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.

The following interests were declared:

• Cllr Merrett – a personal, non-prejudicial interest in the business generally, as an honorary member of the Cyclists Touring Club (CTC) and a member of Cycling England, and a personal and non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4 (Minute 37 refers), as a governor of St Paul’s School.
• Cllr D’Agorne - a personal, non-prejudicial interest in the business generally, as a member of the CTC and the York Cycle Campaign.
• Cllr Horton - a personal, non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4, as a member of the Peaseholme Advisory Council.
• Cllr Morley - a personal, non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4, as a member of the Tourism Bureau and of the Fire Authority.
• Cllr Reid - a personal, non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4, as a substitute member of the Fire Authority.
• Cllr Waller - a personal, non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4 (relating to the mention of the Lowfield School site), as a governor of York High School.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Local Development Framework Working Group held on 18 December 2007.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Local Development Framework Working Group meeting held on 18 December 2007 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record, subject to the following amendments:

·        Minute 26 (Declarations of Interest) – amend Cllr Merrett’s interest to read “..as an honorary member of the Cyclists’ Touring Club and a member of Cycling England”.

·        Minute 29 (Progress on the York City Centre Area Action Plan) – amend the ninth bullet point in the third paragraph to read “Identifying areas in the City in need of regeneration, such as Micklegate.”

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 Monday 21 January 2008.

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

This report requests that the LDF Working Group recommend to the Executive approval of the LDF Allocations DPD Issues and Options document for consultation.

Members considered a report which presented the Issues and Options stage of the Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD) and asked them to decide whether they wished to make any changes to the DPD before recommending that it be approved by the Executive for consultation purposes.

Officers highlighted the following proposed amendments to the draft DPD attached as Annex A to the report:

• Paragraph 9.5 in Section 9, ‘Waste and Minerals’ - include a reference to a mechanical and biological treatment facility, and add a definition of this facility to the glossary at page 52 of the document.
• Site map for Monks Cross North in Maps Section 3, at page 44 - amend the ‘existing use’ information to reflect the current planning situation.
• Response Form at the end - include questions relating to age, gender, disability and ethnicity, in accordance with advice from Equalities Officers (all responses to these questions will be treated as confidential).

Members recommended the following amendments to the consultation process and to the document at Annex A:

(i)                 The amendments highlighted by Officers and recorded above.

(ii)               An extension to the consultation period indicated in paragraph 11 of the report, from 6 weeks to 8 weeks.

(iii)             In Section 1, ‘Introduction’:

·        Explain the context of the consultation proposals in terms of available resources, related Council strategies, the Council’s corporate sustainability priorities and the evidence base.

(iv)              In Section 2, ‘How to Get Involved’:

·        Add the words ‘if possible’ to the end of the sentence at paragraph 2.2, as respondents may not have this information.

(v)                In Section 3, ‘What Makes a Good Site for Development:

·        Amend Figure 2 to reflect the Council’s current transport policies more clearly and to make the text clearer and more readable.

(vi)              In Section 4, ‘Green Belt and Settlement Limits:

·        Amend paragraph 4.7 to reflect the Local Plan position regarding the coalescence of settlements.

·        Amend paragraph 4.8 to refer to outline the Local Plan position regarding permanence.

(vii)            In Section 5, ‘Housing’:

·        Amend paragraph 5.7 to reflect the current debate over the interpretation of PPS3 in relation to allowances for ‘windfalls’.

·        Re-word paragraph 5.8 to make it less specific to certain sites.

(viii)          In Section 6, ‘Employment’:

·        Amend paragraph 6.2 to clarify that the recommendations of the Future York Group have not been adopted by Council.

·        Include a paragraph under Table 6.2 to clarify the position regarding those land uses identified as ‘negative’ additional need (C and E in the table).

·        Amend paragraph 6.28 to strengthen the ‘caveat’ against the London Bridge site, on the grounds of sustainability, the protection of the historic character and setting of the city and why it was previously rejected.

(ix)              In Section 7, ‘Retail’:

·        Amend paragraph 7.4 to clarify why and how York needs to remain ‘competitive’ in terms of retail growth.

·        Amend paragraph 7.12 to emphasise the strategic requirement to cater for the retail needs of York Central and British Sugar sites.

·        Expand on Key Issue R1 to draw out more general comments about the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.