Agenda Item No:

North Joint Planning Committee Meeting [NNJPC]

Minutes: 22 September 2010

Council Chamber Borough Council of

(Meeting held in public)

Present for all or part of the meeting:-

Malcolm Waters, Northamptonshire County Council (Chairman)

Councillor George Blackwell, Borough Council of Wellingborough Councillor Pauline Bradbury, East Northamptonshire Council Councillor Stan Heggs, Borough Council Councillor Graham Lawman, Borough Council of Wellingborough Councillor Bob Seery, Northamptonshire County Council Councillor Chris Stanbra, Northamptonshire County Council Councillor Michael Tebbutt, Borough Council Councillor Geoff Timms, Borough Council of Wellingborough Councillor Robin Underwood, East Northamptonshire Council Councillor Alison Wiley, Kettering Borough Council

Also present: Andra Bowyer Joint Planning Unit Paul Hanson Northamptonshire County Council (minutes) Karen Horner North Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit Andrew Longley Planning Manager, North Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit Trevor Watson East Northamptonshire Council Paul Woods North Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit

There were 3 others also in attendance.

19/10 Apologies and non-attendance

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor David Brackenbury, East Northamptonshire Council, Councillor Peter McEwan, Corby Borough Council and Councillor Mark Pengelly, Corby Borough Council

20/10 Declarations of interest by Councillors

Councillor Bob Seery declared a personal interest as the Northamptonshire County Council Deputy Scrutiny Champion with responsibility for the growth agenda. Councillor Chris Stanbra declared an interest as a member of Corby Borough Council.

21/10 Minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2010

RESOLVED: The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2010 subject to Councillor Chris Stanbra being removed from the list of councillors in attendance.

22/10 Joint Core Strategy Review

The Chairman invited Karen Horner to introduce the item. She highlighted the following points: The report dealt with the implications of the coalition Government’s agenda; A workshop for technical stakeholders was held in March 2010 and copies of the outcomes of that workshop were available for members of the committee; The Committee would be asked to agree options for consultation early in the new year, and following this to agree a preferred option which would form the basis of a revised plan; A revised participation action plan was appended to the report; and The Northamptonshire Partnership Participation Principles were also appended to the report and it was recommended that the committee endorse these principles.

Members of the Committee made the following points: The next Joint Core Strategy should take account of the Northamptonshire Arc; The proposed timetable was welcomed but was felt to be challenging; People must have the opportunity to reject options and come up with something else; and The Joint Planning Unit would not have the resources to undertake a full bottom-up consultation and would have to rely on borough and district councils to find extra resources.

Karen Horner explained that a plan was in place to build up capacity for consultation by working with organisations such as ACRE and Groundwork (Young Advisor), and through developing a participation toolkit..

RESOLVED that the Joint Planning Committee: 1. Noted the feedback from the March “Place Shaping” Workshop and the four outline options arising from that, and endorsed the outline of further work as set out at paragraph 3.6 of the report; 2. Approved the revised JCS timetable set out under paragraph 3.8 of the report; 3. Noted the implications of the new Government agenda for both the current JCS review and for longer term community participation in plan making; 4. Approved the Participation Action Plan at Appendix 1 of the report as the framework for participation in the JCS review and for developing wider participation in plan making over the longer term; and 5. Endorsed the Northamptonshire Partnership Participation Principles at Appendix 2 of the report.

23/10 Reviewing Housing Requirements for North Northamptonshire

The Chairman invited Andrew Longley to introduce the item. Andrew Longley made the following points: The coalition Government wanted to encourage house building by incentivising communities rather than by setting top-down targets, although no detail was available on incentives yet; Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) had been revoked; The Core Spatial Strategy (CSS) would remain part of the adopted Development Plan; The target of 52,100 dwellings by 2021 remained in the Core Spatial Strategy; He proposed that a range of growth options ranging from higher to lower be looked at, although all would be lower than the RSS; He proposed that the existing CSS targets could still be delivered albeit over a longer period of time, and added that any locally derived targets would have to be evidence based; He suggested that the committee look at a higher level of 66,000 houses and a lower level of 40,000 houses between 2001 and 2031; He explained the housing growth scenarios set out at paragraph 7.5 of the report; and He asked the committee to agree the recommendations as the basis for a statement of intent.

