Agenda item

This report seeks Members’ views on the Local Development Framework Statement of Community Involvement (Submission Draft attached at Annex B) prior to taking a report to Executive and Full Council.  The intention, subject to Member approval, is for the Statement of Community Involvement to be submitted to the Secretary of State for formal examination.

Members received a report which sought their views on the Local Development Framework Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) prior to taking a report to Executive and Full Council.  The intention, subject to Member approval, was for the Statement of Community Involvement to be submitted to the Secretary of State for formal examination.

Consultation had taken place on the draft SCI between 22 February 2006 and 10 April 2006.  Annex A of the report set out the comments received during the consultation, officers’ responses and suggested amendments to the SCI.  The Submission Draft SCI was attached as Annex B of the report.

The main changes made in the redrafted SCI were:

(i)      To divide the SCI into four parts to make it clearer which sections related to the Local Development Framework (LDF) and which related to planning applications;

(ii)         To expand section 4 on Guiding Principles to provide more information on how the principles would shape public involvement in planning matters;

(iii)       To merge the ‘who will be involved’, ‘community profile’ and ‘hard-to-reach’ sections to give a clearer overall picture about who would be involved and to rely on the detail set out in the annex to avoid duplication (section 5 and Annex 1);

(iv)        To amend section 7 on the LDF to draw out more clearly the different types of LDF document and the Council’s key commitments for seeking to achieve effective community involvement in the preparation of the LDF;

(v)          To amend the size of development for which the Council would seek more in depth community involvement in planning applications to reflect the statutory definition of ‘major’ applications (section 8).

Paragraph 14 of the report explained that as part of the submission the Council was required to submit a statement of consultation.  The statement would be a factual description of consultation undertaken to date and would include summaries of the issues raised by respondents at each stage and how these had been addressed in subsequent drafts.   The main body of the statement would consist of the summaries of comments which had previously been reported to Members for the Issues and Options stage in November 2005, and for the Preferred Options stage at this meeting.

Following further discussions with the Development Control team, an amended version of Part 3 of the SCI and two additional annexes were circulated at the meeting for Members’ consideration.  Officers reported that there was a further correction to paragraph 10.7 to include reference to the Area Planning Sub-Committees.

Members’ detailed comments on the draft SCI are set out in Appendix 1 to these minutes.

RECOMMENDED:That the Executive recommend the following to Full Council:

(i) That the Statement of Community Involvement, attached at Annex B of the report, as amended by the revised Part 3 and two additional annexes circulated at the meeting and the correction to paragraph 10.7 to include reference to the Area Planning Sub-Committees, be approved for submission to the Secretary of State and for formal consultation, subject to further changes detailed in Appendix 1;

(ii)   That the making of any incidental changes to the document that are necessary as a result of the recommendation (i) above are delegated to the Director of City Strategy and the Executive Member and Opposition Spokesperson for City Strategy;

(iii)That the statement of consultation, as detailed in paragraph 14 of the report, be drawn up in consultation with the Director of City Strategy and the Executive Member and Opposition Spokesperson for City Strategy.

REASON:(i) So that the Statement of Community Involvement can progress through to examination;

(ii)   So that changes recommended as a result of discussions at the meeting can be made and the report can progress through to the Executive;

                        (iii) So that the relevant documents needed for submission to the Secretary of State can be produced.