Agenda and minutes

(5 minutes)

Welcome from the Chair of the Council, Cllr Liz Hardman

The Chair of Council welcomed everyone to the meeting.

1.  Parish Charter and Parish Liaison Surveys (5 mins)

Alison Wells Community Engagement Officer

2.  The Energy in Your Community Project (10 mins)

Ellie Bryant – Project Manager for the BANES Community Energy Network

3.  The Local Plan and Rural Communities (10 mins)

George Blanchard – Senior Planning Officer

Mandy Bishop, Chief Operating Officer, B&NES Council gave the following update:

1.  There had been a full inspection of Children’s Services.  The report would be available on 28 July.

2.  A corporate peer challenge review organised by the Local Government Association had recently taken place.  There had been positive feedback about the work of the Council with partners and communities and a full report would be available in September.

3.  Following the election for the WECA mayor Helen Godwin in May, there was a re-set in relations with the constituent authorities and the leader of B&NES, Cllr Kevin Guy, had been appointed as Deputy Mayor.

4.  The Council would be having some senior leadership changes:

a.  Will Godfrey would be retiring as Chief Executive at the end of January.

b.  A new Director of Children’s Services, Jean Kelly, had been appointed.

c.  Mandy Bishop had been appointed as Chief Executive of North Somerset Council.

5.  English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill – this bill aimed to move decision making closer to residents and included neighbourhood governance suggestions. 

Alison Wells, Community Engagement Officer gave a brief update on the recent Parish Charter and Parish Liaison Surveys:

1.  A survey had been sent to Parish Councils in relation to the redrafted Parish Charter.  7 comments had been received, and an updated document would be circulated.

2.  Parish Councils had been consulted about their views on the location of Parish Liaison meeting.  10 responses had been received, 7 favoured Keynsham as a location, 4 for all meetings and 3 for a mixture of in person and online meeting.  There was a vote by those present, and the majority favoured all meetings being in person.

Ellie Bryant, Project Manager for the BANES Community Energy Network, gave an update on the Energy in Your Community Project.  A copy of the slides would be circulated after the meeting.

Richard Daone, Deputy Head of Planning Policy, gave an update on Local Plan – pre-options engagement.  A copy of the slides would be circulated after the meeting.

(60 minutes)

World Café discussion around tables with prompt questions about the Local Plan supported by teams from the Council’s Sustainable Communities Directorate.

A ‘World Café’ style session was held to give Parish/Town Councils the opportunity to meet officers.  The topics chosen were issues that ALCA and Parish representatives agreed on:

Topic 1 – Local Plan

The Parish Councils were asked to identify aspirations and challenges.

Table 1

1. There is pressure to build extra homes but if agricultural land is used, how do you feed people?

Response - one way would be to avoid building on the best agricultural land to minimise impact.  Need to balance competing priorities.

2. If you just to retain the best agricultural land, will farming become more intensive – using chemicals etc?  My solution is that you shouldn’t just look at best land for growing food. 

Response – the Local Plan does not have much control over agriculture land.

3. Buildings can be designed to a greater density in urban areas rather than rural areas.  This may be a solution to housing demand. 

4. There are restrictions to developments in Bath due to world heritage site status.

5. There is a lot of student accommodation in Bath.  Does this count towards housing figures?

Response – yes, it did count in terms of overall figures but not on a one-to-one ratio.

6. Housing should be on brownfield sites in sustainable locations. 

Response - agreed, but there is also a shortage of housing in villages.

7. Housing was needed in villages but there needed to be limits to development in rural areas and housing needed to be affordable/social housing.  There was a demand for smaller units for younger people/older people.

8. There also needed to be employment opportunities in rural areas.
   
   
9. The emphasis is on building new houses, but we should be making better use of existing stock. 
   
   
10. Developments should include green spaces and infrastructure.  Other countries build communities rather than just houses. 

11. What about the proposal for parts of the green belt to be grey belt and the impact for rural areas?
    Response – this needed to be assessed, but even if they met the criteria for grey belt, they won’t necessarily be identified for development.  The assessment should be shared with Parish Councils.

12. B&NES no longer has a 5-year land supply, and this is an important issue for rural communities.  It will be difficult to resist development.
    Response – this makes it even more important to develop a new Local Plan and we need to do this as quickly as possible.

13. Any delay in the Local Plan process with make rural villages at risk of speculative development.  Can B&NES lobby Government?
    Response – B&NES along with a number of other local authorities has written to the Government. 

14. The quality of housing is at risk when building is done quickly.  What about the infrastructure?  Concerns the planning system won’t be able to cope with increased demand.  Will there be enough builders?  Can targets be achieved if housing is not built on time? 

15. Will B  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

(5 minutes)

The Chair of Council will close the meeting.

The Chair of the Council paid tribute to Mandy Bishop as this would be her last meeting before taking up her new role.  She advised that as well as her positive impact on B&NES as a whole, she had made a particular contribution to Parish Liaison meetings by making them more interactive.

The Chair closed the meeting and thanked everyone for attending.

(5 minutes)

Wednesday 15 October 2025 – Community Space, Keynsham or Online

The date of the next meeting was noted as follows:

Wednesday 15 October 2025 at Keynsham Community Space.