Meeting documents

Councillor D Johncock (Cabinet Member for Planning) presented this report which represented the Development Brief for Slate Meadow, one of the five sites reserved in the Council’s Core Strategy 2008 as a location for future development (Policy CS8).

The Development brief featured a considerable number of amendments effected as a result of comments received during the extensive public consultation and liaison group meetings. Where changes had not been made in response to public suggestions, explanations ‘why not’ were featured.

Members made a number of points and received clarification on a number of queries as follows:

·         The Development Brief was being put in place now so that the Council had robust guidance in place before developer applications were received;

·         In respect of the Transport Measures 4.7 featured in the Brief and specifically in regards to the Stratford Drive / Brookbank T junction this was currently in fact NOT working over capacity and could cover the traffic movements from up to 200 more housing units;

·         The mention of 200 units in respect of this junction did not mean that figure would necessarily be delivered at the site, the Brief (as with all such briefs) did not indicate specific numbers;

·         Members expressed concern regards the possible flooding of developed units despite the considerable Environment Agency input to the Brief’s development; and

·         The fact that precise infrastructure could not be outlined at this stage without the developer contributions being assessed, which would not occur until applications were received and processed.

The Cabinet Member for Planning asked that the amendments in respect of 4.7 be noted and that delegated authority be given to the Head of Planning to proof read the Development Brief before final publication in respect of minor editorial changes and corrections.

The Cabinet Member also placed on record his thanks for the work of officers and the Liaison Group members in delivering this important document.

The following decision was made as land at Slate Meadow was reserved for future development under the Council’s Core Strategy. Cabinet has previously agreed that the reserve sites need to be released for development to meet the current development needs of the District, particularly for housing.

The development brief contained detailed planning guidance that would be a material consideration when planning decisions were made on planning applications in this area.  The guidance was site specific and therefore more detailed than the current policy framework in the Development Plan. The brief would help co-ordinate future development and the provision of infrastructure.  It was therefore important to the quality of the final development to have an up-to-date development brief.

RESOLVED That (i) the Slate Meadow Development Brief be adopted as planning guidance for the area, with

(a)  The first sentence of Paragraph 4.7 of the Site Development Brief be amended to read:

"The Stratford Drive/Brookbank T-junction currently operates within capacity." and the words "and is likely to require junction improvements" be deleted.

And (b) The second sentence of Paragraph 4.7 of the Site Development Brief be modified to read:

"an assessment in relation to the site access into the site from Stratford Drive was carried out by WYG Transport in 2015 and confirms that the T-junction is suitable to serve 150 units." and

(ii) delegated authority be given to the Head of Planning to tidy the Development Brief before final publication in respect of minor editorial changes and corrections.

It was requested by the Members concerned, that two of the Cabinet Members were to be noted as abstaining from voting in respect of this resolution.