Brentwood Borough Council Local Plan
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NOTICE OF EXECUTIVE DECISION The attached decision was made by the Portfolio Holder for Planning. The decision will come into force and may then be implemented, on the expiry of five working days after the publication of this notice, unless called in by the Review Committee. Signed for Assistant Director, Legal & Democratic Dated 1 November 2019 For further information please contact Member Services on 01702 318141/318179 or email: [email protected] If you would like this document in large print, Braille or another language please contact 01702 318111. EXECUTIVE DECISION BY PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR PLANNING SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO BRENTWOOD BOROUGH COUNCIL’S ADDENDUM OF FOCUSSED CHANGES TO THE PRE-SUBMISSION LOCAL PLAN (REGULATION 19) CONSULTATION 1 DECISION MADE 1.1 That a formal response to Brentwood Borough Council’s ‘Addendum of Focussed Changes to the Pre-Submission Local Plan’ consultation, as set out in the following report, be submitted within the statutory time period. 2 NAME OF PORTFOLIO HOLDER 2.1 Cllr I H Ward 3 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 3.1 None. The reasons for the decision and alternative options considered are as set out in the Lead Officer’s report (see below). The decision does not depart from Council policy and appropriate consideration has been given to any budgetary and legal implications. Portfolio Holder Signature: Date of Decision: 1 November 2019 * * * * * * * * * * * * 1 REPORT TO PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR PLANNING REPORT FROM MANAGING DIRECTOR SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO BRENTWOOD BOROUGH COUNCIL’S ADDENDUM OF FOCUSSED CHANGES TO THE PRE-SUBMISSION LOCAL PLAN (REGULATION 19) CONSULTATION 1 DECISION BEING RECOMMENDED 1.1 That a formal response to Brentwood Borough Council’s ‘Addendum of Focussed Changes to the Pre-Submission Local Plan’ consultation, as set out in the following report, be submitted within the statutory time period. 2 REASON/S FOR RECOMMENDATION 2.1 Brentwood Borough Council is part of the Association of South Essex Local Authorities (ASELA) and is working collaboratively with other authorities, including the Council, on the preparation of a Joint Strategic Plan (JSP) for the sub-region. It is important that the Council provides a formal response to Brentwood Borough Council’s planning policy consultations to ensure that the Council’s interests, including its communities, infrastructure and environment, are not adversely affected. 3 SALIENT INFORMATION Involvement in Brentwood’s Local Plan to Date 3.1 Brentwood Borough Council’s new Local Plan will replace the current saved planning policies from the Council’s 2005 Local Plan and will provide a plan for the growth and development of Brentwood’s administrative area up to 2033. 3.2 Brentwood has consulted on numerous iterations of its emerging Local Plan since 2009 to inform its current proposals; this includes a Preferred Options (2013), Dunton Garden Suburb Consultation (2015), Strategic Growth Options (2015); a Draft Regulation 18 Local Plan (2016) and a Preferred Site Allocations Document (2018). Earlier this year, Brentwood consulted on the proposed Pre-Submission version of its Local Plan which the Council provided a formal response to. The new ‘focussed’ consultation to which this report relates sets out some proposed changes to this Pre-Submission version. 3.3 Comments are now being sought solely on these proposed changes. Comments are not being sought on the parts of the Plan which remain unchanged since the consultation that took place earlier this year. 2 Local Planning Context 3.4 Both Basildon and Brentwood signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2014, under the Duty to Co-operate, to explore the concept of a potential garden village at Dunton Hills, to the west of Laindon (Basildon Borough) and east of West Horndon (Brentwood Borough). The Dunton Garden Suburb Consultation in 2015 focused on this potential cross boundary opportunity to deliver between 4,000 and 6,000 homes, together with retail and leisure uses, Gypsy and Traveller pitches, commercial buildings, open 3 spaces, local facilities and improved infrastructure routes. This MoU, however, expired on 4 February 2016 and has not been renewed (a South Essex MoU has been signed, see para 3.8 for further information). 3.5 Brentwood subsequently submitted an expression of interest for Government funding to further explore the potential for a planned garden village in the borough around Dunton Hills. In January 2017, Brentwood was selected alongside 13 other garden villages nationwide, and three garden towns, and has continued to progress its proposals for a garden village on its borders with Basildon Borough. There have not been further joint consultations on a potential garden village in this location since the initial draft proposal was published in 2015, although this proposal still features heavily in Brentwood’s Local Plan Pre-Submission Draft (Regulation 19). 