The Head of Environment and Leisure introduced the report setting out the interim governance arrangements and criteria for determining strategic land and sought for guidance on officer’s next steps for a piece of land.

Councillor Mike Baldock proposed an amendment recommendation 2, paragraph 2.11, second bullet point to read: it was considered to be part of a countryside gap between an edge of a town settlement and the start of a rural/village boundary. This was seconded by Councillor Monique Bonney.

The Chair invited Members to make comments on the amendment, which included:

·         Thought the previous policy worked well;

·         had concerns about changing a policy without knowing the possible financial implications;

·         not adopting certain open spaces has caused the Council problems and conflicts in the past;

·         recognised that we could not afford to take on every piece of land in the Borough;

·         having some areas as Council-owned rather than developer-owned was sometimes easier to deal with and fix problems that residents had with the shared open spaces; and

·         could an accurate audit of all Council owned open spaces be carried out to keep records up-to-date?

The Head of Environment and Leisure responded to the auditing of open spaces and said that currently he did not have the resources in-house to carry out audit work on the open spaces on a regular basis. He added that taking on more pieces of land would cost the Council more money in maintaining those pieces of land and this policy was a good way to ensure the Council did not keep unnecessary pieces of open space.

On being put to the vote the amendment was agreed.

The Chair invited Members to make comments on the report, which included:

·         Paragraph 2.1 mentioned that this strategy could take up to 12 months but hoped this could be sooner to provide evidence for the Local Plan;

·         could the cost of the external consultants be taken from the Local Plan reserve?;

·         open spaces should be looked at constantly;

·         the focus should be placed on the areas that affected the Local Plan the most;

·         the strategy should be created in 6 months, not 12 months;

·         the 2017 strategy just needed ‘refreshing’ rather than completely redesigned;

·         could a timeline be introduced so consultants had something to work towards and meet deadlines?;

·         was an audit really needed before the work on the strategy took place?;

·         if the Council were unable to conduct an audit of open spaces, the 2017 strategy along-side the Planning Policy information could help create a new strategy; and

·         officers needed to look at the information available to them and carry out the necessary work which financially worked out best for the Council.

The Head of Environment and Leisure clarified with Members that once an audit had been conducted a review of the open spaces would take place to identify pieces of land that were no longer benefitted the Council. He added that the audit process followed the Planning Policy structure, which judged each piece of land by the quality and type, so that Planning Officers could work with developers to provide the Borough with the necessary open spaces. The Head of Environment and Leisure understood Members concerns about making sure the strategy was completed sooner rather than later and agreed to work with consultants to get work started on it as early as possible.

In response to the proposed timeline, the Chief Executive said that officers were unable to commit to that as it was an unknown market with an unknown cost. She added that an option was for officers to work with Members and report back to the committee when they knew more about which organisations could deliver on the plan, and how much it would cost for the work to be done quickly. The Chief Executive said that delegation could be given to the relevant officer to undertake the necessary audit work to get the evidence required for the Local Plan, within a budget of £35,000.

Councillor James Hunt proposed an amendment to recommendation (1), that delegated authority be given to the Director of Regeneration and Neighbourhoods to undertake the necessary audit work to satisfy the policy requirements of the Local Plan within and up to a budget of £35,000, in consultation with the Leader and Deputy Leader. This was seconded and upon being put to the vote, was agreed.

Resolved:

(1)   That delegated authority be given to the Director of Regeneration and Neighbourhoods to undertake the necessary audit work, that satisfied the policy requirements of the Local Plan, within and up-to a budget of £35,000, in consultation with the Leader and Deputy Leader.

(2)   That the interim governance arrangements and criteria (paragraphs 2.9 and 2.11) for determining strategic land be agreed subject to the amendment as minuted.

(3)   That the land discussed in the exempt appendix met the new strategic criteria and officers could proceed with the necessary next steps.