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 interest in agenda item 4 as she resides adjacent to the site

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Local Development Framework Working Group held on 4 January 2010.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the meeting of the Local Development Framework Group held on 4 January 2010 be agreed, subject to the amendments suggested by Councillor Merrett which were as follows:

                                    Minute 9  - add the additional Member comments regarding the requirement for lifetime housing and comments regarding concern over the inclusion of Option 4 regarding major retail at York Central and potential impact on City Centre.

                                    Minute 10 – add Member comments in relation to the following:

·        Question 4 – concern regarding York Central retail.

·        Question 8 – change of use and potential loss of larger offices a concern and should be resisted.

·        Question 15 – Options 1 and 2 potentially prejudiced by the proposed St. Samson’s square taxi rank.

·        Question 33 – add the words “and look at the diversion of stage carriage services to provide late night connections”

Vision Prospectus – add Member comments regarding financial viability of document given limited redevelopment opportunity in City Centre and concern at limited reference to Environment and Sustainability.

Minute 11 – add Member comments regarding validity of response to the housing questions given the wording and order of questions and note the lack of support for the highest level of development approach and retail on York Central.

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 19 March 2010.

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

Mark Warters referred to the timetable on Page 23 of the agenda and commented on the slippage. He queried whether officers or Members could explain what had happened, as he felt that the slippage was unacceptable.

Tom Hughes asked 3 questions. At this point the Chair advised Mr. Hughes that Public Participation at meetings of the Council is not the forum to enter into questions and answers with Members and should be utilised to make a statement in order to get views across to a Committee.

This report updates Members on the joint work carried out between the Council and York Central Consortium and outlines the headline findings of the review and issues arising from this work. A number of objectives for the York Central Site arising from this work are set out for Members consideration. Members are asked to agree that further work is carried out to explore other models of regeneration partnerships and funding opportunities. The report also provides a short update on progress with the York Northwest Urban Eco Settlement and Members are asked to agree that the policies for York Northwest are included within the Core Strategy which seek to achieve Eco Town Standards.

Members considered a report which provided an update on the joint review work carried out between the Council and the York Central Consortium following the suspension of the developer procurement process.

The report outlined the headline findings of the review and issues arising from it. It asked Members to consider and agree a number of objectives for the York Central Site.

Officers updated the Committee with the following information:

• In relation to the Urban Eco Settlement (UES), City of York Council has access to £275k share of the Eco Development fund for a show home. Officers are currently in dialogue with Leeds City Region and the other 3 UES areas for a share of the £750k revenue award.
• A draft City Region Investment Plan had been produced. This would form the basis of the City region funding discussions and negotiations with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). The three main areas where City of York Council are looking for HCA funding relate to increasing levels of affordable housing, uplift to Code level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and uplift to improved code level performance to levels 5 and 6 for specific elements (e.g. energy and water).
• Master planning- Associated British Foods are in the process of appointing consultants to carry out master planning for the British Sugar site. It is anticipated that the master planning will commence in a few weeks time.
• York Central Review – The headline findings of the review were presented to a meeting of the York Central partners on 11 March. Work with the York Central Consortium is ongoing with a further workshop scheduled for after Easter.

In response to questions from Members, officers advised the following:

• A changed planning approach for the York Northwest area is possible  due to changes in the PPS12 which now allows identification of strategic sites in the Core Strategy which would then become part of the statutory development plan when the Core Strategy is adopted. Site specific detail could now be included in Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD’s) which sit alongside an adopted Core Strategy.
• This approach would offer more flexibility and would allow officers to prepare SPD’s for any further sites coming forward for development in the area.
• In response to questions regarding how well traffic issues can be addressed in the Core Strategy as opposed to an AAP, officers advised that further reports and updates in relation to transport and accessibility would be brought to future LDF Working Group meetings for Members’ consideration.
• In relation to Members’ queries regarding retail provision at the site, officers advised that a detailed report on retail would be brought to a future meeting of the LDF Working Group for Members consideration.

After raising concerns about the level of retail provision to be included in the York Central site, Councillors D’Agorne and Merrett moved the following amendment:

• That objective v) at paragraph 31 be amended to read “ Creation of a new urban quarter for York with local retail provision”.

The following  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.