To elect the Chairman of the Joint Committee for the 2025/2026 Municipal Year.

In response to a question from Councillor Luxford-Vaughan, Andrew Weavers, Colchester City Council’s Head of Governance and Monitoring Officer, confirmed that there was no bar preventing a member of Essex County Council from being elected the Chairman of this Joint Committee.

It was moved by Councillor Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor King and:-

RESOLVED that Councillor Scott be elected the Chairman of the Joint Committee for the 2025/2026 Municipal Year.

To elect the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Committee for the 2025/2026 Municipal Year.

It was moved by Councillor Scott, seconded by Councillor Baker and:-

RESOLVED that Councillor Guglielmi be elected the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Committee for the 2025/2026 Municipal Year.

Following a proposal put forward by Councillor Guglielmi, the Joint Committee:-

RESOLVED that the elections to the offices of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of this Joint Committee made under Minutes 1 and 2 above would take effect from the end of this meeting.

Therefore, for the duration of this meeting, Councillor King occupied the chair and acted as Chairman and Councillor Scott acted as Deputy Chairman.

The Joint Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

An apology for absence was submitted on behalf of Councillor Lesley Wagland (ECC). The County Council’s designated substitute member, Councillor Mark Platt, attended in her stead.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the Minutes of the previous meeting of the Joint Committee, held on Thursday 5 September 2024.

It was moved by Councillor Baker, seconded by Councillor Cossens and:-

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting of the Joint Committee held on Thursday 5th September 2024 be approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman.

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

There were no Declarations of Interest made by Members of the Joint Committee on this occasion.

To seek the Joint Committee’s recommendation that the TCBGC Development Plan Document, with specific modifications, is formally adopted by Tendring District Council and Colchester City Council, following receipt of the Planning Inspector’s final examination report.

The Joint Committee considered a detailed report (A.1) that sought the Joint Committee’s recommendation that the Tendring / Colchester Borders Garden Community (TCBGC) Development Plan Document (DPD), with specific modifications, be formally adopted by Tendring District Council and Colchester City Council (“the Councils”). This followed receipt of the Planning Inspector’s final examination report.

It was reported that, following examination hearings in May 2024, and consultation on the recommended Modifications in September/October 2024, the Planning Inspector had issued his Final Report (Appendix 1) on the soundness and legal compliance of the DPD.  With the incorporation of the Inspector’s final set of Main Modifications (Appendix 2), the DPD had been found to be sound and legally compliant.  This conclusion to the examination now gave the Councils the ability and authority to proceed to formally adopt the Plan.

It was believed that the adoption of the DPD would provide an up to date, robust and sustainable basis for guiding future growth and development within the Garden Community – with future planning applications being considered and determined, by the Joint Committee, against the policies and proposals within the DPD in decision-making.

The Joint Committee was advised that the modifications required by the Inspector did not depart substantially from those that had been reported to the Joint Committee on 5th September 2024 and subsequently published for consultation. The Inspector had however highlighted four Main Modifications as being of particular significance within the summary of his report, those being:-

•    Amending GC Policy 1 to clarify that should the provision of the Park and Choose facility be located south of the A133 it should not prejudice the full and comprehensive expansion needs of the University of Essex (UoE) (MM11);

•    Amending GC Policy 2 to ensure that the minimum requirement of 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) was met across the masterplan area as required by current legislation (MM90);

•    Amending GC Policy 7 to ensure that the DPD carried forward the requirements of the North Essex Authorities’ Shared Strategic Section 1 Plan 2021 (NEASSS1P) to secure funding and delivery of the Rapid Transit System (MM60); and

•    Removing reference to a potential future Community Infrastructure Levy (‘CIL’) charging schedule, which would be subject to a separate independent examination (MM91).

In addition, it was reported that four proposed Modifications that had been the subject of consultation, had been removed by the Inspector from his final Main Modifications namely MM14 to MM17 which related to amendments to the DPD Policies Map.  Those had been removed as the Policies Map was not defined in statute as a Development Plan Document and therefore the Inspector did not have the power to recommend Main Modifications to it.  Notwithstanding this, those changes were required to correct typographical errors and ensure that the relevant policies were effective, and the Inspector had noted the need to implement those changes.  The Policies Map would therefore still be updated accordingly to reflect the changes that had been published for consultation.

Members were informed that except for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To approve the Pathway to Stewardship report as forming part of the planning guidance for determining planning applications at Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community in respect of stewardship matters.

The Joint Committee considered a report (A.2) which sought its approval of the Pathway to Stewardship as forming part of the planning guidance for determining planning applications at Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community in respect of stewardship matters.

Members were reminded that, as part of the partner Councils’ commitment to comprehensively plan for the delivery of the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community (TCBGC), specialist consultants (Community Stewardship Solutions (CSS)) had been commissioned, following a competitive tendering exercise, to prepare guidance on future stewardship requirements at the Garden Community.

The Joint Committee recalled that the aim of that commission had been to enable the Councils to be better informed and more prepared for the consideration of stewardship proposals as they came forward through the planning process. Stewardship was an integral part of the planning requirements for the TCBGC, as set out in the adopted Section 1 Local Plan and the Development Plan Document.

It was reported that throughout 2024, CSS had undertaken a series of meetings and interviews with local stakeholders and interested parties to gather views on potential community governance solutions at TCBGC. CSS had also been able to draw upon its considerable experience of planning stewardship arrangements at strategic developments and apply it to the TCBGC.

Members were advised that the commission had culminated in the Pathway to Stewardship and Placemaking document which was attached to the report (A.2). The document included commentary and bespoke recommendations related to a number of areas that CSS considered to be intrinsic to progressive and effective stewardship arrangements, including accountable governance, financial sustainability and community enablement.

The Joint Committee was made aware that the Pathway to Stewardship and Placemaking document, if approved by the Joint Committee, would form part of the partner authorities’ planning guidance that would be applied in the determination of relevant planning applications at TCBGC, particularly in relation to the future Stewardship Strategy to be submitted with the planning application.

In respect of the reference to the characteristics of TCBGC in that the development sat across both the Parishes of Ardleigh and Elmstead, as well as an area of unparished land, it was noted that the Pathway document had been finalised prior to Essex being included within the Government’s Priority Programme for Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).  Therefore, any decision to commence a Community Governance Review to explore a change to the existing boundaries of the two Parishes within the Tendring District, would be undertaken at the appropriate time.  The second recommendation of the report (A.2) requested Tendring District Council to give consideration to this in the light of LGR.

The Joint Committee had had circulated to it prior to the commencement of the meeting a copy of page 36 of the CSS document “Pathway to Stewardship and Placemaking at Tendring / Colchester Borders Garden Community” which had been inadvertently omitted from the originally published version of that document.

The report was introduced by way of a presentation by Christopher Downes, Essex County Council’s Garden Communities Manager. That presentation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Councillor Lee Scott led members of the Joint Committee, in paying tribute to Councillor King’s excellent chairmanship of the Joint Committee and he stated that he was honoured to be taking over as chairman. He acknowledged a debt of gratitude and thanked Councillor King for all he had done and for what he would continue to do for the Garden Community project.

Councillor Scott also commended the Officers for all their hard work into getting the GC project to where it was today. There was a lot more to do but the project was heading in the right direction.