Agenda item

(District Council) To receive a report setting out the current position with regard to progress on the development of the new Local Plan for the Epping Forest District.

The Committee received a progress report regarding the Epping Forest District Local Plan from the Planning Policy Manager.

1.    Local Plan Timetable

An updated Local Development Scheme was due to be submitted to the Cabinet on 21 July 2016 to reflect the new timescale for the development of the Local Plan. The key milestones prior to consultation on the Draft Plan scheduled for the Autumn were:

(a)  6 October 2016 – Report to the Cabinet to consider draft plan for consultation.

(b)  18 October 2016 – Report to Full Council.

(c)  31 October 2016 – Start of 6 week formal consultation.

This schedule would tie in with the publication of draft plans by East Herts, Uttlesford and Harlow districts who have all been proposing to publish their draft plans in the Autumn for a 6 week period, seeking representations on their soundness.

The Government had made clear their expectation that all local planning authorities should have a post NPPF local plan in place. This included intervening where no local plan existed to arrange for the plan to be written. One penalty proposed for not having produced a plan, was the loss of New Homes Bonus finances. The Council needed to make good progress this year and it was therefore considered essential to have completed consultation on the Draft Plan Preferred Approach prior to anticipated end of March 2017 cut off date. Consultants NLP, in a report issued in April 2016, had identified 21 authorities most at risk of intervention and this authority had been named.

2.    Working with Neighbouring Authorities/Duty to Co-Operate

Further work was being undertaken for developing the housing target for the district and agree at the Co-Operation for Sustainable Development Board how the growth would be distributed across the Housing Market area. This work was being progressed with the 4 authorities within the Strategic Housing Market Area. The Board on 6 June 2016 was provided with an update on progress with the evaluation of the 5 spatial options previously agreed for testing. The Board also received three draft memoranda of understanding; from Highways England covering strategic transport matters, Natural England covering Air Quality and a third to set out the vision for the SHMA area. A final decision on the preferred strategic spatial option was expected on 18 July 2016.

3.    Member Workshops

Since the last Committee meeting in March 2016, further workshops had been held on climate change – 24 May 2016 and transport accessibility and parking standards – 31 May 2016. A further workshop was programmed for 16 July 2016 covering development management policies. A briefing on the proposals for the Local Plan consultation would be held on 28 July 2016.

4.    Key Local Plan Evidence

Work continued on finalising the evidence base reports which would be used to inform the policies included in the Draft Plan that the Council would be consulting on later this year.

(a)  Green Belt Review

A draft report had been received and officers were providing comments back to the consultants. The results would be used to inform the Draft Plan and would be published as part of the consultation.

(b)  Settlement Capacity Work

A draft had been received and officers were collating comments to send to the consultants. All sites identified had been fed into the updated SLAA and the site selection process.

(c)  Site Selection and Infrastructure Delivery Work

The Council had appointed consultants Arup to undertake the site selection work in order to provide options on the preferred sites for allocation. Counsel had provided advice on the methodology for site selection of employment, housing and traveller sites had been drafted. Stage 2 of the process was almost complete and notwithstanding a number of logistical problems that were overcome with data, was on track with a challenging timescale. A total of 33 criteria were used to assess all the sites. Officers would be sending out proformas to promoters of sites to ensure that information was correct and up to date which would be important when accessing the availability of sites.

Officers were also preparing on Infrastructure Delivery Plan to support the sites being selected for the Draft Plan.

(d)  Other Evidence

Essex County Council had undertaken an historic environment characterisation study of the District with a draft final report now received. Other evidence needing completion included ensuring that the Employment Land Review information was up to date, information for feeding into the tourism section on visitor accommodation needed over the plan period and additional work around the future of the glasshouse industry and transport accessibility work at district level.

5.    Neighbourhood Plans

The Council and the Parish have received the examiner’s report for the Moreton, Bobbingworth and the Lavers Neighbourhood Plan. The Examiner found that it did not meet the basic conditions and it was proposed that the Examiner’s report together with the officer recommendation on the way forward would be reported to the Cabinet on 21 July 2016. The report would recommend that the plan would not go to referendum. There were eight other parish and town Councils designated as neighbourhood planning areas:

(i)            Chigwell;

(ii)           Epping;

(iii)          Buckhurst Hill;

(iv)         Theydon Bois;

(v)          Loughton;

(vi)         North Weald Bassett;

(vii)        Epping Upland; and

(viii)       Waltham Abbey.

The Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy advised the Committee that they would be hitting the target date of 31 October 2016 for commencing the 6 week consultation period, he added that there would be fewer questions to answer in the consultation. He was confident that there would be fewer further amendments to make as the evidence base was detailed and exhaustive, they had demonstrated under Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning legislation that they had consulted with residents widely. The draft copy of the Local Plan would be available a week before the Cabinet meeting of 6 October for everybody to see. He reminded those present that a briefing would be held on the proposals for the Local Plan consultation on 28 July 2016.

RESOLVED:

That the recent progress made on the Local Plan be noted.