Isle of Wight Council Consultation Statement
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Isle of Wight Council Consultation Statement to support the review into Island Plan Core Strategy policy SP2 (Housing) March 2015 Consultation Statement To support the review into Island Plan Core Strategy policy SP2 March 2015 Page intentionally left blank 2 Consultation Statement To support the review into Island Plan Core Strategy policy SP2 March 2015 Contents 1. Introduction 5 2. SP2 Review Regulation 18 Consultation 7 3. SP2 Review SA/SEA Scoping Consultation 11 4. SP2 Review HRA Background Report Consultation 13 5. Quarterly meetings with elected members 14 6. AAP Informal Discussion Document Consultation 15 7. How the main issues identified through consultation have been 17 addressed Appendix 1 Full list of Regulation 18 & SA/SEA Scoping consultation recipients Appendix 2 Example of Regulation 18 & SA/SEA Scoping consultation correspondence Appendix 3 Further Regulation 18 & SA/SEA Scoping consultation correspondence Appendix 4 Summaries of individual Regulation 18 representations Appendix 5 SP2 Review HRA Background Report Consultation correspondence Appendix 6 Quarterly meeting agenda Appendix 7 AAP Informal Discussion Document Consultation advert Appendix 8 Summaries of relevant AAP Informal Discussion Document Consultation responses Figures and Tables Figure 1.1: Event timeline Table 2.1: Targetted stakeholder types and examples Table 2.2: Categories of responses to the consultation Table 3.1: Summary of SA Scoping consultation representations and the council’s responses Table 5.1: Dates of quarterly meetings 3 Consultation Statement To support the review into Island Plan Core Strategy policy SP2 March 2015 Page intentionally left blank 4 Consultation Statement To support the review into Island Plan Core Strategy policy SP2 March 2015 1. Introduction 1.1 The Island Plan Core Strategy was adopted in March 2012, having been found sound by an independent Planning Inspector. The Isle of Wight Council is now undertaking a review of the core strategy strategic housing policy, SP2, to establish whether the adopted quantum and distribution is appropriate and deliverable. 1.2 As the process for undertaking a review of an adopted policy is the same as the process for a development plan document, this document has been prepared in accordance with the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) (Amendment) Regulations and sets out how the council has consulted through the SP2 review process to date, provides a summary of the main issues raised by those representations and how they have been addressed. 1.3 The consultation associated with preparation work has been undertaken in accordance with the council’s Statement of Community Involvement (SCI), and because the review into SP2 is a standalone policy review this has been applied in what the council believes to be an appropriate and proportionate manner. 1.4 The councils’ Local Development Scheme (LDS) was published in January 2014, and this version of the LDS was the first to profile the SP2 review. 1.5 The SP2 review has also drawn on a number of other sources of information outside of the dedicated statutory SP2 review consultation process, and these are set out in this document. Figure 1.1 overleaf sets out the timeline of the council’s various consultation and partnership activities relating to the SP2 review from its inception through to this consultation stage. 1.6 As the review progresses through the formal stages, this document will be updated reflect the further work undertaken and the requirements of the regulations. 5 Consultation Statement To support the review into Island Plan Core Strategy policy SP2 March 2015 Figure 1.1: Event timeline 21.03.2012 Island Plan Core Strategy adopted 02.05.2013 New IWC elected 04.06.2013 IWC re-joins PUSH 09.2013 IWC joins Solent Transport 20.10.2013 First AAP Quarterly Meeting 28.11.2013 SP2R on AAP Quarterly Meeting Agenda 01.2014 Revised SCI Published 01.2014 Revised LDS Published 10.01 – 17.02.2014 SP2R Reg 18 & SA/SEA Consultation 17.02 – 24.02.2014 SP2R Reg 18 & SA/SEA Consultation Extension 28.01.2014 PUSH SHMA Published 23.05 – 07.07.2014 AAP Informal Discussion Document Consultation 09.10.2014 IW SHMA Published 30.10 – 03.11 2015 Natural England HRA Background Consultation 27.01.2015 DtC Letter sent 03.2015 SP2R Reg 18 Further Consultation 6 Consultation Statement To support the review into Island Plan Core Strategy policy SP2 March 2015 2. SP2 Review Regulation 18 Consultation to date 2.1 The council wrote to a range of targeted stakeholders to launch the SP2 review regulation 18 and Sustainability Appraisal / Strategic Environmental Assessment (SA/SEA) Scoping consultation, and the types of stakeholders (with examples) are set out in Table 2.1 below, with a full list of recipients in Appendix 1. The consultation period ran from 10 January 2014 until midday Monday 17 February 2014. A bespoke consultation letter was sent to each type of consultee, and an example of one of the consultation letters can be found in Appendix 2. 