Agenda item

(Director of Neighbourhoods) report to follow.

The Consultant, Ms Blom-Cooper introduced  the Council’s response to the Draft Chigwell Neighbourhood Plan. It needed to be broadly in conformity with the Council’s own Local Plan and had to meet certain basic conditions.

Chigwell Parish Council had published its Draft Neighbourhood Plan for a period of formal public consultation which commenced on Monday 10 October 2016 and would run for six weeks, finishing on Monday 21 November 2016.  The closing date for submission of comments was 25 November 2016.  The District Council commended the Parish for the work undertaken in production of the Draft Neighbourhood Plan and sought to make a formal representation to the plan through the report on this agenda.

It was noted that the requirements that apply to plan making at the neighbourhood level were not as onerous as those required by a District Local Plan. The examination process was ‘light touch’ and considered a limited number of matters. In order to pass examination a Neighbourhood Plan must comply with the basic conditions set out in paragraph 8(2) of Schedule 4B to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as applied to Neighbourhood Plans by section 38A of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. The plan met the basic conditions if:

a)    Having regard to national policies and advice contained in guidance issued by the Secretary of State it was appropriate to make the plan;

b)    The making of the plan contributes to sustainable development;

c)    The making of the plan was in general conformity with the strategic policies contained in the development plan for the area of the authority (or any part of that area); and

d)    The making of the plan did not breach, and is otherwise compatible with, EU obligations and human rights requirements.

Officers had some concerns on sustainability on some sites, there were also concerns about the viability of a proposed local parish bus service. They have not produced a viable business case that would show this to be a sustainable service. There were also concerns about proposed alterations to the Green Belt. Some of the proposals fall into locations some distance from current settlements, which may result later on in the infilling of the two areas. Officers suggested that a critical friend review was undertaken for this plan.

Councillor Knapman said that he was worried that this Committee was asked to endorse the officers response to the draft plan. He could not believe that the committee had seen all the background documents. He was happy to have EFDC officers express their concerns, but this reports states that this was a response from ‘the Council’. This Committee was not the ‘Council’. As for the proposed bus service, EFDC have a S106 agreement where we had been granted £1million for this bus service. But as with all these services it could not be guaranteed “in perpetuity”.  He asked that this Committee just notes the officers concerns but not endorse the report. We should be having meetings with EFDC officers on the details for our Local Plan.

Councillor Philip commented that if the Select Committee wished to just note this then he was happy to do a Portfolio Holder’s report to give a response from the Council but not from the officers. The officers have gone through Chigwell’s draft plan and have provided reasoned arguments. Happy to have you disagree as this was all a learning process. The critical friend process would be a good thing to do.

Councillor Knapman responded that he did not see how a Committee who had not read our documents could make a proper decision on this. Why endorse something that could be wrong as a number of things were incorrect.

Mr Macnab noted that the Overview and Scrutiny rules allow the Committee to make these decisions on various consultations, it was in their gift and they had done it many times before. The point that officers were making on the proposed bus service was that they needed to see a business case.

Councillor Brady agreed that  members had not seen all the plans etc. but the officers feel that some parts differed enormously from the whole and we need to listen to the officers comments.

Councillor Philip noted that Select Committees had responded to consultations without seeing the whole document. We have responded to other local plans relying on officers for advice. This was probably the best way we could do this.

Councillor Whitehouse proposed that that we note rather than endorsing  this report, for the reasons given by Councillor Knapman. This was seconded by Councillor Pond. This proposal was then put to the vote and fell.

The Chairman then put the substantive recommendation from the report to the vote, which was carried.

RESOLVED:

That the points as outlined in the report as the main substance of a response to Chigwell Parish Council following publication for consultation of the Draft Chigwell Neighbourhood Plan be agreed.