Agenda item

The Council is asked to note any statements made by the Leader of the Council. 

Councillors may then ask questions of the Leader on his statements.

 

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council (Councillor Stock OBE) made the following statement in relation to Section 2 of the Local Plan:-

 

“At the end of last week we received the final report from the Government appointed Planning Inspector on the soundness and legal compliance of Section 2 of the new Tendring Local Plan.

 

This follows on from the adoption of Section 1 in January of this year, the examination hearings for Section 2 that subsequently took place in February and March and the most recent consultation, on proposed modifications to the Local Plan that took place in July and August.  

 

The Inspector’s report has now confirmed that, with the proposed modifications (most of which were put forward by this Council to address objections and ensure the plan was kept up to date), Section 2 of the Local Plan meets the Government’s requirements for soundness and legal compliance and, I am delighted to say, can now legally proceed to formal adoption.

 

This report marks a huge milestone for this Council – not only for all the Members and Officers that have been involved in producing the Local Plan over many difficult years, but also our residents and businesses who have been patiently waiting for this plan to materialise so that our communities have clarity and certainty over what development may or may not happen in their areas. The receipt of this report alone allows the Council to give almost full weight to the policies in the new plan in making planning decisions and dealing with appeals – including our new policies on climate change.   

 

The report also confirms that the Council has identified more than sufficient land to meet our housing and employment land needs and that we are robust in identifying a five year supply of housing land which will help protect our District from unwanted speculative planning applications for major development outside of our town and village settlement boundaries.

 

Adoption of the Local Plan will be a decision for Full Council in the new year following consideration by the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee – however given the consistent and unanimous support Councillors from all political groups have given to the progress of the plan in recent years, I am really positive and optimistic that we can this final stage of the process will be completed smoothly.

 

On adoption of the Section 2 Local Plan, this Council will for the first time since 2007 have a fully up-to-date and Government compliant planning framework in place.

 

And at that point I want to pay tribute to our Officers, both past and present, as there have been a lot over the years we have been dealing with this Local Plan. Obviously, to Gary Guiver who leads the Team and his staff and to all previous Heads of Planning and Planning Portfolio Holders and Planning Policy & Local Plan Committee Chairmen and Members of that Committee from all sides. I think right back to Iris Johnson who was the Planning Portfolio Holder when the Council “kicked off” on this Local Plan which was many years ago now. There has been a huge amount of work put in by Members of this Council and we should all be very proud that we have come together on this and that we have all pulled together. We have consistently voted unanimously on this over the last few years to agree this Local Plan and to get it to where it is and I look forward to it coming, hopefully to the next Full Council meeting in January when we can formally adopt it. But this is good news Chairman of which we can all be proud.”