Meeting documents

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 7 September 2017.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 7 September were agreed by the PAG.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest.

None.

The Director of Resources provided Members of the PAG with information on the draft revenue budget for 2018/19. The following key points were highlighted:

·        that the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy identified 8 priority issues to address in the coming years which included financial stability owing to the end of government grants from 2017/18;

·        that there were changes to cost share for all Policy Advisory Groups but the effect on the PAG budgets overall was minimal;

·        that budget assumptions were also incorporated into the report which included an inflation assumption for salaries of 1%;

·        that all services were now shared services. The budgets for the Planning Team were for the new shared service;

·        the draft budget 2018/19 for the Portfolio was £932,000, a 16% decrease from the current year’s budget;

·        the table at 4.4 of the report explained the main changes around the budget which included savings relating to no longer providing for agency staff; and

·        risks were highlighted in the report and it was noted that a significant amount was earmarked in the reserves for the Joint Local Plan.

 Appendix A provided further detail on the budget.

Members enquired as to whether the cost of the Local Plan had increased and were advised that the evidence base continues to increase as the process goes on, requiring further funding. By way of example, the additional costs for procurement of consultants to do specialist work. It was noted that planning inspector fees and legal expenses during the examination process in particular would likely increase costs.

The report examined changes and proposed issues to be included in the Council’s response to the government consultation on the draft Airports National Policy Statement (NPS), which was their second consultation on the NPS this year. It was noted that the Council’s official response would be considered by Cabinet prior to submission. Changes to the NPS were detailed in the report and the most significant change to the NPS was said to be resulting from analysis of the 2017 Air Quality Plan, as well as updates to passenger demand forecasts which makes airport expansion more imperative.

Members questioned as to whether the proposed flight routes would increase air traffic over Burnham and Beaconsfield, and the PAG were advised that the flight routes previously proposed had been reassessed and that officers were waiting to find out the new air traffic routes. The NPS indicated a potential air traffic problem in the Burnham Beeches area and Members were informed that the Council had commissioned air quality consultants to assess this. Heathrow offered to assess the anticipated air traffic problem although this did not meet the Council’s timetable.

Members were advised that Spelthorne had proposed a light rail system as Heathrow were looking to increase service to the airport, and proposed stations within South Bucks if the Council so wished.. It was noted that the construction camps would be on the southern side of the M4.

The Council had decided not to prepare a joint response with Bucks County Council (BCC) to the consultation as BCC had different priorities they wanted to feed back in the consultation.

None.