Audio Recording

The Chairman explained that the meeting would be conducted in accordance with the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panel (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 No. 392.

The Chairman welcomed all Members, officers and members of the public to the meeting.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chairman will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

(c)          Where it is possible that a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that the Member might be predetermined or biased the Member should declare their predetermination or bias and then leave the meeting while that item is considered.

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

No interests were declared.

The Chairman paid tribute to all officers of the planning policy team who had been involved in putting the Local Plan together and their tremendous efforts during a particularly difficult year.  He spoke about the raft of new approaches and policies that the new administration had wanted to incorporate into the new Local Plan when meant officers having to work to a radically different strategy and the fact that they had produced such a robust and positive local plan was a real tribute to them.

Reports and Appendices i to vi published 15 January 2021.

Appendices vii and viii to-follow.

Additional Appendices published 15 January 2021

The Planning Policy Officer introduced the report which set out the progress made to-date with the Local Plan Review document and presented headlines for the final pieces of remaining evidence that had now been completed in full.  She referred to the pre-submission consultation draft local plan which was set-out at Appendix I of the report.  The Planning Policy Officer stated that if approved at Full Council on 3 February 2021 the documents would then be consulted on later that month.  The Planning Policy Officer outlined the four recommendations for approval contained in the covering report for Members.

The Chairman moved the four recommendations in the report, and these were seconded by the Vice Chairman.

The Chairman invited Members to ask questions.  The Panel debated the proposals and the Planning Policy Officer and the Senior Planning Officer gave points of clarification where necessary. 

Concern was raised that the transport modelling document was not available.  The Chairman stated that the document would be available late Spring 2021.  He explained that following previous modelling work with Kent County Council (KCC) Highways and Transportation they were confidant that it would not throw-up any major problems.  A Member agreed to speak to officers outside of the meeting about further questions he had relating to transport modelling and air pollution. 

In response to a query from a Member, the Head of Planning Services advised that windfall sites could only be included for the later years of the plan.  The Planning Policy Manager explained that that approach could be justified as they had a strong record of windfall sites which also included smaller sites.

Some Members raised concerns about the proposed development at Teynham which they considered was unfair on local residents and did not consider a bypass was the solution to traffic congestion which could lead to more development in the surrounding area.

Recommended:

(1)      That the summaries for the remaining evidence for the Local Plan Review be noted.

(2)      That the addendum to the Statement of Community Involvement that sets out how the Council will address Covid-19 related restrictions in light of the usual need to have hard copies of documents available for inspection.

(3)      That the Local Plan Review pre-submission draft and accompanying documents as set-out in Regulation 22 and commend them to Cabinet for approval for the purposes of public consultation and submission to the Secretary of State in accordance with the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.

(4)      That delegated authority be given to the Planning Policy Manager and Head of Planning Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning to agree minor amendments to the documents that are non-material prior to submission and during the course of the examination if required be granted.