REGENERATION SERVICES COMMITTEE AGENDA Friday 10 March 2017 at 9.30 am in Committee Room B, Civic Centre, Hartlepool MEMBERS: REGENERATION SERVICES COMMITTEE Councillors S Akers-Belcher, Barclay, Cranney, Hunter, Lindridge, Loynes and Thompson 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE 2. TO RECEIVE ANY DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST BY MEMBERS 3. MINUTES 3.1 Minutes of the meeting held on 10 February 2017 (previously circulated and published) 4. BUDGET AND POLICY FRAMEWORK 4.1 Hartlepool Local Plan Submission Document – Director of Regeneration and Neighbourhoods 5. KEY DECISIONS 5.1 Supported Accommodation and Outreach Support for Vulnerable Young People – Procurement – Director of Regeneration and Neighbourhoods and Director of Children’s Services 6. OTHER ITEMS REQUIRING DECISION No items. www.hartlepool.gov.uk/democraticservices 7. ITEMS FOR INFORMATION No items. 8. ANY OTHER BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS URGENT FOR INFORMATION: Date of next meeting – To be confirmed www.hartlepool.gov.uk/democraticservices Regeneration Services Committee – 10 March 2017 4.1 REGENERATION SERVICES COMMITTEE 10th March 2017 Report of: Director (Regeneration and Neighbourhoods) Subject: HARTLEPOOL LOCAL PLAN SUBMISSION DOCUMENT 1. TYPE OF DECISION/APPLICABLE CATEGORY 1.1 Forms part of the Budget and Policy Framework. 2. PURPOSE OF REPORT 2.1 To seek approval to report the Local Plan to Full Council to seek permission to Submit the Local Plan, and other supporting documents, to the Secretary of State in line with Regulation 22 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012. 3. BACKGROUND 3.1 In line with the timetable within the Local Development Scheme (LDS), November 2016, and following the eight week Publication Local Plan Consultation which took place between the 9th December 2016 and the 3rd February 2017, the Council is now required to submit the Local Plan to the Secretary of State in line with Regulation 22 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 22. 3.2 Following the Publication of the Local Plan for consultation in December, the Planning Inspectorate contacted the Council and included a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which set out the terms of the Submission of the Local Plan. Part of the SLA included a requirement to provide a date on which the Council would Submit the Local Plan. In order to conform with the timetable set out within the November 2016 LDS and also to meet the deadline which was set by government to produce a Local Plan by early 2017 (advice from CLG confirmed this meant by the end of March 2017, which was 5 years since the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)) in order to avoid the potential of the government taking action against the local authority, the date of the 23rd March was agreed in the SLA to submit the Local Plan. The Local Plan which is submitted is the Publication Local Plan (which was consulted on) and this is the version of the Local Plan which will be considered by the Planning Hartlepool Local Plan Submission Report 1 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 10 March 2017 4.1 Inspector appointed to undertake the Local Plan Examination in Public, along with all of the supporting documentation including the Sustainability Appraisal, the Habitats Regulations Assessment, the Duty to Cooperate Paper, the Consultation Statements and all the other pieces of evidence base which support the Local Plan. 3.3 As part of the consultation on the Publication Local Plan 2,060 representations were received. The Consultation Statement relating to the Publication Stage of the Local Plan will be sent to the Planning Inspectorate as part of the Submission. It includes all of comments made and the officer response to those comments. It will be considered by the Planning Inspector who examines the Local Plan. The following paragraphs outline some of the key issues which were raised during the consultation. 3.4 THE PUBLICATION LOCAL PLAN MAIN CONSULTATION ISSUES 3.4.1 Minimising and Adapting to Climate Change – This section sets out the way in which Hartlepool will seek to minimise any impacts development will have on climate change and to reduce the likelihood of flooding through providing mitigation where necessary. At present there is an objection to the soundness of the plan from the Environment Agency (EA) due to the fact that the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) and Sequential Approach to sites based on an updated SFRA has not been concluded – Consultants, JBA, are currently working on an new SFRA to replace the 2010 document which will then enable a Sequential Test to be applied to sites. Officers are continuing to liaise with the EA on the issue and are confident, following discussions with EA representatives, that once the SFRA is updated and Sequential Test undertaken that the EA will remove their objection. 