Agenda and minutes

At this point, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

At this point, Members were asked to declare any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, prejudicial interest or any disclosable pecuniary interests which they may have in respect of business on the agenda. None were declared.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines have changed to 2 working days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of public participation at remote meetings.  The deadline for registering at this meeting is 5:00pm on Monday 14 September 2020.

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Webcasting of Remote Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this remote public meeting will be webcast including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The remote public meeting can be viewed live and on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

During coronavirus, we've made some changes to how we're running council meetings. See our coronavirus updates (www.york.gov.uk/COVIDDemocracy ) for more information on meetings and decisions.

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

Members are asked to consider the Council’s draft response to the  White Paper: Planning for the Future as detailed in Annex 1.

The Executive Member for Economy and Strategic Planning introduced the report regarding the government consultations and Changes to the Current Planning System and Planning for the Future. Members of the Committee thanked the Executive Member for engaging the Committee in the Council’s response to the consultations.

Officers gave a presentation and answered questions from the Committee on the Changes to the Current Planning System and Planning for the Future consultations and outlined the council’s current responses to the consultations.

The Committee considered and broadly supported the councils responses to the consultations and made the following recommendations for officers and the Executive Member to consider including in the council’s official response:

                      i.         Request detail as to what government proposals would be put in place to prevent developers splitting sites, to take advantage of the proposed temporary lifting of the threshold for sites that contribute to affordable housing;

                     ii.         Recommend that government support sites above a site size still having to contribute a commuted sum, even if these sites would not meet the proposed threshold for affordable housing contributions;

                    iii.        Request detail on how the government seek to solve the issue of land banking;

                   iv.        Request detail on how any changes in the Planning for the Future consultation will impact on examination of Local Plan’s, such as the York Local Plan, including for transitional arrangements;

                     v.        Request detail from government as to how any changes proposed would support sustainable design.

                   vi.        Request clarification and detail to ensure robust public engagement through plan-making and decision-making process with pro-active consultation and involvement of communities;

                  vii.        To include a response to Planning for the Future regarding proposals for ‘Stewardship and enhancement of the natural and historic environment’ where no questions have been asked by the Government;

                 viii.        Include sufficient detail to articulate local level impacts as a result of proposals.

Reason:     To ensure that the views of scrutiny Members are represented in the council’s final responses to the two consultations.