Agenda and minutes

To elect the Chairman of the Joint Committee for the remainder of the 2021/2022 Municipal Year and the ensuing 2022/2023 Municipal Year.

It was moved by Councillor Paul Dundas, seconded by Councillor Carlo Guglielmiand:-

RESOLVED that Councillor Nick Turner be elected Chairman of the Joint Committee for the remainder of the 2021/2022 Municipal Year and the ensuing 2022/2023 Municipal Year.

The Chairman of the Joint Committee (Councillor Nick Turner) made the following opening remarks:-

“Welcome and good evening to my fellow Councillors, our Officers, the media and our audience.

Thank you fellow members for the privilege in becoming the first Chairman of this rare beast – a joint planning committee across two tiers of local government and three authorities. The first step is the most important one in any journey and we have now taken that.

Not too far from this room, 110 weeks ago, we had the second round of the examination-in-public of Part 1 of the joint Local Plan for Tendring District Council (TDC), Colchester Borough Council (CBC) and Braintree District Council.

A very thorough examination was made, it was the biggest Local Plan examination in England. Many of us here tonight sat through some, if not all, of the many, many days it took Mr Roger Clews to hold the Examination.

A year later, TDC and CBC adopted Part 1 that led to the formation of a joint steering group together with Essex County Council (ECC). That group, and the wider membership of each Council agreed to a joint committee. I’d like to pay a personal tribute to Councillor Tom Cunningham for the excellent and courteous way in which he chaired the meetings of the Steering Group.

This Committee will eventually act as one would expect a planning committee to work i.e. to approve or refuse planning applications. In the meantime we will be debating, scrutinising, overseeing and agreeing the various documents and consultations that will ultimately form the final Development Plan Document (DPD). That will then be consulted upon once more and submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for Public Examination.

After which, subject to any changes the Inspectorate might require, the Committee will be recommending the adoption of the DPD to TDC and CBC.

For tonight, Mr. Andrew Weavers will make the presentation for A.1 and after that I will invite the public speakers to make their points then we will discuss and go to the vote. The same procedure will apply to item A.2 with Mr. Gary Guiver leading on that presentation to be then followed by the public speakers and a written submission from Wivenhoe Town Council which I will read out. Then the committee discussion and the vote.”

To elect the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Committee for the remainder of the 2021/2022 Municipal Year and the ensuing 2022/2023 Municipal Year.

It was moved by Councillor Carlo Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor Nick Turnerand:-

RESOLVED that Councillor Paul Dundas be elected Deputy Chairman of the Joint Committee for the remainder of the 2021/2022 Municipal Year and the ensuing 2022/2023 Municipal Year.

Members of the Joint Committee are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the Agenda.

Councillor Andrea Luxford-Vaughan queried whether “twin hatted” Members of the Joint Committee would be precluded from voting on report A.2 (the Development Plan Document item) in the light of Essex County Council’s ongoing re-negotiation of the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) funding requirements with Homes England.

Mrs Lisa Hastings, Deputy Chief Executive & Monitoring Officer, Tendring District Council responded with advice that as the HIF funding was not on the Agenda for this meeting then those Councillors in question were not precluded from voting on report A.2.

To introduce the newly established Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community Joint Committee appointed for the discharge of specific executive and non-executive functions and to cover any early administrative matters related to the Terms of Reference and Standing Orders agreed by Tendring District, Colchester Borough and Essex County Councils.

Members had before them a report (A.1) which introduced the newly established Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community (TCBGC) Joint Committee which had been appointed for the discharge of specific executive and non-executive functions. The report also covered any early administrative matters related to the Terms of Reference and Standing Orders agreed by Tendring District Council (TDC), Colchester Borough Council (CBC) and Essex County Council (ECC) (“the three Councils”).

The report was introduced by Mr Andrew Weavers, Strategic Governance Manager & Monitoring Officer, Colchester Borough Council.

Members were reminded that the Joint Committee’s remit was to jointly discharge those specific executive and non-executive functions related to TCBGC, delegated pursuant to Sections 101(5), 102(1)(b) and 102(2) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the Terms of Reference attached at Appendix A to report A.1. 

