity of the Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee for 2019/20 be noted.