Agenda and minutes

Councillors Lisa O’Brien and Fiona Darey had sent their apologies to the Panel. Councillors Christopher Pearce and Paul May were their respective substitutes for the duration of the meeting.

Members of the Communities, Transport & Environment Panel had also been invited to this meeting to take part in the debate relating to agenda item 9 (Joint Spatial Plan / Transport Study Update). From that Panel Councillors John Bull, Peter Turner and Bob Goodman had also sent their apologies.

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 Officer or a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

The Chairman announced that the funeral of Eric Snook, a long standing member of Bath City Council was taking place that afternoon and he asked those present to stand in silence for a few moments as a mark of respect.

There were none.

The Cabinet Member(s) will update the Panel on any relevant issues. Panel members may ask questions on the update(s) provided.

The Cabinet Member for Homes & Planning, Councillor Liz Richardson addressed the Panel, a summary is set out below.

She said that the Council were awaiting the Inspector’s report following the Examination of the Placemaking Plan that took place recently.

Councillor Barry Macrae commented that he attended one day of Examination and said that he thought our officers had done an exceptional job.

Councillor Liz Richardson spoke briefly regarding the Joint Spatial Plan as a fuller debate was scheduled for later in the meeting. She explained that the current document was a pre-draft version and that consultation on it was due to begin in November. She added that events have been planned as part of the consultation with a number drop in exhibitions due to be held across the Council with specific events already planned for Whitchurch and Keynsham.

She said that running alongside this would be the review of the Core Strategy which would also have some specific B&NES events.

She informed the Panel that the Englishcombe Neighbourhood Development Plan would be made at the Cabinet meeting on 14^th November.

She said that a homeless person count would take place later this month.

She stated that there was due to be a streamlining of reports for the Development Management Committee. The reports would be shorter in length for small non-contentious applications.

She referred the Panel to the Housing Services update report that had been circulated and said that the Head of Housing was in attendance should they have any questions.

Councillor Paul May said that he wished to thank officers on behalf of his local community in Whitchurch for what they have done so far in addressing them directly. He asked how the Panel’s comments would feed into the consultation process.

Councillor Liz Richardson replied that their comments would be fed back via a report to the West of England Scrutiny Committee.

In response to a previous question at a Panel meeting regarding the number planning permissions that had not commenced during the first 12 months of approval Councillor Richardson said that figures were not held on this matter. She added though that figures were available for permissions that have been completed and those that have begun.

Councillor Colin Blackburn asked why there had been a slippage of delivered new affordable homes in quarter three.

The Head of Housing replied that a couple of schemes had slipped, including a scheme in Bathampton.

Councillor Barry Macrae commented that he was concerned that the performance indicator target relating to telephone response had not been met over the recorded five quarters. He also questioned how relative was the indicator for homelessness cases prevented. He added that he did not like the section of the printed update that contained a number of images to represent statistics.

The Head of Housing replied that they had actually received a great deal of positive feedback over the document and that the images looked much better in the officially published version. He said that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

This report seeks the views of the Panel on the forthcoming consultation on the West of England Joint Spatial Plan (JSP) and Joint Transport Study (JTS) document entitled “Towards the Emerging Spatial Strategy”.  The consultation is due to take place across the West of England from 7th November to 19th December 2016.

The Chairman had invited members of the Communities, Transport & Environment Panel to be present for this item and contribute to the debate. Councillors Gilchrist, Simmons and Butters were in attendance.

The Divisional Director for Development introduced this item to the Panel. She explained that the forthcoming consultation on the draft West of England Joint Spatial Plan (JSP) and Joint Transport Study (JTS) document entitled “Towards the Emerging Spatial Strategy” had been designed to start a conversation following on from the work undertaken between November 2015 and January 2016 (Issues and Options consultation).

She said that the consultation was due to take place across the West of England from 7th November to 19th December 2016.

She stated that the JSP will be a statutory Development Plan Document and will therefore need to be prepared in accordance with local plan regulations and national policy to ensure it is a ‘sound’ document supported by technical evidence. She added that the selection of development locations will need to be clearly justified and that at this stage no final decisions have been made and the spatial strategy is not fixed. She said that responses to this next stage of consultation will help to inform the Plan as it progresses.

She informed them that the Transport Vision is very ambitious, representing a total of around £7.5 billion of investment in multi-modal packages, for delivery across the West of England over the next 20 years.

