Visitors and members of the public who are unfamiliar with the building and procedures are advised that:

(a)      The fire alarm is a continuous loud ringing. In the event that a fire drill is planned during the meeting, the Chair will advise of this.

(b)      Exit routes from the chamber are located on each side of the room, one directly to a fire escape, the other to the stairs opposite the lifts.

(c)      In the event of the alarm sounding, leave the building via the nearest safe exit and gather at the assembly point on the far side of the car park. Do not leave the assembly point or re-enter the building until advised to do so. Do not use the lifts.

(d)      Anyone unable to use the stairs should make themselves known during this agenda item.

The Chair outlined the emergency evacuation procedure.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 13 March 2025 (Minute Nos. 742 – 748) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 13 March 2025 (Minute Nos. 742 – 748) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their families or friends.

The Chair will ask Members if they have any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) or disclosable non-pecuniary interests (DNPIs) to declare in respect of items on the agenda. Members with a DPI in an item must leave the room for that item and may not participate in the debate or vote. 

Aside from disclosable interests, where a fair-minded and informed observer would think there was a real possibility that a Member might be biased or predetermined on an item, the Member should declare this and leave the room while that item is considered.

Members who are in any doubt about interests, bias or predetermination should contact the monitoring officer for advice prior to the meeting.

No interests were declared.

The Planning Policy Manager introduced the report which set out the barriers to progressing the Local Plan in line with the current Local Development Scheme (LDS) and the options available to Members. The Planning Policy Manager highlighted the three previous decisions made in relation to the emerging Local Plan and said that the Highsted Park Inquiry had been extended to end on 31 October 2025, which meant there was a significant impact on completing the required work in line with the existing LDS.

The Chair invited Members to make comments, and these included:

·           It was important the Council continued work on the local plan;

·           the option of having a planning inspector visit the borough for a pre-discussion would be beneficial;

·           reviewing the options and timeframes, option 1 was the most sensible one as the other options required more work, would cost more and created uncertainty;

·           was the advisory visit from the planning inspectorate free?;

·           was not convinced that the Highsted Park Inquiry would be finished by 31 October 2025, but important that the Local Plan work was moved forward;

·           policy work could be progressed, but recognised any allocations would prove difficult;

·           did officers know when the advisory visit would take place?;

·           needed to ensure that any questions submitted to the planning inspectorate were the right sort of questions;

·           any policy work carried out needed to have the wording carefully considered as it was clear during inquiry hearings that some current Council policy had not been specific enough;

·           could officers gain legal advice in the early stages to check that options being progressed were the best options available to the Council?;

·           needed to include enough time to make any changes following legal advice and for the working group to consider those changes;

·           could officers provide an update to any policy relating to Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANGS)?;

·           SANGS had a lot of opportunities that were not currently being utilised and had a wider benefit to the borough, not just the area that was being developed;

·           at what point were officers looking at viability work?; and

·           could members have an updated breakdown of the progress of the evidence base?

The Planning Policy Manager responded to points raised about the advisory visit from the Planning Inspectorate and said that the visit would be free. However, any questions that were asked to the planning inspectorate needed to be in-depth and as detailed as possible to get as much information advice from the inspectorate as possible. The Planning Policy Manager said that the visit from the inspectorate could be organised as soon as possible as currently not many authorities were utilising the visits. She added that under the new system an authority was entitled to two visits from the planning inspectorate so, if needed, the Council could request another visit at a later stage if required.

In response to the workload and timescales of completing the policy work, the Planning Policy Manager said that the timescales were tight but the policy team was now  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.