Issue - meetings

The purpose of this report is to consider recommendations to carry out a further public consultation focussed on changes to the proposed housing site allocations for Haslemere in the Pre-submission version of LPP2, before it submits the plan to the Secretary of State for its examination; and the Council submits to the examination other changes to the Pre-submission version of LPP2 that are not subject to public consultation following the submission of the plan to the Secretary of State.

Recommendation

2.1     That the Executive considers the comments and observations of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and makes the following recommendations to full Council:

1)    That Council agrees the changes to the Pre-submission version of LPP2, set out in the Addendum attached as Annexe 1 to this report concerning the proposed housing site allocations in Haslemere and that the Council undertakes a public consultation on the Addendum for a period of 6 weeks under Regulation 19 of the Local Planning Regulations.

2)    The Council agrees that the schedule of other minor changes to the pre-submission version of LPP2 that have not been the subject of public consultation, set out in Annexe 2 to this report, be submitted to the examination of LPP2.

3)    The Head of Planning and Economic Development be authorised to formally request that the Local Plan Examination Inspector recommends further main modifications to LPP2, if the Inspector considers that they are necessary to make the plan sound and/or legally compliant.

4)    The Head of Planning and Economic Development be authorised to make any other minor modifications to the Pre-Submission version of LPP2 with regard to factual updates and corrections before the Plan is submitted for its examination.

Councillor Andy MacLeod, Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy, Services and Brightwells introduced the report which sought approval for a further focussed consultation on the housing site allocations in Haslemere, prior to submission to the Secretary of State.  He thanked the officers involved for their work in producing the documents before the Executive for consideration and advised that a special meeting of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee had taken place on 20^th September to consider the proposals.  There had been broad support for three of the four recommendations, which proposed minor amendments and delegations to officers for procedural matters.  The focus of the debate had been on the proposed changes to the pre-submission version of the Local Plan Part 2 (LPP2) regarding the housing site allocations in Haslemere. 

Councillor MacLeod advised that a change had been proposed to the site allocations in Haslemere following the consultation, to replace the Redcourt site with a site at the Royal Junior School in Hindhead.  The Redcourt site was due to deliver 50 houses, whereas the Junior School site could deliver around 90 houses.  Although there had been no overall consensus, some members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had suggested including both sites, however the Executive were of the view that the Redcourt site should not be included as it had been refused by the Western Planning Committee on 20^th July.  An appeal against the decision would be considered by a planning inspector at an inquiry on 16^th December. 

Councillor Mulliner spoke on the item, highlighting the need to separate sites from the applications relating to them as they were often of varying quality.  He sought clarification from the Portfolio Holder on what would happen if more objections to the Royal School site were received than to the Redcourt site. He expressed concern that if the Redcourt site was allowed at appeal, that the other part of the site would be developed in addition to the Royal School site.

In response the Portfolio Holder advised that any site included in the LPP2 would need to be deliverable and the reason for choosing the site had not been because of the number of objections received.  The Head of Planning advised that planning permission for the Redcourt site had been refused on the grounds of the impact on the Area of Outstanding Natural Beaty and the Area of Great Landscape Value, which had brought the deliverability of the site into question.  If the Council agreed to go out to a further consultation, all comments received would be assessed and officers would bring a recommendation back to Members for consideration.

Councillor Hyman spoke on the item, seeking clarification on whether the delegated authority being recommended could be granted and whether the appropriate assessments had been carried out in respect of protected habitats and expressed concern that the approach was unlawful.

In response, the Leader advised that the Council’s Planning and Legal officers had confirmed that if a proposed plan was considered likely to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26