Issue - meetings

Meeting: 16/02/2021 - Cabinet (Item 14)

14 Princes Risborough Expansion Supplementary Planning Document pdf icon PDF 747 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

Cabinet received a report on the Princes Risborough Expansion Supplementary Planning Document (PRE SPD) which the Council had prepared following the Wycombe District Local Plan to guide development. This expands upon Development Plan policy to indicate the Council’s preferred approach to where homes, school facilities and infrastructure should be provided; how and when they should be phased, and how the development should fund this.

RESOLVED –

1)      That the Princes Risborough Expansion Supplementary Planning Document (PRE SPD), as set out at Appendices 1 to 9, be approved for adoption; and

2)      That authority be delegated to the Service Director, Planning and Environment, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement, to discuss healthcare provision and alternative sources of funding on the site with the Clinical Commissioning Group, to consult and obtain the views of Local Members, to consider alternative ways to bring forward traffic calming, and to approve any resulting minor changes, including formatting, accessibility compliance and typographical errors in the SPD and supporting documents, prior to publication.

Minutes:

W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement, introduced the report and informed Members that the Princes Risborough Expansion Supplementary Planning Document (PRE SPD) had been prepared following the Wycombe District Local Plan to guide development. The SPD expanded upon Development Plan policy to indicate the Council’s preferred approach to where homes, school facilities and infrastructure should be provided; how and when they should be phased, and how the development should fund this.

 

As the largest single housing allocation in the Wycombe District Local Plan (adopted August 2019) and in the south of Buckinghamshire the Princes Risborough Expansion Area (PREA) was a strategic development for the County comprising around 2500 homes and associated infrastructure, including two primary schools, sports pitches, and a relief road acting as a complete alternative to the A4010.

 

The Local Plan (i.e. the Wycombe District Local Plan adopted for the Wycombe Area August 2019) formed part of the Development Plan for the Wycombe area.  It set out the requirements for a comprehensive development that showed how phasing issues could be overcome and required equitable contributions from developers to provide offsite infrastructure.

 

Development proposals were determined in accordance with the Development Plan unless material considerations indicated otherwise. Policy PR17 of the Local Plan stated that the “[expansion area] development would be assessed against the Council’s capacity and delivery plans for the area”.  These documents together form the SPD.  This would form a material consideration that would be taken into account by the Local Planning Authority when determining any future planning applications for the expansion area.

 

The report set out further detailed information including on:

·                    Landholdings within the PREA.

·                    Infrastructure requirements, including phasing and development, apportionment of costs between developers, and responsibility for delivery.

·                    The structure of the PRE SPD.

·                    The extensive engagement conducted with the relevant service providers.

·                    The public consultation undertaken for 6 weeks from June 2019, which had received 180 written responses.

·                    Briefing to local Members and the Town Council, on 3 and 8 February 2021.

·                    An independent Design Review undertaken by Design South East in October 2019.

 

Following the design review the council had continued to engage with developers and explored the scope for a collaborative approach to finalise the SPD. This had frustrated earlier adoption but had been considered worthwhile given the potential to gain agreement on delivery. Unfortunately, it had not been possible to reach agreement on a collaborative approach with developers at this stage.

 

As a result of responses received throughout engagement on the SPD, a number of changes (detailed in the report) had been made to the SPD that was being recommended for adoption, compared to the 2019 draft SPD.

 

Following the consultation on the draft SPD and with input from the Highway Authority and a sub group of the Steering Group led by Princes Risborough Town Council technical work had also been undertaken to address traffic management/calming in the Mill Lane and Askett area.  This had resulted in a position statement formally approved by the Wycombe Cabinet Member for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14