Meeting documents

Any changes will be reported at the meeting.

There were none

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2016, copy attached as an appendix.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2016 be approved as a correct record.

Members to declare any interests.

To consider the report attached as an appendix.

Contact Officer: Peter Williams 01296 585208

Before the start of the formal part of the agenda, the Chairman allowed 2 Members, Cllrs J Brandis and W Whyte, to address the committee with regards to the new settlement and demand arising from Milton Keynes, the loss of identity to Haddenham, challenging unmet housing need, the distribution of development across the Vale, the implications of the Oxford/Cambridge Expressway and cross border impacts of development.

At the last meeting of the VALP Scrutiny Committee held on 7 November 2016, Members had requested that officers summarise the main issues to be addressed and the main points of GL Hearn’s reports and bring back to this meeting for discussion.

It was noted that following AVDC’s response to the draft Wycombe Local Plan, a workshop had been undertaken involving representatives of the Bucks Councils to evaluate the potential extra capacity. As a result of discussions at the workshop and a response on the report from Wycombe DC, GL Hearn had now concluded that the unmet need figure of 1700 dwellings "represents a reasonable basis to progress with in terms of the scale of unmet need at the current time". A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) had now been agreed with Wycombe DC to formalise acceptance of the figure based on current evidence. However, the figure of 1700 dwellings could still be subject to change if other evidence were to be put forward.

In addition GL Hearn had been commissioned to prepare a report to consider the potential for further housing need to be met in the Chilterns/South Bucks area. Their unmet need had been estimated to be 5,800 dwellings. A workshop had also taken place with Chiltern/South Bucks DCs and a draft confidential report had been supplied to them. The report did not identify a specific figure for further potential capacity but stated "It is unlikely that the current unmet need figure will remain at 5,800 dwellings". The actual figure would be arrived at through further cooperative working. It was hoped that the MOU with Chiltern/South Bucks would be agreed soon and be on AVDC’s website in due course. It was also hoped to have the figures on AVDC’s website by January 2017 and certainly before the Scrutiny Committee met again in March 2017. If this was not to be the case, it was suggested that information could be supplied as a confidential part of the agenda.

Milton Keynes were considering their next plan and it was hoped that all their housing needs could be kept within MK’s boundaries. A representation had been made to the London Plan emphasising the need to consider Green Belt (GB) land for development as in this area. Members were concerned that the Vale could be seen as a "dumping ground" for other authorities who didn’t want to release GB land. They were particularly concerned with Bucks CC’s views regarding GB land in the south of the county. However, it was pointed out that BCC were only a consultee and had no final say in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.