The Committee made the following points: The question of low housing demand and the implications for the strategy was raised; It was felt that some areas, such as the area to the west of Corby, could not cope with extra housing; It was felt that planning a year ahead would be sufficient and if the current targets for Wellingborough were to be met, the target date would have to be put back to 2046; Growth ambition in Corby would not be scaled back at all; and Kettering had performed well and it was hoped that development to the east of Kettering would still go forward.

The Planning Manager, made the following points: Housing demand still existed and was estimated to increase after 2016 when it was estimated that mortgage availability would improve; The Core Spatial Strategy showed that west Corby was an urban extension that would be able to meet housing demand; It was necessary to plan more than a year ahead in order to attract infrastructure development; and He suggested that targets could be pulled out beyond 2026, but reasons would need to be evidenced

At this juncture, Councillor Michael Tebbutt proposed an amendment to the recommendations. Following a short discussion it was:

RESOLVED: that the Joint Planning Committee: 1. Agreed the conclusions set out in the report as a statement of intent to reassess housing requirements for North Northamptonshire through the review of the Joint Core Strategy, with reduced overall housing requirements compared to the previous RSS targets; 2. Agreed that in the interim, as a result of the recession, the existing CSS targets would need to be delivered over a longer timescale; 3. Agreed to consult on this statement and report as a means of gauging the partner planning authorities aspirations for growth and seeking views from the development industry and other stakeholders on delivery issues; and 4. Requested that the partner planning authorities take this position statement and report as material considerations for the purpose of calculating 5 year housing supply and bringing forward site specific plans.

24/10 Development Contributions Supplementary Planning Document

The Chairman invited Andra Bowyer to introduce the item. Andra Bowyer made the following points: Historically there had been a varied response to developer contributions across the area; The report proposed a series of formulas that could be used by each authority and as a decision making tool for applicants; Contributions would have to meet the legal test set out in Paragraph 3.2 of the document; and It was intended that consultation on the document would run from October to November and a revised document would then be referred to each authority to decide whether to adopt or not.

The Committee made the following points: It was asked whether the context of the SPD had been endorsed by Chief Planning Officers; It was proposed that recommendation 2 be amended to include ‘and anything significant to all members’

Andrew Longley advised the committee that the context of the SPD had been endorsed by the Chief Planning Officers.

RESOLVED: that the Joint Planning Committee: 1. Endorsed the draft Development Contributions Supplementary Planning Document for consultation; and 2. Delegated any final editing of the draft SPD to the Planning Manager in consultation with the Chief Planning Officer Steering Group and the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee, and anything significant to all members.

25/10 Supplementary Planning Document on Biodiversity

The Chairman invited Karen Horner to introduce the item. Karen Horner made the following points: The Joint Planning Unit had co-ordinated the creation of the document, which had been authored by the Wildlife Trust; Issues would be dealt with through pre-application validation; The committee was recommended to agree the document for public consultation, after which each authority would be asked to adopt the document.

RESOLVED: that the Joint Planning Committee approved the draft Biodiversity SPD for the purposes of public consultation.

26/10 Northamptonshire Arc

The Chairman invited Andrew Longley to introduce the item. Andrew Longley explained that Northamptonshire County Council had made a number of changes and clarified the status of the document in relation to the Core Spatial Strategy. He explained that the Arc informed Northamptonshire County Council strategies.

Some concern was expressed by committee members that the Arc was a top-down approach

RESOLVED: that the Joint Planning Committee 1. Noted the views of the partner local planning authorities; and 2. Instructed the JPU to work closely with NCC to ensure alignment between the Arc and the review of the joint core strategy.

There being no other business the meeting concluded at 8.35pm

Paul Hanson Democratic Support Service, Northamptonshire County Council