Agenda item

There will be a presentation on this item at the meeting. Presentation slides are attached.

Simon de Beer, Head of Planning, and Richard Daone, Deputy Head of Planning Policy, gave a presentation which covered the following:

·  Background

·  Progress so far

·  Key changes 1

·  Key changes 2

·  Accompanying Supplementary Planning Documents

·  Key Issues arising at the Examination in week 1

·  Key Issues arising at the Examination in week 2

·  Next steps

Panel members made the following points and asked the following questions:

In response to a query from Councillor Walker, the officer explained that in line with the core strategy there are 3.5 – 4 thousand houses planned over the next 5 years.

Councillor Crossley asked the following questions (officer responses are shown in italics):

·  Student accommodation is an issue for residents, what is the occupancy rate of student housing? We do not have information from University’s on this.  Officers will seek to get more information on this to Panel members.

·  What is being done to protect family homes being turned into HMO’s? The partial update seeks to ensure sufficient accommodation is made for students, preferably on campus, and extra controls are included in the SPD.

Councillor Hirst asked the following questions (officer replies are shown in italics):

·  Can we go further around green belt development and the impact on ecology? The Local Plan accelerates the biodiversity net gain requirement.

·  Regarding HMO’s – have we gone as far as we can to protect family homes? We are pushing ‘on campus’ accommodation, university’s say they need to grow as businesses, we need to balance the restrictions.

Councillor Dr Kumar asked the following questions (officer replies are shown in italics):

·  Upper Bathwick Hill – query about planning permission for 3 new blocks of flats. We are working closely with the University on a revised masterplan.

·  Park and Ride – will you close sites? The officer explained that the Park and Ride sites on the green belt would still function but would have wider uses.

·  LPPU – why no mention of rugby stadium? The officer explained that it was not appropriate to review the policy as part of the LPPU but it will be reviewed via the new Local Plan.

Councillor Johnson asked the following questions (officer responses shown in italics):

·  Do we have a figure for HMOs across BANES and what percentage of them pay Council Tax. We can provide the number of properties occupied as HMOs but cannot provide an accurate figure in relation to Council Tax payers. We can estimate and provide that figures to Panel members.

·  A university would be more successful if accommodation is based on campus.

Councillor Malloy asked the following questions (officer responses shown in italics):

·  Are the any major changes in how hotel provision is calculated? The officer stated that, based on visitor accommodation study, this probably needs to be updated. We will look at demand for hotels and project forward the needs for visitor accommodation (this includes Air B&B).

·  Is Air B&B controlled by national legislation? The officer confirmed that the Planning system provides little controls over short stay holiday lets, but the Government is being lobbied to introduce greater controls.

The Panel RESOLVED to note the presentation.