To enable Council to consider approving the Tendring District Local Plan: Preferred Options Draft for the purposes of a public consultation.

Earlier on in the meeting, as detailed under Minute 85 above, Councillor Fairley had declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest. She thereupon left the room whilst this item was discussed and voted on.

In addition, Councillor Scott had declared an Other Registerable Interest in respect of new non-strategic policy PPL12b (St. Osyth Priory) insofar as he was a Council appointee and a Trustee of the St. Osyth Priory Education Trust.

Council was aware that the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee (“the Committee”), at its meeting held on 22 January 2026, had considered a comprehensive report of the Corporate Director (Planning and Community) (A.1) which had presented the Tendring District Local Plan – Preferred Options Draft to the Committee and which had sought the Committee’s agreement for this document, along with the associated evidence base  (including  the  Sustainability Appraisal,  Habitat  Regulations Assessment and  other  relevant technical studies)  to  be  recommended  for  approval by Full  Council. Such approval would allow that document to proceed to formal public consultation in line with Regulation 18 of the statutory plan-making process.

Having considered that report the Committee had formally resolved:-

“that the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee:

a)       notes the content of this report explaining how the Tendring District Local Plan – Preferred Options Draft has been developed having regard to the direction given and decisions taken by the Committee at previous meetings, feedback from the public consultation on Issues and Options carried out in Spring 2025 and the emerging evidence base – as well as the requirements of national planning policy;  

b)       having considered the Tendring District Local Plan – Preferred Options Draft (at Appendix 1) agrees to recommend to Full Council, following consultation with the Leader of the Council, that it be approved for six-weeks public consultation, alongside the related Sustainability Appraisal (at Appendix 2), Habitats Regulation Assessment (at Appendix 3) and other supporting evidence (including those listed as background documents) in accordance with Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended) and Regulation 13 of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programme Regulations;

c)       recommends to Full Council that delegated authority be given to the Corporate Director – Planning and Community, in consultation with the Chairman of the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee to make corrections, if necessary, to address any minor formatting, mapping, typographical, grammatical or factual errors within the aforementioned Draft Plan (in Appendix 1), in the event that any are discovered before consultation commences; and

d)       notes that if or when the Local Plan – Preferred Options Draft is agreed by Full Council to be published for consultation, its policies and proposals can be taken into account in the determination of planning applications, alongside those of the current adopted Local Plan – with weight afforded to the emerging policies in accordance with the guidance set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).” 

The Chairman of the Planning Policy & Local Plan Committee (Councillor Guglielmi) made the following statement:-

“Mr. Chairman,

I would like to thank the Leader for having invited me to introduce this item, but before I do, I would just like to explain the reason why every Member has been provided with the comprehensive documentation that they have.

It is a legal requirement that all elected Members must be given an opportunity to access The Habitat Regulation Assessment, and the Integrated Sustainability Appraisal, and of course within the main body of the agenda we have the Preferred Options Draft Local Plan;  but don’t worry there will not be a proficiency test on it later this evening, that I am aware of! 

·      The Local Plan is one of the most important documents the Council has to produce – and under the statutory requirement to review every five years, we have reached the next important milestone – the decision to go out to formal public consultation on the Preferred Options – and give our residents the opportunity to have their say on what we know will be a topic of significant public interest.

·      As this could well be the last ever Local Plan this Council produces before Local Government Reorganisation, it is all the more important that we do all we can to put Tendring in the best place going forward, and plan positively for the future – not just in response to immediate pressures, but to establish a vision for growth for future generations.

·      Because in 2028 our Local Plan will be inherited by the new Unitary Council and it will influence strategic decisions taken by the future Mayor of Greater Essex around funding long-term investment in infrastructure, it’s in everyone’s interest to do the best job we can – albeit under the most challenging of circumstances.   

·      The Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee has been overseeing the review process over the last two years; at its meeting  last Thursday evening, Members agreed unanimously to bring this recommendation to Full Council – despite the fact we know that not all of the policies and proposals in our Draft Local Plan will be popular, particularly for some of our communities – and I am sure we are likely to share some of the concerns we expect to be raised when we go out to consultation.

