Agenda and minutes

The Chair, Councillor Kevin Guy, welcomed everyone watching and participating at the virtual Cabinet meeting. The Chair made the following statement:

“Due to the ongoing Covid situation and a desire to retain a level of social distancing at Council meetings at this time, we are holding this ‘informal’ virtual Cabinet meeting to enable Cabinet, Councillors and members of the public to take part.  This virtual meeting will be conducted in the normal manner but, as any decisions made will not be legally enforceable, they will be formally made at the physically reduced, quorate decision-making meeting tomorrow on 1 April 2022.

We will review this approach for any future Cabinet meetings, in line with government and health guidance at that time.”

The Chair asked each of the Cabinet Members to introduce themselves.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There was none.

Questions submitted before the deadline will receive a reply from an appropriate Cabinet member or a promise to respond within 5 days of the meeting.  Councillors may ask one supplementary question for each question they submitted, up to a maximum of two per Councillor.

There were none.

Councillors and members of the public may register their intention to make a statement if they notify the subject matter of their statement before the deadline.  Statements are limited to 3 minutes each.  The speaker may then be asked by Cabinet members to answer factual questions arising out of their statement.

Councillor Paul May made a statement on the WECA Spatial Development Strategy, with regard to Whitchurch village [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix and on the Council's website].

The West of England Combined Authority draft Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) is scheduled to be considered by the West of England Combined Authority Committee on 8 April 2022. This meeting provides Cabinet the opportunity to consider its key priorities for the SDS.

Councillor Tim Ball introduced the report and moved the recommendations.  Councillor Sarah Warren seconded the recommendations.  In so doing, the Councillors outlined the following key priorities;

•  SDS must be good for the whole community;

•  The SDS is a strategic plan and this should be evident in the nature of the document, which must be accessible to residents and the public and must be in a format that is understood. The SDS must avoid the criticism that Inspectors had of the now withdrawn Joint Strategic Partnership;

•  The SDS should provide a robust strategic planning framework for the new Local Plan but should avoid getting into the details of issues which will be covered by Local Plans. Local Plans will be the vehicle for deciding where housing allocations go, and this is not the not role of the SDS;

•  We understand that the SDS will need to take into account the Government’s housing targets, but we expect the SDS to give as much weight to other critical priorities such as the Climate and Nature emergencies, protection of our environment as well as enabling the creation of jobs which are fit for the future and the delivery of affordable housing to meet the needs of B&NES’ residents;

•  Due to the significant scale of the challenge arising from the SDS for Unitary Authorities, we expect WECA to provide the necessary support for Unitary Authority Local Plans to ensure the right outcomes;

•  B&NES will place significant emphasis on working with our local communities in the formulation of our Local Plan and we will take into what the residents say;

•  Tackling the climate and ecological emergency is one of our core policies;

•  The SDS must provide the necessary policies and a spatial strategy which facilitates these objectives, including sustainable construction, renewable energy generation and reducing reliance on private car travel;

•  SDS must facilitate transformational change to enable major strides to be taken to move the sub-region to carbon neutrality & facilitate major cultural changes;

•  The SDS should not only seek to ensure that new growth is sustainable, but provides the opportunity to address existing unsustainable patterns of development.

•  The SDS must be underpinned by robust evidence which shows how this can be achieved, and which will also provide a firm basis for the preparation of Unitary Authority Local Plans.

RESOLVED (unanimously) to note the key priorities set out for the West of England Combined Authority draft Spatial Development Strategy (SDS).