Minutes of Steering Group Meeting, Kidmore End Parish NDP Steering Group
11th December 2018 at 7.30pm, Gallowstree Common Pavilion
1. Declaration of interest
No declaration of interest declared. Code of conduct and declaration of interest form by those present
2. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
The final version of the minutes of the last meeting was approved.
3. Call for Sites / Facilitation
A Facilitation process was recommended by Aecom as part of the call for sites process to facilitate discussions between the NDP steering group and SODC before continuing with the site assessment process.
Aecom has written a draft Facilitation report however this has not yet been signed off by Locality. The revised SODC draft emerging local plan has recently been made available as papers for the scrutiny committee. Some amendments and changes to this plan mean that some aspects of the Facilitation report are no longer relevant.
The SODC draft Emerging Local Plan goes to the SODC scrutiny meeting on 13th December, then the SODC cabinet meeting on 18th December and the SODC council for discussion and vote on 20th December. If SODC councillors vote in favour of this version of the Emerging Local Plan, there will be public consultation for 6 weeks in January and then go to a planning inspector.. This process is expected to last until at least November 2019.
The point was raised that the Steering Group have a duty to communicate back to the community once we have some firm information. It was agreed by the Steering Group that, ahead of the approval of the draft Emerging Local Plan, there is a risk of providing misleading information to the community as the details within the draft Emerging Local Plan might continue to evolve and it is still unclear how these details might impact the Kidmore End Neighbourhood Plan. It was agreed that the next step is to meet with SODC to seek clarification on some aspects pertinent to the Facilitation document and call for sites process before deciding when and how to engage with the community.
The revised draft emerging local plan
The group discussed a number of key changes in the revised emerging local plan and the possible implications to the Facilitation and Call for Sites Process.
• Reading Golf Club and Palmers Riding Stables have been removed as strategic sites
• Smaller villages no longer have a growth target of 5-10%,
• Where there is a NDP the suggested growth is between 5% and 10% based on the 2011 census – clarification required from SODC.
• Smaller Villages no longer have a housing target (previously 500 across SODC for the plan period) however growth from windfall and infill across the plan period is 1300 dwellings in the district.
• The classification of our villages has not changed. Kidmore End is still a smaller village and Gallowstree Common and Tokers Green are other villages and Cane End and Chalkhouse Green are unclassified.
• Guidelines state that where there is a net gain of 5 houses on a single site within the AONB, 40% should be affordable housing. Clarification required from SODC.
Some statements within the revised emerging local plan will require clarifying for Kidmore End Parish, due to the complex nature of our neighbourhood plan relating to five villages.
A brief update on the Call for Sites Register and the sites that have been put forward.
Planning by village since 2011
As part of the call for sites process, the Steering Group has carried out an analysis of housing growth since the 2011 census. 31 properties have been built or approved in the parish since 2011. The previous guidance in the emerging local plan is that 5 – 10% growth is required. The parish growth is currently 6.15%.
The group agreed that, regardless of current levels of evidenced growth, the Kidmore End NDP will still be an important document for influencing the nature of future development.
Actions:
At the Parish Council meeting tomorrow if will be discussed and decided if a councillor will attend the scrutiny, cabinet and council meetings.
Meeting to be arranged with Ricardo Rios from SODC to go through the revised SODC Emerging Local Plan with reference back to the current Facilitation document and to minute the meeting.
The Steering Group to wait for the feedback from SODC before deciding when and how it would be most appropriate to carry out the next step of community engagement. In the meantime, updates are continuing to be posted on the parish website.
4. Policy update:
Policies were not discussed.
Action:
No action until further clarification on the revised emerging local plan. In a previous email to steering group members they were advised that the steering group have been awarded the evidence base and policy technical package
5. The tree preservation order on Reading Golf Club is now documented and the Environment Policy now makes reference to the setting of the AONB.
6. AOB
Jane O’Sullivan has resigned from the Steering Group. The steering group would like to thank Jane O’Sullivan for all her hard work.
7. Date of next meeting
This will be decided once the meeting with SODC has taken place.