·      It is essential to have a Local Plan and to keep it up to date, more so now than ever – to plan positively for the future and to protect our district as best as we can in the immediate term against speculative planning applications, and planning decision being overturned on appeal. The timescales we need to work with are very tight, as this will be one of two public consultation exercises the Council has to complete in 2026 before a final version of the Plan is submitted to the Secretary of State before the end of the year. Any delay could see us caught by a change in the system which will put us back to the beginning.  

·      But all Members will know from recent meetings of the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee, last year’s consultation and engagement with residents and Town and Parish Councils, and from the briefings given by our Officers over the last few months that, there are certain issues on which the Council is caught between a rock and a hard place – particularly when it comes to planning for future housing growth – because we have to comply with national policy and in 2024 there was a big change.  

·      Whilst we know there is a need for new housing – and that growth is going to be essential for our economy and the wellbeing of our residents now and in the future, the amount of housing development we are having to plan for, is unprecedented – and because of the change to the National Planning Policy Framework, we now have no choice in the matter and have to comply with new mandatory targets.

·      I am sure that by now everyone will be aware that Government has increased Tendring’s housebuilding requirement from 550 to 1,063 homes a year and so we are having to plan for at least 18,000 new homes between now and 2042.  The actual delivery of those homes however will be very much dependent on a wide range of economic factors, such as the state of the housing market and capacity within the development industry, which are both beyond the Council’s control.

·      When this Council and other Councils in Essex, and elsewhere, raised concerns with the Government about how realistic it would be to deliver these new targets, considering the limitations of our infrastructure, it was clear it wanted to push ahead with its ambitious agenda – and so it has required us to look at radical options for future growth that could have otherwise been avoided if the numbers hadn’t changed.

·      The strategy for growth in the Draft Plan for the extra development focusses on strategic locations particularly along the A120 corridor, but all communities in all parts of the district will be sharing in the responsibility to accommodate the requirement for growth.

·      We know there are likely to be plenty of objections to these proposals and we can probably anticipate what those objections will be, but it is essential that we proceed to public consultation – because the consequences of delay and the consequences of having an out-of-date Local Plan, thus not being able to plan positively for the future, are too dangerous – as we know only too well from previous experience of planning by appeal.  

·      Notwithstanding our shared reservations about the total amount of housing, there are some really positive proposals and ideas in this Draft Plan that are Tendring specific and shaped not only by a huge amount of technical evidence, but also positive engagement with our communities and our Town and Parish Councils over a number of months – which we very much plan to keep going into the future.

·      We will probably all have various views on the specifics of different sites or policies in this Draft, but the recommendation from my Committee is that we proceed, as soon as possible, to public consultation in line with the regulations – and see what comes back in terms of comments – so that these can be taken into account in making any revisions later on in the year.

·      I am delighted on behalf of the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee to bring forward the Preferred Options Draft to Full Council this evening; it is an excellent document, and at this stage I would very much like to commend the work that Officers have put in to produce what we have in front of us, and I dare say that some of their Christmases may not have not been as calm and enjoyable as they have been for most of us, so, on behalf of all of us Members, THANK YOU!

·      Thank you Mr Chairman and Members for bearing with me, and before I conclude and move the recommendation on the Addendum Paper I would remind people of what it says on the front cover: this is a Draft – and not the finished article – and that’s why we need to go out to public consultation and commend it to Full Council as per the recommendations on the Addendum Paper.”

In addition to the Chairman of the Planning Policy & Local Plan Committee, Councillors Baker, Bray, Chapman BEM, Harris, I Henderson and M Stephenson addressed the Council on the subject matter of this item. Councillor Guglielmi responded to questions asked by those Councillors.

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

RESOLVED that –

(a)     the Tendring District Local Plan – Preferred Options Draft be approved for six-weeks public consultation, alongside the related Sustainability Appraisal, Habitats Regulation Assessment and other supporting evidence (including those listed as background documents) in accordance with Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended) and Regulation 13 of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programme Regulations; and

(b)     the Corporate Director (Planning and Community), in consultation with the Chairman of the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee, be authorised to make corrections, if necessary, to address any minor formatting, mapping, typographical, grammatical or factual errors within the aforementioned Draft Plan, in the event that any are discovered before the consultation commences.