Issue - meetings

Report of the Strategic Director of Place.

The Planning Policy Team Manager presented the report to members, highlighting the 62 consultee responses which had been received and the summary as set out in the report.  He drew members’ attention to the update to the National Planning Policy Framework set out at section 2 of the report and outlined the changes of relevance to the Local Plan review, and in particular, the change to the definition of local housing need and confirmation that the 2014 household projections should be used to inform the calculation of local housing need.  He also highlighted the requirement for strategic policies to have a life of a least 15 years from the date of adoption.  This could have implications for the end date of the local plan review.

The Planning Policy Team Manager made reference to the Leicester and Leicestershire Strategic Growth plan which had been approved by the Council in December 2018, outlining the elements of direct relevance to the Local Plan review.  He advised that there was no definitive boundary for the Leicestershire International Gateway, however it included areas of both North West Leicestershire and Charnwood. The Strategic Growth Plan stated that the area should accommodate around 11,000 new dwellings up to 2050, but offered no guidance on how this figure was to be split between the two areas.  The figure would need to be agreed through the duty to co-operate. 

The Planning Policy Team Manager highlighted the issues relating to employment land and the concerns of officers regarding some aspects of the HEDNA, particularly the high level of office development that was said to be required.  Officers felt it would be prudent to reconsider this issue and had commissioned the advice of consultants. 

Councillor A C Saffell highlighted the mismatch between employment and housing provision in Castle Donington in particular and the impact this had on the road network.  He commented that Junction 24 was currently the busiest in the country and the island was frequently gridlocked.  He added that the users at the gateway did not want to utilise rail for their freight so this was bringing additional lorries onto the road network.  He stated that the transport modelling had been undertaken on the original plan where all users of the gateway would be utilising the railway line and the fact that none of the users were doing so had significantly changed the way traffic would operate in that area. 

The Planning Policy Team Manager acknowledged that there would be a significant impact on infrastructure with a development of this scale and he advised that detailed traffic modelling would be undertaken with the County Council.  He added that if the model had been based on false assumptions, this would need to be addressed. 

In response to questions from Councillor V Richichi, the Planning Policy Team Manager advised that the Council had sufficient land supply globally up to 2031 to meet the requirements in the adopted local plan.  He explained that our housing need figure would have no impact on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5