3.6 Brentwood received an intervention letter from the Government in November 2017 due to delays in the plan-making process. Following a response from Brentwood setting out exceptional circumstances for these delays, in March 2018 it was confirmed that the Government would not intervene but would be closely monitoring the Borough Council’s plan-making progress. This includes monitoring compliance with Brentwood’s Local Development Scheme – the timetable that it has published for preparing and adopting its emerging Local Plan. 3.7 Basildon Borough Council is at the same stage of plan-making as Brentwood, both having recently published Regulation 19 drafts of their respective Local Plans which they propose to submit to the Government for independent examination (except for some minor proposed amendments following consultation). On the Dunton Hills Garden Village proposal, the Council responded to Basildon Borough Council’s Local Plan Publication Draft (Regulation 19) in December 2018 raising concerns around the interlinkages between both boroughs’ draft plans. This is not considered to be a Duty to Cooperate issue for Basildon per se, as any proposals at Dunton Hills are within Brentwood’s administrative area, but this raises questions regarding the cooperation between both Councils in getting to this point in their respective plan-making processes. Sub-Regional Planning Context 3.8 Brentwood Borough, as a nearby local authority, is a member of the Association of South Essex Local Authorities (ASELA). Subsequently it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (January 2018) and a Statement of Common Ground (July 2018) committing to working jointly to prepare a vision 3 for South Essex up to 2050, of which a Joint Strategic Plan will be the main delivery vehicle up to 2038. 3.9 Although it is acknowledged that Brentwood’s draft plan precedes the delivery of the South Essex Joint Strategic Plan, there are clear commitments within selected draft policies to trigger an early review of the Local Plan, once adopted. An early review will ensure that the emerging strategic policies of the JSP can be delivered through a Local Plan mechanism in a timely way. In any case, national policy now requires that adopted plans are reviewed every five years, as a minimum. Consultation on Focussed Changes to Brentwood’s Pre-Submission Local Plan 3.10 The focussed consultation to which this report relates forms part of the Pre- Submission version of Brentwood’s Local Plan, prepared under Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) Regulations 2012. There are key tests of soundness that this draft plan will need to be assessed against as set out in Paragraph 35 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published in February 2019. These tests are as follows: a) Positively prepared - providing a strategy which, as a minimum, seeks to meet the area’s objectively assessed needs; and is informed by agreements with other authorities, so that unmet need from neighbouring areas is accommodated where it is practical to do so and is consistent with achieving sustainable development; b) Justified - an appropriate strategy, taking into account the reasonable alternatives, and based on proportionate evidence; c) Effective - deliverable over the plan period, and based on effective joint working on cross-boundary strategic matters that have been dealt with rather than deferred, as evidenced by the statement of common ground; and d) Consistent with national policy - enabling the delivery of sustainable development in accordance with the policies in this Framework 3.11 The Pre-Submission version sets out the proposed vision, strategic objectives and proposed strategic frameworks, allocations and detailed development management policies for Brentwood Borough. The Pre-Submission version is the final version of the Local Plan that Brentwood would have ordinarily submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for Examination. 3.12 The Council previously submitted a response to Brentwood’s Pre-Submission Local Plan consultation in March 2019. In summary, this response was supportive of Brentwood’s commitment to meeting its identified needs for homes, jobs and associated infrastructure within the Borough boundary, but highlighted several areas of concern, including the proposal to locate strategic scale growth at Dunton Hills. 4 3.13 Brentwood Borough Council has now invited comments on a small number of proposed changes to this Pre-Submission version. Once these changes are made, the amended version will be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for Examination. 3.14 There are five main changes being proposed to the Pre-Submission