Agenda item

Members considered the revisions to the draft Local Plan that were being proposed for public consultation. They acknowledged that the Local Plan was a statutory document which had to be assessed by an independent inspector and should be evidence based. The proposals also should support the Council’s Corporate Plan priorities, meeting the priority to promote inward investment and job creation. Together with the Council’s newly adopted Economic Growth Strategy, it should set the framework for achieving the Council’s economic ambitions.

The Plan made provision for new housing to meet local needs and to support the growth of the workforce, and support the provision of key new infrastructure. The report presented to Cabinet set out key updates of the evidence base for the Local Plan process; and indicated key changes that were being proposed for consultation as revisions to the Preferred Option Local Plan. Those key changes (set out in Annex 1 to the report) were:

•  The identification of additional sites to meet the increased housing required by Government policy;

•  Sets out the Council’s current position on the future of the Manston Airport site when considered beside the evidence currently available;

•  Identification of key road schemes to be provided alongside development (more localised road schemes are being developed as the plan progresses);

•  To invite proposals for sites to be considered as Local Green Space within the Local Plan (it is important that parish and town councils put forward proposals that may be emerging in their neighbourhood plans);

•  Amended location for the proposed Thanet Parkway station following evidence from the Thanet Parkway Project Board;

•  Proposals for adopting new national technical standards in relation to water efficiency; internal space standards and accessible and adaptable accommodation.

Cabinet also considered the Overview & Scrutiny Panel recommendations which were:

1.  Include specific recommendations in the consultation that underline the inclusion of potential aviation use as part of a mixed use scenario;

2.  Should explicitly explain that evidence produced during the coming phases of consultation can still be considered between now and examination in public; and

3.  Further reviews be conducted to the rejected list to get extra space for housing development in order to minimise the use of green fields.

In response to the Panel recommendations Cabinet made the following comments:

1.  Draft Policy SP05 (relating to the Airport site) requires “Design and Heritage statements to include links to the sites heritage to support tourism in Thanet, including consideration of proposals that would permit a limited element of aviation use”, subject to number of flights being below the threshold that would require a statutory licence; (this does not preclude the application for a statutory licence);

2.  I can confirm that evidence produced during the coming phases of consultation can still be considered between now and the examination in public. There is also the opportunity for people to present evidence to the independent Inspector at the Examination in due course; and

3.  The sites have been assessed in relation to the brownfield land point, but a further review would be undertaken prior to submission of the draft Plan to the Inspectorate for Examination.

The following Members spoke under Council Procedure Rule 20.1:

Councillor Bayford;

Councillor Game;

Councillor Partington;

Councillor Rev. S. Piper

Councillor Savage;

Councillor K. Gregory;

Councillor L. Piper;

Councillor Taylor-Smith;

Councillor Rusiecki.

Councillor L. Fairbrass proposed, Councillor Wells seconded and Cabinet agreed that:

1.  The proposed revisions to the draft Local Plan, and the accompanying Sustainability Appraisal and related appraisal documents, go out to the public for consultation purposes for a period of 8 weeks, and

2.  The appropriate amendments to the Local Development Scheme be actioned.