2.2 The public consultation was open for anyone to respond to, but to ensure that the consultation was relevant and proportionate, the notification of the regulation 18 consultation was ‘targeted’ to those that the local planning authority considered may have an interest in the subject 1. 2.3 Through the extensive consultation 2 undertaken as part of the core strategy process, the council had established an extensive consultation database (beyond the specific consultation bodies). The decision was made to notify all individuals / groups on the database of the SP2 review consultation and to invite them to make representation, as it was considered that this represented a reasonable effort to notify those who may have an interest in the review. 2.4 This resulted in over 1700 individuals and organisations being notified (by email wherever possible) of the consultation and invited to respond, and the types of individuals / groups (along with examples) are set out in Table 2.1. Table 2.1: Targeted stakeholder types and examples Type Example Number on database Specific Environment Agen cy, Marine Management 32 Consultation Bodies Organisation, neighbouring councils, utility providers, sub-regional organisations General Community and interest groups 82 Consultation Bodies Resident / other Residents that had previously commented on the core 1249 persons strategy, SHLAA site owners Elected IWC Councillors, Parish and Town Councillors 73 representative Agents / developers Agents / developers 258 IWC colleagues Managing Director, Economic Development, Waste 7 Strategy 1701 2.5 The original consultation correspondence included a request to send representations to an email or postal address. During the consultation period it was brought to the council’s attention that the email address given to send representations to was incorrect. In light of this all consultees were notified of the error on 12 February and given the correct email address. To ensure that providing an incorrect email address did not prejudice respondents, the council also extended the consultation period by a week, giving a closing date for 1 As set out in Regulation 18(2)(a-c) of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended) 2 Along with Appendices A, B and C 7 Consultation Statement To support the review into Island Plan Core Strategy policy SP2 March 2015 representations of midday Monday 24 February 2014. A copy of this correspondence is in Appendix 3. 2.6 The consultation letter posed a specific question, which was To what extent, if at all, do you consider that there is other evidence or information that should be produced to support a review of policy SP2? If you do, can you please provide information on what that is and why it is needed? 2.7 A total of 53 representations were received on the SP2 review regulation 18 consultation. Summaries of each individual representation are set out in Appendix 4. Whilst the scope of the consultation was well-defined (i.e. covering a standalone policy review), the representations raised a range of issues that, whilst related to the review, were not necessarily directly relevant. Therefore, to assist in the analysis and to help in the understanding of whether the issues raised should be addressed, and if so how, the representations were broken down into four categories 3 (as shown in Table 2.2). Table 2.2: Categories of responses to the consultation Category Description SP2 related this was recorded where a response made comments directly in relation to the housing number figure Spatial distribution this was recorded where a comment relates to the distribution of housing, including comments on boundaries and settlement gaps Infrastructure this included comments made in relation to flooding, flood risk and drainage Other includes references to employment, unemployment etc and areas that could not be readily identified as one of the other 3 categories above SP2 related 2.8 There were more responses recorded against SP2 than to any other category, with 32 responses. Of these the majority (22) expressed support for a review of the existing SP2 total quantum and the distribution within the overall figure. However, opinion was split over what the outcome of the review should be with nine responses indicating the existing quantum was too high, whilst eight recommended that the review should be informed by objectively assessed evidence. 2.9 The main issues for this category can be summarised as being: • The current SP2 figure is too high; and • The SP2 review should be informed by an object assessment. 2.10 In light of these main issues, the council undertook a Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) and update, which were published in August 2014. This enabled the council to identify its objectively assessed requirements in relation to housing on the Island, which was critical to the SP2 review process.