Meeting documents

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 May, 2016, attached as an appendix.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of 10 May, 2016, be approved as a correct record.

Councillor Mrs Paternoster

Cabinet Member for Growth Strategy

To consider the report attached as an appendix.

Contact Officer: Andy Kirkham (01296) 585462

(a)       Decision(s)

(1)          That Council be recommended to approve the draft Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (VALP) for public consultation.

(2)          That Council be recommended to give delegated authority to the Forward Plans Manager, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Strategic Growth to make any minor textual amendments to the final consultation document to correct any typographical errors prior to its publication.

(b)       Reason(s) for Decision(s)

            To facilitate the delivery of a Local Plan.

(c)       Alternative Option(s) Considered

            The Cabinet report (posted on the Council’s website) summarised all the activity and evidence gathered in connection with the formulation of the draft Plan.

(d)       Relevant Scrutiny Committee

            Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan Scrutiny Committee. That Committee considered the report submitted to Cabinet at its meeting on 13 June, 2016.  The Chairman of the Committee attended and elaborated upon that Committee’s deliberations.  As this matter will be considered by full Counci, Cabinet’s recommendations are not subject to call-in.

(e)       Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

None.

Cabinet considered a report, also submitted to the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan Scrutiny Committee on 13 June, 2016, concerning the draft Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (VALP).  A copy of the draft Plan had been appended to the report submitted.

Currently, Aylesbury Vale did not have an up to date Local Plan.  The adopted Local Plan dated from 2004 and did not take account of changes in Government planning policy.  The Council had, on a number of occasions, tried to produce a replacement Plan.  The most recent attempt had, however been withdrawn following an examination in public in 2014.  Since then the Council had been working towards the delivery of a new Plan to a self imposed deadline of adoption by mid 2017, and to a Government imposed deadline for submission by early 2017.

An initial scoping consultation on the new Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan and "call for sites" had taken place in 2014, which had led to a large number of development sites being suggested across the District.  This had been followed by an issues and options consultation in 2015 which had looked at how 31,000 houses could be accommodated in the District to 2033.  The Council had received over 700 responses to the issues and options consultation containing over 4,500 comments, many of which had been very detailed.  These comments had been summarised and posted on the Council’s web site.  Where possible, the content of those responses had also been taken into account in the preparation of the draft Plan.  Similarly, comments received on the draft Plan would be considered before the Plan was finalised for pre-submission consultation.

Cabinet heard representations from two local Ward Members, the content of which was dealt with during the debate.  The Chairman of the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan Scrutiny Committee attended the meeting and elaborated upon that Committee’s deliberations.

Cabinet received a presentation from the Forward Plans Policy Team, who responded to a number of technical and factual questions.  Members commented particularly on the need to challenge robustly other authority’s calculations of unmet needs, the need perhaps for the final Plan to include a mechanism for ensuring that developers built out planning permissions within a reasonable time and the need to look robustly at the outcome of the reviews of the green belt.

After careful consideration of all the information before them, Members

RESOLVED –

(1)  That Council be recommended to approve the draft Aylesbury vale Local Plan for consultation.

(2)  That Council be recommended to give delegated authority to the Forward Plans Manager, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Strategic Growth, to make any textual amendments to the final consultation document to correct any typographical errors prior to its publication.