Agenda and minutes

To receive and note any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor R D Bayliss.

Under the Code of Conduct members are reminded that in declaring disclosable interests you should make clear the nature of that interest and whether it is pecuniary or non-pecuniary.

There were no interests declared.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 2015.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 2015.

It was moved by Councillor V Richichi, seconded by Councillor J Cotterill and

RESOLVED THAT:

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 2015 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Terms of Reference attached.

RESOLVED THAT:

The Terms of Reference be noted.

Report of the Director of Services.

The Director of Services presented the report to members, outlining the progress made to date in respect of the draft Local Plan.  He stated that the report was intended to provide a high level understanding of the volume of responses that had been received to the draft Local Plan and some of the key emerging issues at this stage.  He emphasised that it was not intended at this stage to give the full detail, as the Planning Policy team were currently working through all the responses, and the full detail would be available to members in due course.  He highlighted the methods of communication during the consultation process, and advised that for the first time, social media applications such as Twitter had been significantly utilised to promote the consultation.  He added that it was felt this had been quite successful and was something the Council would want to continue going forward.   He highlighted that there had been 326 responses to the consultation media which had generated just under 2,000 individual detailed comments. In addition a further 424 responses had been received in the format of a standard letter.

The Director of Services made reference to section 3 of the report which outlined the issues that were being noted as a result of the consultation.  He added that a number of responses had been received which suggested either that the housing requirement figure was too high or too low, and the Council’s response to these comments needed to be considered. He advised members that responses had also been received from Charnwood Borough Council and Oadby and Wigston Borough Council in respect of the overall housing requirement, which emphasised the need to provide clear and robust evidence to support the housing requirement figure set out on the Local Plan, once this was agreed upon.  He made reference to a recent planning appeal decision in Coalville where the inspector had also made comments regarding the objectively assessed need for the district and this would need to be taken account of as part of the preparations for the Local Plan going forward, and clearly this was a key issue.  He added that the Council was already in the process of procuring some external advice from demographic experts to support the development of the housing requirement figure to be included in the Local Plan, and the appeal decision had re-emphasised the need for this work to take place prior to the Council meeting in June.

The Director of Services advised that comments had also been received in relation to the settlement hierarchy, the limits to development, and a significant number of standards responses had been received in relation to the Money Hill development in Ashby de la Zouch.  A number of people had also commented on the Council’s approach to infrastructure.  He advised that as part of the preparations, officers were already planning on preparing an infrastructure delivery plan to support the Local Plan, and a consultant had been commissioned to prepare that plan.

 
The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

The Chairman congratulated Mr M Sharp on receiving an honour in the Queen’s Honours List.

Councillor G Jones entered the meeting at 6.33 pm.