She said the approach to formulating the spatial strategy had sought to adhere to sustainability principles, including a focus on developing in main urban centres and making the best use of urban land; seeking to locate development outside of the Green Belt as far as possible; and consideration of Green Belt locations only where there is strong justification and evidence of exceptional circumstances.

She stated that the current evidence identifies a need for 102,200 homes to be developed during 2016-2036 across the four local authorities although the JSP will test for up to 105,000 homes during 2016-2036. This is a working number until the evidence to support the publication plan is finalised in Summer 2017.

She added that a significant proportion of the overall Housing Target would need to be delivered as affordable housing in light of the identified level of need. She said that it will not be able to fully meet the affordable housing need over the plan period through the planning system alone. Instead the JSP recognises that a proportion of the overall affordable housing need could be delivered through the planning system.

She said that around 66,800 dwellings are committed across the West of England in the form of permissions, local plan allocations or future small windfall sites and that the JSP prioritises the need to maximise the use of brownfield sites, particularly within existing urban areas, and 14,600 dwellings are identified from this source – primarily in Bristol.  This leaves up to 23,600 dwellings to be identified through the JSP.

The Group Manager for Planning Policy & Transport  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

This report provides an update on the current position and next steps in relation to progressing the proposals for the expanded Bath & Somer Valley Enterprise Zone following the report to the Panel on the 1^st March 2016.

The Divisional Director for Community Regeneration introduced this item to the Panel. He informed them that negotiations were on-going with DCLG/HMT on the Government agreeing to fund the granting of Business Rates discounts for occupation of premises within the existing Enterprise Area fiscal boundary, which would effectively give the ability to grant the same reliefs as are available in an Enterprise Zone.

He gave a presentation to the Panel, a summary of this is set out below and a full version can be seen online as an appendix to these minutes.

Enterprise Zone Proposed Expansion

Business Case

·  Address market constraints & economic vulnerability

·  Promote employment provision in accessible development locations emerging from the WofE JSP

·  Enable improved broadband provision

·  Focus new investment through clustering & agglomeration benefits

Somer Valley

·  Consolidation of Old Mills, Paulton

·  Brownfield sites at Welton Bibby Baron / Welton Hollow

·  Completion of existing employment sites

o  Bath Business Park / Westfield / Midsomer Enterprise Park

Keynsham

·  Allocated sites at Somerdale & A4 East of Keynsham

·  Keynsham Peninsula employment land

Enterprise Zone Business Rate Uplift: £76,350.67 from 11 sites

Enterprise Zone Timeline

10^th November 2016: Council approval sought for extended Bath & Somer Valley Enterprise Zone. Delegated authority to enable proposals to be finalised, agreed with LEP and submitted to government by 9th December 2016.

23^rd November 2016: Autumn Statement – formal announcement on Enterprise Zone.

30^th November 2016: WoE Prog.Board – Agree final Implementation Plan.

Agree and sign MoU between LEP, Bristol City Council and Bath & North East Somerset (including agreed objectives and priorities for the Enterprise Zone as well as terms necessary to give effect to the Memorandum of Understanding with DCLG).

9^th December 2016: Deadline for Enterprise Zones commencing in April 2017 to provide final boundary maps and BR baselines for existing properties.

Councillor Barry Macrae stated that land allocated through this process for employment use should not be allowed to become housing if the initial employment project should fail. He also asked if there was any flexibility within the process to look at small sites if they become available for local jobs. He encouraged decisions regarding any of the sites to be announced locally so that the community are aware.

The Divisional Director for Community Regeneration replied that small sites are not within the Government policy on Enterprise Zones. He added though that development of the Old Mills site may make other schemes more attractive to developers.

Councillor Paul May asked about the connectivity of the sites in Welton and if any of the sites in Keynsham were within known flood areas.

The Divisional Director for Community Regeneration replied that site deliverability and scale had formed the proposals. He added that with regard to flooding some schemes may take 10 – 15 years to come to fruition.

The Business Support & Development Manager added that due to the recent Placemaking Examination the decision was taken to proceed with sites allocated within the Core Strategy.

Councillor Cherry Beath asked if Devolution would affect any of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel. Any suggestions for further items or amendments to the current programme will be logged and scheduled in consultation with the Panel’s Chair and supporting officers.

The Chairman introduced this item to the Panel. He said that they were likely to receive a budget report relating to their remit at their January 2017 meeting.

He is also proposed that they receive a report relating to Flood Risk Management at the same meeting.

The Panel agreed with this proposal.