Agenda item

To receive additional information and an update on sites in relation to the Pool of Sites Consultation (verbal report).

Please note that since these minutes were signed off at the Partnership Board meeting on 26 June 2018, a factual inaccuracy has been noted – at paragraph 6 below, the Site Allocation Local Plan consultation will take place this summer (2018), not next summer.

The Board received a presentation from the Principal Planning Policy Officer.

The Principal Planning Policy officer explained that the overall planning strategy for Selby was already in place through the ‘Core Strategy’ adopted in October 2013. This provided an overall vision and the strategic policies that broadly directed how much development should take place and where it should be located across the District, in the plan period which was 2011 to 2027.

At the adoption of the Core Strategy, the Council recognised that there were two further steps in the Local Plan preparation; to identify and allocate specific sites for future development, and prepare updated development management policies.

Members noted that this would be produced in a single document known as PLAN Selby. The Council had decided to prioritise progressing a Site Allocations Local Plan which would allocate specific sites. This was being done to:

-     Give certainty and confidence to local communities, developers and infrastructure providers.

-     Avoid ‘planning by appeal’ and continued uncertainty over delivery and infrastructure provision.

-     Help to realise the vision of the Council’s Corporate Plan for 2015-2020– identifying development sites will help to promote sustainable growth.

-     Allocate sites which would help to maintain a five year housing land supply over the plan period to 2027.

The Officer went on to explain that the pool of sites consultation document was the next step in preparing a Site Allocations Local Plan. It was a pre-publication consultation which pulled together information on all the sites that had been submitted for consideration since 2013 and asked for views on their suitability. It was intended to help the Council decide which sites would be allocated for new development in the draft plan. It was also a consultation on the assessment method and the key issues about the approach to allocating land.

The Board noted the publication draft of the Site Allocations Local Plan would be consulted on next summer. That plan would set out what sites the Council thought should go forward for development. The Core Strategy would remain as the overall planning strategy to broadly direct where new development should take place across the District. The local plans would have to accord with this strategy.

Lastly, it was noted that no decisions had been made on any of the sites except those which already had planning permission.

Following a request from the Board, the Principal Planning Policy Officer confirmed that she would be able to provide statistics as to how many responses had been received during the previous consultation in Autumn 2017.

RESOLVED:

i)    To note the presentation.

ii)  That statistic relating to the number of responses received on the previous consultation in Autumn 2017 be supplied to the Board by the Principal Planning Policy Officer.