Notes of Steering Group Meeting,
Kidmore End Parish NDP Steering Group
25th June 2020 at 7.30pm
Zoom video call
1. Declaration of interest
No change from the last meeting.
2. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
The final version of the minutes of the last meeting was approved.
3. Feedback on Policies
A summary was sent to the group in early June.
The site allocation policy and local transport policies are being reviewed and ‘approved’ in draft form by SODC and the members of Steering Group.
The Local Character suite of policies include a range of policies as well as some supporting appendices for each village. A member of the Steering Group has created a sample format for Kidmore End Village with a view to others picking this up for the other villages. These are to be distributed when the draft is completed. A member of the group from each village will be asked to complete this task
The Infill wording in the Emerging Local Plan is changing quite significantly and the final version will not be known until the plan is ratified. Previously there was a table included to show densities, but this has now been removed following advice by the inspector.
Therefore, all work on our polices will need to be reviewed and amended once the Emerging Local Plan is confirmed and we have had feedback from the community on our draft wording.
Meeting is being arranged to discuss the final points of current policy working with planning officer at SODC
AONB Policies:
The Landscape policies have been split into three.
• AONB and Setting
• Gap – Tokers Green and Caversham
• Valued Landscape
A group member is continuing to write the three separate policies. AONB and Setting is coming on well The Gap policy is a bit more controversial as some inspectors don’t like this as a term / concept. However, SODC are supportive of both.
The Valued Landscape policy is not common within NDPs in general and SODC have expressed some concerns about the strength of this, however, as this is important to the residents of our parish the Steering Group expressed support with trying to push this through.
Wokingham have introduced a Valued Landscape policy and the group member has looked at their documents.
Chiltern Conservation Board, planning officer have given support to our approach. As have the Chiltern Society planning officer.
CPRE – The Countryside Charity are non-committal.
We have been advised by SODC that anyone with land which is not in the AONB within the parish will need to be contacted in order for them to give feedback on the Landscape policies. This can be done by informing them by email or in a communication in the Henley Standard of the next community event. There does not have to be a formal consultation process.
Keep Emmer Green KEG have notified local residents that Fairfax are going to put in for planning permission, across the whole of the Reading Golf Club site, to Reading Borough Council, not the smaller area that has been agreed in Reading Local Plan.
Actions:
The draft policies will be sent out all with the most recent wording for policies following the meeting and the meeting with SODC planning officer for members of the Steering Group to review and digest. Amendments/suggestions not to be sent until the end of the summer
A group member to send the drafts to the lead on policies so that they can go out as a batch of policies. terra firma has agreed to be a critical friend and review these policies
Once the Emerging Local Plan is confirmed, we will update our policies and go out to the community for their input. Currently the format of this consultation is unknown and will depend on government guidelines regarding Covid 19. However, there are numerous possibilities that are available to the group via the parish council website if required.
4. Correspondence
Further correspondence has been received from a small resident group – Keep Kidmore End Green and also from a landowner.
The Steering Group have consulted with SODC regarding the 5 questions asked by the resident group. SODC have provided their responses to the Steering Group, they support the processes followed by the Steering Group as well as providing some additional clarifications in respect of the questions.
The Group discussed how to respond to the correspondence from the small resident group. The final decision was to respond on 22nd July at the parish council meeting with a response which is being circulated to the group and will be agreed prior to the meeting on 22nd July.
Correspondence has also been received from the landowner of CFS10 requesting a re-assessment of the site status, as they believe that the site should now be given a ‘green’ rather than ‘amber’ rating. The Steering Group have asked SODC what process should be followed and whether other sites would also need to be re-evaluated and whether all third parties involved initially in the rating process should be involved again.
SODC have stated that if two sites are rated as ‘green’ then we would need to go back to the community to consult on this matter.
The Steering Group are waiting for further advice from SODC.
Actions:
Group member to liaise with planning officer from SODC relating to the questions from the resident group and for this information to be available to KEPC
Group member to liaise with SODC regarding the status of CFS10.
Based on the response from SODC regarding CFS10 the Steering Group may need an additional meeting to discuss the response.
5. Update on Landscape Sensitivity Study
A group member has contacted terra firma landscape consultancy regarding a possible updating of the Landscape Sensitivity Study to ensure it is fully up to date with current policies in the Chilterns Management Plan, the updated NPPF as well as the Emerging Local Plan, which have all changed since the initial study was commissioned.
The Steering Group agreed with this proposal to ask terra firma to complete the Box 5.1 Assessment’ to support policies and topic paper
Study. That terra firma landscape consultancy would include this when the update of the Land Sensitivity Study is carried out.
The group agreed that this should be paid for out of current funds and not using a grant as this would take longer to finalise and the work can be completed in July.
Actions:
To commission terra firma landscape consultancy to update the Study in July 2020.
6. Next Steps
No further issues were discussed.
7. AOB:
A group member communicated to the group that it will not be possible to complete further work on the policies from the end of June until the end of the summer.
8. Date of next meeting:
The date of the next meeting to be confirmed following feedback from SODC.