Agenda and minutes

To receive and note any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor M Specht.

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 20 January 2016.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 20 January 2016.

Councillor R Johnson sought an update on the request at the last meeting to hold an additional exhibition in Hugglescote.  The Planning Policy Team Manager reminded members that the response at the last meeting was that there were a number of events being held in the Coalville area and the officers’ view was that there was no need to hold an additional exhibition in Hugglescote.  He felt that there was nothing more he could add to this.

It was moved by Councillor J Bridges, seconded by Councillor J Cotterill and

RESOLVED THAT:

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 January 2016 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 following the public consultation, the Planning Policy team had been assessing the responses received and considering whether any other changes were required to the Local Plan prior to seeking Council’s approval of the submission version.  He stated that officers had intended to present members at this stage with all of the comments received and all the proposed changes to the Local Plan, but due to the considerable number of comments received it was felt that it would be prudent to consider a section of the comments and convene an additional meeting to consider the remainder, in order to ensure that members had the appropriate amount of time to consider the comments made.  He advised that the report before members summarised the comments received and gave an overview of the headline changes proposed to the Local Plan.  He added that the detailed comments had been made available on the Council’s website due to their size.  He sought members’ comments on any of the proposed changes and advised that these would be noted and reported to Council in due course.

Councillor J Legrys commented that he had expected to see a direction of travel attached to the report.  He added that he had had problems accessing the background papers and as such he had not had an opportunity to consider the comments in detail.  He requested that in future it be made absolutely clear to members where any background papers were located.  He also made reference to the Ashby de la Zouch Neighbourhood Plan and expressed deep concerns on behalf of residents that this was not referred to in the report.  He asked whether consideration had been given to neighbourhood plans in this report.

The Planning Policy Team Manager advised that any neighbourhood plan would deal with the issues that were identified for that area, and it would be a matter for that neighbourhood plan to set out its policies and proposals, however in doing so, it could not conflict with strategic policies in an adopted local plan.  He added that it was a matter of fact that the Ashby de la Zouch Neighbourhood Plan would need to accord with the strategic policies in the North West Leicestershire Local Plan once it was adopted, and there was currently a clear conflict between the proposals in the Ashby de la Zouch Neighbourhood Plan and the proposals in the North West Leicestershire Local Plan, primarily in terms of the Money Hill site.  He advised that officers acknowledged that the neighbourhood plan existed in its draft form, however the Local Plan had to consider the needs of the whole of the district, not just a specific area. 

The Director of Services explained that as a planning authority, the Council had a duty to consider any neighbourhood plan in its draft form when consulted upon it.  He added that the Council’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

Mr S Stanion entered the meeting at 6.48pm