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.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meetings of the Local Development Framework Working Group held on 3 March and 9 March 2009.

RESOLVED:            

(i)         That the Minutes of the Local Development Framework Working Group held on 3 March be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record subject to the following amendments being made to the comments section of Minute 25 (Employment Land Review – Evidence Base).

(a)       5th bullet point (re Clifton Moor), wording be amended to read “It was noted by Members that higher density development might be possible…”

(b)       7^th bullet point (re St Leonards), wording be amended to read “Questions were raised about why St. Leonard’s was ranked so high when it was considered unsuitable as an office and the inclusion of Hudson House given recent consents”.

(c )       11^th bullet point (re floorspace requirements), wording be amended to read “Concern was also expressed whether this reflected the trend for people being packed more densely into offices.’

(d)       14^th bullet point (re Foss Islands)  wording be amended to read “Members asked about the regeneration of the site and whether further development could squeeze out existing types of employment, which was important to people in the area.”

(e)       Resolution (ii) be amended to read “Delegate to the Director of City Strategy, in consultation with the Executive member for City Strategy and the Shadow Executive Member, the making of any other necessary changes…….”

(ii)        That the Minutes of the Local Development Framework Working Group held on 3 March be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record subject to an additional bullet point being added to include comments made by Members as follows “North side of Grimston Bar. This was considered to be a Green Wedge and Members wanted the Officer report to reflect this”

Comments were also made by some Members about issues discussed at previous meetings that Officers had said that they would look at, including Foss Islands, Layerthorpe and Hull Road and that alterations were expected to the report.  Officers stated that they were looking at the Employment Land Review and the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, and that approval would be required from the Executive Member and Shadow Executive Member on these changes.  Officers also stated that they did not think that these changes would affect the Spatial Strategy and the Core Strategy.

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 Friday 17 April 2009.

It was reported that six people had registered to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Mark Waters addressed the meeting on behalf of York Natural Environment Trust (YNET). He referred to the City of York Local Development Framework – Draft Core Strategy Preferred Options, Section 14: Green Infrastructure. He was critical of the Council’s development policy, particularly with regard to West Carr Lane Osbaldwick and East Metcalfe Lane and the suggested 250 acres for development. He referred to the 2006 public enquiry with regard to Metcalfe lane and the Green Belt boundary, and on behalf of YNET questioned why this site had been promoted as urban expansion. He re-iterated the request he had made at the LDF meeting on 9 March 2009 for an open public meeting on this.

John Reeves, Chairman of the Helmsley Group, spoke about the proposed change to the Affordable Housing Policy referred to in Section 9 of the report on the agenda. He stated that developers wanted a sustainable solution to the affordable housing issue. He stated that developers could not deliver a policy, which they believed would not work, and which was not sufficiently flexible. He further stated that one-size fits all policy would not work and that anything above 25% would not work. The main issues were density - the higher this was, the less likely it was to work financially and the mix of tenure – and social rental was a thorny issue and had a real affect on values and that there were no plans to develop at the present time. He invited councillors and officers to attend a frank and open meeting to discuss these issues.

Geoff Scott, Managing Director of Hogg the Builder, also spoke about the Affordable Housing Policy referred to in Section 9 of the report. He stated that 15 months ago he had asked for discussions on the 50% affordable housing plans. He also spoke of the current very different economic climate and the effect that this had had on the building industry. He felt that the report was seriously flawed and failed to recognise the difference between building in urban and rural locations. He added that he did not agree with the advice given in the report and felt that the exclusion of settlements of over 5000 people was worrying with damages to communities resulting and consequences with regard to the viability of house building. He stated that this would lead to a building standstill.

Matthew Laverack, Partner with Laverack Associates, also spoke about the Affordable Housing Policy. He stated that the 50% Affordable Housing Policy had failed and that the latest policy would make things worse. He added that the house building industry had been strangled and building costs had increased, while selling prices had fallen drastically.

Lillian Coulson, Regional Planning Manager, Persimmon Homes, also spoke about the Affordable Housing Policy. She stated that she felt that the Officer report was idealistic and unviable and would lead to a decrease  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

The purpose of this report is to request that Members of the LDF Working Group recommend to the Council’s Executive that they approve the draft LDF Core Strategy Preferred Options document, subject to the recommendations of the group, for consultation in late Spring.  The draft Core Strategy Preferred Options document is attached as Annex A to this report.

Members considered a report asking them to recommend that the Executive approve the Draft LDF Core Strategy Preferred Options document for consultation in late Spring, subject to their recommendations.

The report presented the following options for consideration in relation to the Core Strategy Preferred Options document:

• Option 1: To approve the document along with supporting information for public consultation
• Option 2: To seek amendments to the document through the recommendations of the LDF Working Group.

In response to the comments made by Mark Waters and Tom Hughes under Item 3 (Public Participation), the Principal Development Officer stated that the recommendations from the recent LDF Working Group meetings would be considered by the Executive on the 12 May 2009 and following that meeting any further necessary alterations to the reports would be made.  With regard to the issue of transport raised at previous meetings, he explained that he had spoken to the consultants Halcrow who were in the process of producing a background note, which would be circulated to Members before 12 May 2009.  With regard to green infrastructure, he stated that a report would be brought to the LDF Working Group in May.

The Principal Development Officer drew Members attention to recommendation (iii) of the officers report and advised that this should refer to the “Preferred Options” document consultation instead of the “Issues and Options” document consultation.              

On the subject of affordable housing, he explained that Government policy encouraged local authorities to maximise opportunities to provide affordable Housing. He noted that York has one of the highest levels of affordable housing need in the north of England  and that affordable housing provision needed to be increased.  He explained that the current 50%  target emanated from the 2007 Strategic Housing Market Assessment and that 30% to 50% has been agreed on a variety of sites in York in recent years. Government advice requires local authorities to look at the long term housing market and more normal market conditions. The proposed new policy introduces a sliding scale, which was supported in principle through public consultation and meetings with developers. Monitoring of recent completions and commitments suggest that the policy could achieve up to 43% affordable housing, subject to assessments of site viability. This is in line with the provisional minimum of 40% for York set out in 2008. Smaller sites would achieve some affordable housing, which is not the case at the moment, and the level would increase as site size and economies of scale increase. 

Members provided comments and put forward questions on Section 9 -  Access to Housing: Affordability and Type of the Draft Core Strategy – Preferred Options report.

(i)                 Members expressed concerns that the sliding scale averaged out at less than 40%. Officers explained that the desktop study had responded to the provisional RSS minimum target of 40% and, with rural sites added, would achieve up to 43%.

(ii)               Concern was expressed by another Member that the table on pages 249 and 250 of the agenda  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.