Agenda item

(Director of Neighbourhoods) to consider the update on the current position of the Local Plan.

The Planning Policy Manager, Mr K Bean introduced the latest updating report on the Local Plan. The meeting noted that:

·         The Local Development Scheme agreed by Cabinet on 11 June 2015 has the timetable for consultation on the draft plan scheduled for July 2016 to September 2016.  However, this timescale is now looking very challenging given that the timetable for the Green Belt Review Stage 2 has slipped and that strategic transport work remains outstanding. 

·         The Government was now looking in our direction and EFDC was visited on 1 February 2016 by an official from DCLG when it became apparent that we are one of the authorities on the Government’s list for potential action.  One of the penalties proposed for not having produced a plan, (it is not clear yet how this will be interpreted), is the loss of New Homes Bonus. It is clear that the Council needs to make good progress this year and to have consulted on our Draft Plan Preferred Approach prior to the Government’s yet to be determined 2017 cut-off date. 

·         Recent Member workshops have covered design on 28 January 2016 and evolving work on stage 2 work of the Green Belt study on 25 February 2016. Both were well attended and Members provided valuable information and opinions on the matters presented.  In respect of the Green Belt workshop, Members were afforded a short period (until 10^th March), to send further comments on the parcel boundaries and to feed in local knowledge and views about the areas now being looked at in more detail. 

·         It was intended that future workshops to inform the Draft Plan (Preferred Approach) would consider climate change, energy and flood risk; development management policies; settlement policy and preferred sites. 

·         Government guidance and emerging Inspectors’ reports make clear the need to undertake a comprehensive Green Belt Review of the entire District before the release of any Green Belt land was considered. It was important to remember that the outcome of the Green Belt Review was only one, albeit an extremely important, piece of the evidence base that will inform the Council's future plan-making decisions.

·         Consultants recently ran a workshop to ensure that Member views were appropriately taken account of in this work. Once the Stage 2 study has been completed, (now likely to be around mid-April), together with the other evidence the findings will be used to inform the Draft Plan (Preferred Approach).  

·         The position of junction 7 and 7a was still unclear and more engagement was needed from Highways England. Also a watch in brief needed to be kept on the potential impact of Enfield’s Northern Gateway Access Package.

·         Town and Parish Councils are also to be asked for expressions of interest in participating in work leading to the establishment of a Green Infrastructure Framework for the District.

·         Moreton, Bobbingworth and the Lavers have finalised their draft Plan and submitted it to the Council.  The plan has now been published and is currently being examined. 

·         Eight other Parish and Town Councils have applied to designate neighbourhood planning areas for their areas (Chigwell, Epping, Buckhurst Hill, Theydon Bois, Loughton, North Weald Bassett, Epping Upland and Waltham Abbey).  Many of these are now at early stages in scoping out and drafting their plans.

Councillor Bassett informed the committee that he had tried to strike a balance and keep everyone informed, so that nothing came as a surprise. There had been a lot of workshops so far and he was grateful to the Town and Parish Councils for their input. He noted that the information they got from the workshops could help them in formulating their own local (Neighbourhood) plans, but added that this was for them to complete as the District Council could only advise.

He emphasised the pressure that government was exerting on authorities such as EFDC to complete our plan, other authorities were using short cuts by moving straight to pre-submission draft (Regulation 19) plans but EFDC were keeping to the proper way by undertaking full public consultations before reaching the Regulation 19 stage. Also Highways England was not fully engaging with us on strategic transportation matters and therefore delaying us taking forward work on the draft plan.  We have had recent meetings with surrounding authorities on transport matters including Crossrail 2 and they all have expressed concerns about limited Highways England engagement and how this was adversely impacting on local plan progress.

We were going as fast as we can but were consulting and engaging on every step we take. It was difficult to continually let the public know what we are doing and what were the options open to us. The Council were shortly to appoint consultants to assist with public relations and stakeholder engagement matters on local plan preparation.

Councillor Neville asked about the Green Belt review (part 2) and if the nature reserves were taken into account? Councillor Bassett said that they were looking for reasons to keep things in the green belt and not take them out.

Councillor Surtees commented that he had concerns that we were only just opening tenders on how to improve consultations at this late stage. We had large, well attended consultation meetings at the beginning of the process, but then it went very quiet. They were now happening again, smaller and with fewer people. We know that people are concerned, especially about the green belt review. He thought that there was not enough guidance from the forward planning team. They needed good communications now and he would like the review to be made public.

The Planning Policy Manager said that the Green Belt Stage 2 report would be made public at a later stage in conjunction with the publication of the preferred approach draft plan later this year having considered all the local plan evidence in the round. Councillor Bassett added that there was a lot of information on the website and he had tried talking to the press trying to get  information out there. Councillor Surtees suggested we give Parish Clerks a regular update. Councillor Patel suggested that the Parish and Town Councils have their own magazines that we could use to publicise messages and the put in local plan updates.  

Councillor Waller asked if the government officer from the CLG got the message that we were not dragging our feet. The Director of Neighbourhoods said that we did put our point across and she was impressed with what we were doing. But, we were on their list and have to be seen to be making timely progress.

Councillor Jennings was disappointed that the timetable had been put back; was it not time to put in more resources? The Director of Neighbourhoods replied saying that we had always had good resources dedicated to production of the Local Plan. There were issues for retaining Planning Policy Officers; London Boroughs pay a lot more than we could. It was not a question of throwing money at it. People including consultants undertaking some of the technical work were always surprised that we involve and consult Town and Parish Councils to the extant that we do as other authorities tended not to. Councillor Bassett added that Harlow had received 16 responses to their consultation, where as we got 6,000 to our issues and options draft.  

Councillor Sartin noted that we have just lost a long standing member of staff in the forward planning team, through retirement, Ian White. The Committee agreed that the member’s gratitude and thanks for Mr White’s professional work should be officially recorded in the minutes and that the Chairman drop him a note of thanks.