Appendix A Annual Monitoring Report Executive Summary 1. This is the first Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) prepared by Leicestershire County Council under the new Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. It contains information on the implementation of the Minerals and Waste Development Scheme and the extent to which the Policies set out in the Leicestershire Minerals Local Plan and Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Waste Local Plan are being achieved. 2. The Report has two main functions: i. To review progress in terms of the Leicestershire Minerals and Waste Development Scheme against the timetable and milestones. ii. To assess the extent to which policies in local development documents are being implemented and to set out, where necessary, whether policies are being amended or replaced. Key Aspects of the Local Development Scheme 3. The Council’s first Minerals and Waste Development Scheme (MWDS) was approved by the County Council Cabinet in March 2005 and became effective on 4th June 2005. 4. Work commenced on Minerals Development Documents during 2004/5 and an Issues and Options Report was subsequently prepared for consultation in June/July 2005 in accordance with the MWDS milestones. Further progress will however be delayed, primarily due to staffing problems. 5. Work commenced on Waste Development Documents at the end of 2004. Consultants engaged by the County Council carried out an extensive exercise to develop a substantial body of evidence from which relevant issues were identified. An Issues and Options Report was subsequently prepared for consultation in June/July 2005 in accordance with the MWDS milestones. Further progress will however be delayed, principally so that due account can be taken of the emerging Joint Municipal Waste Strategy, but also due to the greater than anticipated workload involved in identifying and assessing potential waste management sites. 6. Work commenced on the Statement of Community Involvement in November 2004. Stakeholder and community consultation was undertaken during March and April 2005 and a Draft Statement of Community Involvement was published for consultation in June/July 2005 in accordance with the MWDS milestones. Submission will need to be put back, however, to take account of greater than anticipated workload and 1 the need for re-consultation involving parish councils in adjacent authorities. 7. Consultation on Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Reports for the Minerals and Waste Development Documents took place between March and May 2005 in accordance with the MWDS milestones. Key Aspects of the Policy Performance 8. There are a number of mandatory core indicators prescribed by the Office of the Deputy PM. Information has been provided in respect of these where information is available. 9. No other indicators are stated in this AMR because the new policies are still being formulated. It is envisaged that the Council’s preferred options and the related policies will be ready for consultation next year. Preparation of the policies will require clear objectives which will ‘feed’ into identifying relevant indicators. 10. A number of contextual indicators are being developed to assist in the understanding of some of the sustainability effects of the Development Plan Document policies. The Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Reports identified some potential indicators. 11. This report provides a brief outline of minerals and waste developments for Leicestershire in 2004/5, including the latest available mineral and waste data and information regarding major new developments. 12. This report also outlines the County Council's future intentions regarding policies in the adopted Minerals and Waste Local Plans, together with a summary of progress related to the release of allocated sites. 2 1. Introduction 1.1 The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act which came into effect in September 2004 introduced a new plan making system. The old system of regional planning guidance, structure, local, minerals, waste and unitary development plans has now been replaced by a Regional Spatial Strategy (produced by regional planning bodies) and Local Development Documents (produced by local planning authorities including the County Council as a Minerals and Waste Planning Authority). 1.2 Leicestershire County Council was previously responsible for preparing the Structure Plan and the Mineral and Waste Local Plans for Leicestershire. It is now responsible for preparing minerals and waste development documents for the Leicestershire area (and contributing towards the preparation of the Regional Spatial Strategy for the East Midlands along with other planning authorities in the region). 1.3 The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 requires every local planning authority to produce an Annual Monitoring Report for submission to the Secretary of State. This should contain information on the implementation of the Local Development Scheme (LDS) and the extent to which the policies set out in Local Development Documents (LDDs) are being achieved. The Report should cover the period 1 April to 31 March. A final report should then be submitted to the Secretary of State by 31 December. 1.4 This Annual Monitoring Report has been prepared to report on the County Council’s position in preparation of its Waste and Mineral Development Documents. The Waste Development Documents are being prepared jointly with Leicester City Council. The waste statistics provided therefore relate to the Waste Development Framework Area, comprising Leicestershire and Leicester City. The Minerals Development Documents are being prepared for the County of Leicestershire. Rutland County Council will prepare its own minerals and waste policies for its area. 1.5 This is the first Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) to be produced by Leicestershire County Council. Whilst the first AMR is only required to address the period since the commencement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (i.e. October 2004 to the end of March 2005), Government Guidance suggests that there may be advantages in assessing the whole year 2004/05. This AMR consequently covers the period from 1 st April 2004 to 31 st March 2005. 1.6 The Annual Monitoring Report has had regard to the following: • Section 35 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (the 'Act'), which sets out the requirement for local planning authorities to produce an Annual Monitoring Report; 3 • Regulation 48 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004, which provides further details of this requirement; • Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 12: Local Development Frameworks, which sets out the Government's policy on the preparation of local development documents, which will comprise the local development framework • Local Development Framework Monitoring: A Good Practice Guide (ODPM), which explains how the requirements for local development framework monitoring can be achieved by local planning authorities. • Regulation 17 of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004 (the 'SEA Regulations'), which requires responsible authorities to monitor the significant environmental effects of the implementation of each plan or programme with the purpose of identifying unforeseen adverse effects at an early stage and being able to undertake appropriate remedial action. 1.7 Section 35 of the Act, Local Planning Regulation 48 and SEA Regulation17 require that Local Authorities must undertake five key monitoring tasks. They are required in their annual monitoring reports to: • review actual progress in terms of local development document preparation against the timetable and milestones in the local development scheme; • assess the extent to which policies in local development documents are being implemented; • where policies are not being implemented, explain why and to set out what steps are to be taken to ensure that the policy is implemented; or whether the policy is to be amended or replaced; • identify the significant effects of implementing policies in local development documents and whether they are as intended; and • set out whether policies are to be amended or replaced. 1.8 The content of the main body of this report is as follows: a. An explanation of how the preparation of the Development Plan Documents is progressing in relation to the timetables set out in the Minerals and Waste Development Scheme (MWDS). This part of the AMR considers the progress in meeting the targets and milestones set out in the MWDS. Indication is made of whether the preparation of each document is on, behind or ahead of target. If such preparation is behind target then an explanation is given and the need to up-date the MWDS is considered. Any timetable for such revision is set out. b. An analysis of policy performance. The monitoring of the Local Plan/LDD policies requires a set of targets and indicators to be 4 developed in order to assess whether the Plans objectives are being met. 1.9 A set of local development framework core output indicators has been developed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and is set out in the Good Practice Guide ‘Local Development Framework Monitoring’ (2005). All local authorities are expected to monitor these indicators which are considered to provide the basis for all Policy monitoring. Whilst it is recognised by the Government that local authorities may not be able to provide an immediate return on all of these indicators, the intention is that work towards meeting this goal should be progressed.