Agenda and minutes

To take any questions from members of the the Public

Please note:  Members of the Public are requested to inform the Democratic Servicers Officer before the meeting begins if they wish to ask a verbal question to the Committee.

No questions were asked or had been submitted by members of the public.

Members are asked to declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests in respect of any item of business to be considered at the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made by Councillors in items on this Agenda.

The Committee is asked to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 6 September 2016 (attached) and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The Minutes of the meeting held on the 6 September 2016 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee considered and approved the ‘Your involvement in planning’ draft document for public consultation at the Licensing and Planning Policy Committee on 6 September 2016 (Minute 14 refers). The consultation commenced on 16 September 2016 and closed on Friday 28 October 2016.  The Committee are asked to agree the revised document, Your involvement in planning and recommend its’ adoption at Council

The document, Your involvement in planning, set out how the Council will engage with local community and organisations with regard to planning policy and development management.  It details how and when consultations will be carried out, and involvement of the community in both the preparation of planning policy documents and decisions on planning applications.

The draft document was approved for public consultation at the Licensing and Planning Policy Committee on 6 September (minute 14 refers).  The public consultation closed on 28 October and generated six responses.  The Committee received and considered a table of the responses from the public consultation and the revised Your involvement in Planning document incorporating a minor amendment made as the result of a comment made in the consultation.

The Committee noted that primary access to the Your involvement in planning document and the most likely method of communicating the process would be through the Epsom & Ewell website.  Members were informed that in order to ensure that no-one was disadvantaged, any issues arising from a member of the public not having access to the internet would be reported to the Chairman so that an alternative mechanism to engage with the process could be proposed.

Accordingly, The Committee agreed the revised document ‘Your involvement in planning’ and recommended that Council adopt it at the next available meeting.

This report provides an update against the Council’s Key Priority Performance Targets for 2016 to 2017, under the new Corporate Plan. The Committee are asked to consider the performance report and approve the Key Priority Performance target.

The four year Corporate Plan (2016-2020) sets out the Council’s vision together with its four key priorities.  The key priorities are underpinned by 19 key Priority Objectives and measured against 57 key priority performance targets.

The Committee received a report and supporting documents outlining the progress of performance against 13 key priority performance targets. It was noted that three targets were indicators for information only, seven targets were on track to be achieved, one item was slightly off track not a major concern or slippage, and one was off track and unlikely to be achieved in the projected year.

The following points were noted:

Completion of the pre-submission consultation on a partial review of the Core Strategy:  Due, in the large part, to the unanticipated loss of staff within the Planning Policy team the target to complete the pre-submission consultation by 31 March 2017 was not able to be achieved.  However, the Committee noted that two officers had been recruited and would be starting in January 2017.  Whilst the successful recruitment campaign would help to get projects back on schedule, the status of the target would remain off track.

Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA):  The Committee noted that the target to present the completed SHMA to the Licensing and Planning Policy Committee on 6 September 2016, had been achieved.

Planning Performance Agreements:-  The Committee noted that the target to present proposals for the implementation of Planning Performance Agreements had been achieved. 

Project plan for major planning applications:  The Committee were informed that the main purpose of this target was to ensure that major, key developments were given priority, and that adequate resources were available to enable maximum support for developers to bring forward development of town centre sites.  It was also noted that the recent recruitment of a Head of Property would facilitate the achievement of this target.

Accordingly the Committee agreed the recommendations as follows:-

(1)            The Committee noted the performance reported in the report and accompanying Annexe.

(2)            The Committee noted the actions that had been taken where performance had been a concern.

(3)            The Committee agreed the Key Priority Performance Target regarding the completion of the pre-submission consultation on a partial review of the Core Strategy.