Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Simpson-Laing declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 5 (York Northwest Area Action Plan) as a resident of the area.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Local Development Framework Working Group held on 4 December 2006.

Members requested that copies of the Planning Inspectorate’s reports on both successful and unsuccessful Core Strategies be circulated to them for information.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the Local Development Framework Working Group meeting held on 4 December 2006 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak, regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the remit of the Working Group, may do so.  The deadline for registering is 5.00 pm on Wednesday 31 January 2007.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report advises Members on the production of a revised Local Development Scheme (LDS) for the City as required under the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act (2004) and presents a draft of the LDS to Members for consideration prior to formal submission to the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber.

Members received a report which advised them on the production of a revised Local Development Scheme (LDS) for the City as required under the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act (2004) and presented a draft of the LDS, attached as Annex A, for consideration prior to formal submission to the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber.

The proposed LDS covered the following six key areas:

(i)      Introduction – highlighting the requirements of the new system and the authority’s current position;

(ii)      Programme & Contents – covering the process of adopting development planning documents under the new planning system and highlighting those that the Council intends to prepare over the next three years;

(iii) Annual Monitoring Report;

(iv)Sustainability Appraisal & Strategic Environmental Assessment;

(v)  Existing Council Strategies;

(vi)      Resources.

The report presented two options for consideration:

·        Option 1 - To approve the LDS as drafted by officers for submission to Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber.

·        Option 2 - To seek amendments to the LDS through the recommendations of the Working Group or alternatively request that officers prepare an alternative project plan.

Officers detailed a number of minor amendments to the wording of the proposed LDS:

(i)   To paragraph 1.6 to indicate that the Panel’s Report on the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy would be issued in March 2007;

(ii)  To paragraph 1.9 to reword the final sentence to read, “This document will be used for the purposes of Development Control until such time as it is superseded by elements of the LDF”;

(iii)To paragraph 2.7 to add a sentence to indicate that the timetable for the emerging evidence base was detailed in Figure 2;

(iv)To paragraph 2.9 to reword it to read, “An assessment has been undertaken to identify key risks to the programme.  These are outlined in Table 1 below along with potential mitigating actions”;

(v)  To the Second Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP2) row of Table 2 to clarify that the key aims listed related to the Second Local Transport Plan (LTP2);

(vi)To the Economic Development Programme row of Table 2 to stipulate that the 2006/07 version of the programme would be used instead of the 2004/05 version and to list the priority themes as maintaining economic success, identifying skill needs and supporting people into employment and lifelong learning;

(vii)To Table 2 to clarify that the Older People’s Housing Strategy, the Homelessness Strategy, the Supporting People Strategy, the Private Sector Renewal Policy and the Empty Homes Policy all formed part of the overall Housing Strategy;

(viii)To the second paragraph of the Statement of Community Involvement section of Annex A to replace “Environmental Forum” with “York Environment Forum” and “Inclusive City Reference Group” with “Inclusive York Forum”;

(ix)To Table 7 of Annex A to indicate that the consideration of representations on the Issues and Options document and the preparation of a Preferred Options document would be completed by December 2008;

(x)  To Table 12 of Annex A to indicate that the date of production for the Central Historic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

This report updates Members on the progress of the joint Area Action Plan (AAP) for the York Central and British Sugar sites, to be known as the York Northwest Area Action Plan, and seeks agreement to a programme for the preparation of the AAP.

Members received a report which updated them on the progress of the joint Area Action Plan (AAP) for the York Central and British Sugar sites, to be known as the York Northwest Area Action Plan, and sought agreement to a programme for the preparation of the AAP.

The AAP would form part of the Local Development Framework (LDF) and the programme for its preparation, attached as Appendix 1 of the report, would be included in the revised Local Development Scheme (LDS) to be submitted to the Government Officer for Yorkshire and the Humber in March 2007.

The report presented two options for consideration:

·  Option 1 - To proceed with the timetable for the preparation of the AAP, as outlined in Appendix 1 of the report;

·  Option 2 - To prepare the AAP with an alternative timescale, whilst ensuring all statutory requirements are met.

The report explained that the work in preparing for the Issues and Options stage of the York Central AAP  would be transferred into the preparation of the York Northwest AAP.  This included work on the document preparation, the Consultation Strategy developed and the Scoping Report for the Sustainability Appraisal.  A summary of the consultation responses on the Consultation Strategy was attached as Appendix 2 of the report.  A copy of the consultation report and the amended Community Consultation Strategy were attached as Appendices 3 and 4.

Officers proposed that the programme, attached at Appendix 1, be amended to extend the public participation on the Issues and Options document, so that it took place from November 2007 to January 2008, to allow additional time as it fell over the Christmas holiday period.

Members expressed concern regarding the length of time needed to prepare and adopt the AAP and the risk that proposals may be put forward by developers in advance of the adoption of the AAP.

Members proposed some minor amendments to the Community Consultation Strategy, as set out below.

With regards to the Community Audit attached as Appendix 5, Councillor Merrett advised that he had a number of detailed comments as Micklegate Ward Councillor, which he would submit to officers outside of the meeting.

RECOMMENDED:                        That it be recommended to the Executive:

(i)                 That the programme for the preparation of the Area Action Plan, attached as Appendix 1 of the report and with the amendment that the public participation on Issues and Options take place from November 2007 to January 2008, and its inclusion in the revised Local Development Scheme be agreed;

(ii)               That the Community Consultation Strategy prepared for York Central, which will be taken into account in undertaking the public consultation relating to the York Northwest Area Action Plan, be noted, with the following amendments:

a)     To paragraph 4.3 to the part of the definition of community relating to those who live adjacent to the area, to make specific reference to those who live on significantly affected traffic routes;

                        b) To the first bullet point of paragraph 8.3 to state that the public buildings where  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.