3.4.2 The chapter also includes the policies relating to renewable energy generation. Within the Publication Consultation the issue which generated the most representations by far was the proposal for four smaller wind turbines in the Brenda Road area to the south of Seaton Carew. This allocation had been reduced in response to the opposition at Preferred Options with the Publication version of the plan redrawing the boundary for the wind turbines to move the area away from residential areas within Seaton to the west of Brenda Road and also reduced the maximum amount of wind turbines from 6 to 4 with a maximum tip height of 99m. However, despite these changes there were 1,194 letters of objection received in response to this proposal from residents predominantly within the Seaton area. There were however also 736 letters of support received in response to the policy voicing their support for wind power as a green form of energy. This is an issue which will need to be considered by the Inspector examining the Local Plan in light of the ministerial statement on wind energy. 3.5 Infrastructure – This section includes policies for a range of key infrastructure including Strategic transport and connectivity (including the safeguarding of land for future road improvements), community facilities Hartlepool Local Plan Submission Report 2 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 10 March 2017 4.1 and services, hospital and health provision, telecommunications and utilities. 3.5.1 At Publication Stage Highways England commented on the plan with regards to highway infrastructure and capacity to support the growth of the plan. They have highlighted some additional work which is needed to draw the evidence base together into one document to enable the plan to be sound from their perspective but did note they are confident the information is there, but just not in one document. This will be produced prior to the examination to ensure their concerns are overcome. 3.5.2 One of the key proposals within this section is a proposal for a bypass to the north of Elwick Village and the construction of a new grade separated junction on the A19 at the northern Elwick entrance. The need for this highway improvement has become apparent over recent years as both the A689 and the A179 have continued to become more and more congested. Through implementing these infrastructure improvements many benefits will be experienced including reduced congestion on other roads, increased safety in the Elwick Village, increased safety on the A19 at the Elwick junctions. The cost of the these works is circa £18million and initial work including surveys and meetings with landowners is currently being funded through £600k which was secured through the Growing Places fund which will also enable the detailed design to be drawn up over the coming months. The Council is currently working with the Tees Valley Combined Authority and other funding bodies such as the Homes and Communities Agency as well as looking at its own capacity to secure funding via a loan or grant to fund the infrastructure works up front to allow development to come forward as soon as possible. The loan or grant funding would be then repaid on a pro rata and incremental basis by the developers/landowners at Elwick Road as the housing is delivered over the plan period. During the Publication consultation there was a good level of support for the proposed bypass and grade separated junction, however there were also concerns with respect to the impact this junction, and the development at High Tunstall, will have on the internal road network in the West Park area. The Local Infrastructure Plan recognises these issues, highlighting the key concerns in terms of junctions and possible mitigations which developments will need to implement. 3.5.3 Representation was also received from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) regarding the proposals under INF4 (Community Facilities) with regard to the proposals for new primary schools and the policy only requiring one form entry schools – the EFA have stated that they would only fund two form entry schools. A meeting has been arranged to meet with the EFA to discuss the matter and this issue will hopefully be resolved prior to the examination of the Local Plan. 3.6 Quality of Place – this section includes a range of policies which will help to guide the quality and design of new developments in the Borough. Where new development has an impact on the existing infrastructure policies will require mitigation and improvements to be made where appropriate. These will be secured via developer contributions and Hartlepool Local Plan Submission Report 3 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 10 March 2017 4.1 delivered through S106 legal agreements. The section also includes a policy on Compulsory Purchase Powers. There were a number of representations which related to the policies within this chapter, with the most notable being concerns from housing developers over Policy QP7 which relates to Energy Efficiency.