Agenda item

a)     To report the Local Plan Inspectors’ final conclusions on the legal compliance and ‘soundness’ of Section 2 of the Council’s new Local Plan following consultation on their recommended ‘Main Modifications’ and the subsequent receipt of their final report on 24^th November 2021; 

b)     To report that, by incorporating the Inspectors’ recommended Main Modifications, the Section 2 Local Plan meets the tests for legal compliance and soundness - as required for a plan to proceed to formal adoption; and

c)      To seek the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee’s agreement that the modified Section 2 Local Plan be recommended to Full Council for formal adoption. 

The Committee gave consideration to a comprehensive report of the Acting Director (Planning) (A.1) which:-

a)     reported the Local Plan Inspectors’ final conclusions on the legal compliance and ‘soundness’ of Section 2 of the Council’s new Local Plan following consultation on their recommended ‘Main Modifications’ and the subsequent receipt of their final report on 24^th November 2021; 

b)     reported that, by incorporating the Inspectors’ recommended Main Modifications, the Section 2 Local Plan met the tests for legal compliance and soundness - as required for a plan to proceed to formal adoption; and

c)      sought the Committee’s agreement that the modified Section 2 Local Plan be now recommended to Full Council for formal adoption.

Key Points

Members were informed that Planning Inspectors Anne Jordan and Jameson Bridgewater had issued their final report on the soundness and legal compliance of Section 2 of the new Tendring Local Plan, following examination hearings in February and March 2021 and having considered the consultation responses on their recommended ‘Main Modifications’.

Officers were delighted to report that, with the incorporation of the Inspectors’ final list of slightly adjusted Main Modifications, the Section 2 Local Plan was sound, legally compliant and could now be formally adopted by the Council. 

The Committee was advised that the final list of modifications had contained no surprises and no significant changes from those considered by the Committee in June 2021 and subsequently published for consultation in July and August 2021. Indeed, the majority of those modifications had been put forward by the Council itself to improve the soundness of the Plan, address previous objections and ensure that the Plan was kept up to date and reflected the latest evidence. The modifications had not been particularly contentious when published for consultation and there had been more representations of support than of objection.

Members were made aware that the receipt of the Inspectors’ final report already enabled the Council to give almost full weight to the policies in the new Local Plan in determining planning applications and in contesting appeals.

The Committee was reminded that formal adoption of the modified Section 2 Local Plan would require a decision of Full Council and the Committee was invited to recommend this to Full Council at its scheduled meeting on 25th January 2022.  

Members recognised that the adoption of the Section 2 Local Plan would represent a major milestone for Tendring District Council as the new plan would supersede, in full, the previous outdated Local Plan of 2007 and would ensure the Council had a fully up-to-date Local Plan in place to guide development up to 2033.

Councillors G V Guglielmi, Chapman, I J Henderson, Bush and Scott asked questions on the report which were responded to by the Acting Director (Planning). In response to specific comments on the extent to which certain areas were depicted in detail on the local maps accompanying the Local Plan, the Acting Director (Planning) explained that the scale of the maps could be adjusted as appropriate in finalising the plan for its final publication.

With the permission of the Chairman (Councillor Turner), Councillor White, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Planning Committee, addressed the meeting on behalf of that Committee and extended its congratulations to the members of the Planning Policy & Local Plan Committee and to the Acting Director (Planning) and his Team for getting the Local Plan to the ‘finishing line’.

Having considered all of the information and advice contained in the Officer report and its appendices:-

It was moved by Councillor Turner, seconded by Councillor Fairleyand unanimously:-

RESOLVED that the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee:

1)     notes the findings of the Planning Inspectors’ ‘Report on the Examination of the Tendring District Local Plan 2013-2033 and Beyond Section 2’ received on 24^th November 2021 (attached as Appendix 1 to the Acting Director (Planning)’s report) and their final ‘Schedule of Main Modifications’ (attached as Appendix 2 thereto); and

2)     recommends, subject to the agreement of the Leader of the Council, to Full Council:

(i)      the formal adoption of the ‘modified’ Tendring District Local Plan 2013-2033 and Beyond Section 2 (attached as Appendix 3 to the aforesaid report) i.e. incorporating the Inspectors’ final Main Modifications, as well as the other ‘Additional Modifications’ and ‘Modifications to Local Plan Maps, in accordance with Section 23(3) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004; and

(ii)     that authority be delegated to the Acting Director (Planning), in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Chairman of the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee, to:

(a)    make administrative corrections, if necessary, to address any minor typographical, grammatical or factual errors within the documents or maps contained within the adopted Tendring District Local Plan 2013-2033 and Beyond Section 2 (in Appendix 3), in the event that any are discovered before its final publication;

(b)    agree the insertion of an appropriate ‘foreword’ into the opening pages of the final published version of the Tendring District Local Plan 2013-2033 Section 2; and

(c)    agree an appropriate and up-to-date set of photographs of the District for insertion into the final published version of the Tendring District  Local Plan 2013-2033 Section 2 to refresh and update those previously included in the versionof the Local Plan published for consultation in 2017.