The functions delegated were set out in 4.2 (a) to (h) (in the aforesaid Appendix A). However, in summary there were two themes, namely:-

(i)      To exercise the Council’s functions relating to overseeing the preparation of the joint TCBGC Development Plan Document and ensuring it:

a.   is in accordance with the Local Development Schemes;

b.   includes policies designed to secure that the development and the use of land in the garden community area contribute to the mitigation of, and adaption, to climate change;

c.   meets the “tests of soundness” as set out in legislation, national and planning policy and advice contained within guidance issued by the Secretary of State;

d.   has regard to the adopted Section 1 of CBC & TDC’s Local Plan;

e.   has regard to the resources likely to be available for implementing the proposals in the document;

f.    other such matters the Secretary of State prescribes; and

g.   complies with the Council’s Statement of Community Involvement.

(ii)     To act as local planning authority to determine planning applications by virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, within the TCBGC area. 

There were limitations to those delegations and those were set out in paragraphs 4.3 and 4.4. 

In addition, Members noted that not all executive functions had been delegated, though further functions in relation to TCBGC might be delegated to the Joint Committee by the Leaders of the three Councils in the future. However, at this time, the initial focus of the Committee would be functions in connection with the preparation of the joint Development Plan Document and to determine any planning applications.  Therefore, it was possible that questions would be raised for consideration which were outside the remit of the Joint Committee and officers would provide advice on those aspects as such matters arose.

It was reported that the three Councils were represented on the appointed Joint Committee with full voting rights. However, ECC had decided at its meeting held on 7 December 2021 that its membership would consist of two seats instead of the possible three (as approved by TDC and CBC at their respective earlier meetings), therefore the make-up of the Joint Committee was as follows:

Membership:

(iii)      2  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To present the first draft of the Development Plan Document (DPD) i.e. ‘the Plan’ for the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community to the new Joint Committee and to seek its approval to publish that Draft Plan and other relevant documents for public consultation in accordance with Regulation 18 of the statutory plan making process.

Background documents are listed at the end of the covering report but are hosted on a separate website. This link is included in the covering report itself but is also reproduced here https://talk.tcbgardencommunity.co.uk/useful-documents.

The Joint Committee had before it a comprehensive report (A.2) which presented to it the first draft of the Development Plan Document for the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community (TCBGC) and sought its approval to publish that Draft Plan and other relevant documents for public consultation in accordance with Regulation 18 of the statutory plan making process.

The report was introduced by Mr Gary Guiver, Acting Director (Planning), Tendring District Council.

The Joint Committee was aware that the adopted shared Section 1 Local Plan for North Essex identified a broad area of land crossing the Tendring/Colchester border for the development of a new Garden Community comprising 7,000-9,000 homes and 25ha of employment land along with new neighbourhood centres, health facilities, schools, early years facilities, provision for gypsies and travellers, land for the future expansion of the University of Essex and all associated infrastructure. The development was to be served by a ‘Rapid Transit System’ and a link road between the A120 and A133, for which Government funding had been secured through the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF).

Members were also aware that the Section 1 Local Plan required the preparation and formal adoption of a specific ‘Development Plan Document’ (DPD) containing further details of the Garden Community before any planning applications for development at the site could be approved. Officers from Tendring District Council (TDC), Colchester Borough Council (CBC) and Essex County Council (ECC) (“the three Councils”) had worked together with partners and specialist consultants to produce a first ‘Draft Plan’ for the Garden Community which addressed specific requirements of the Local Plan whilst having particular regard to community and stakeholder feedback, a range of technical evidence and a comprehensive master planning exercise.

The Joint Committee was advised that the DPD for the TCBGC, like the Local Plan to which it related, must proceed through the statutory plan-making process which involved different stages of public consultation and an examination by a Government-appointed Planning Inspector, before it could be adopted. The Draft DPD was recommended by Officers to be published for a minimum of six-weeks formal public consultation in accordance with Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012. It was considered that this consultation would allow any interested parties (including residents, businesses, developers and other groups and organisations) to comment on the first draft and for those comments to be taken into account by the three Councils in drawing up a revised version of the Plan for a further final round of consultation and submission to the Secretary of State for public examination later in the year.

Masterplanning process, engagement and evidence gathering

The Joint Committee was informed that a comprehensive master planning process involving specialist consultants with input and review by the three Councils had been carried out to inform the content of the Draft Plan. To date, the master planning process had involved a technical baseline analysis of the site, wide ranging community engagement to inform and guide an overarching strategic vision for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.