Agenda and minutes

          Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Lowndes (Vice Chair), Serluca, Ash and Lane.

          Councillors Winslade attended as substitute and Councillor Swift wished for it to be noted that he was unable to attend as substitute.

          There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 October 2010 were approved as a true and accurate record.

            The Committee received a report which sought its comments on the Planning Policies Development Plan Document (DPD) (Consultation Draft Version), prior to its presentation to Cabinet on 13 December 2010, for approval for the purpose of public consultation in Spring 2011.  

            Members were advised that once the document had been out for public consultation, it would be brought back to the Planning Committee for further consideration prior to additional consultation and finally independent examination.

            The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 introduced a new system of plan-making, which was known as the Local Development Framework (LDF). One of the documents that the Council had to produce as part of the LDF was the Planning Policies DPD, which sat beneath and took its lead from the Peterborough Core Strategy.

            The Core Strategy set out the vision, objectives and overall strategy for the development of Peterborough up to 2026, together with a limited number of policies which were core to achieving or delivering that Strategy.

The Planning Policies DPD was intended to provide detailed Policy statements in order to help in determining planning applications. The policies in the Planning Policies DPD would help to deliver the overarching principles that were established within the Peterborough Core Strategy.

            The Planning Policies DPD was less sensitive than other statutory planning documents for Peterborough such as the Core Strategy and the Site Allocations DPD. This was because it did not include new land allocations for development. The document was of greater interest to the ‘professional’ industry of planners, architects and developers. The policies themselves, once adopted, would become extremely important when determining planning applications. They would give the Council powers and justification to refuse or approve an application, particularly on detailed design matters.  

            In the early stages of preparing the Planning Policies DPD, an ‘Issues and Options’ document had been consulted on during October and November 2008. This identified possible issues to be addressed and alternative Policy approaches for each of these issues. All of the comments made during that stage had been analysed and taken into consideration when formulating the policies contained within the Planning Policies DPD. A draft version of the document had also been considered by the Local Development Framework (LDF) Scrutiny Group on 29 November 2010. The changes arising from comments made at the LDF Scrutiny Group meeting were due to be incorporated into the document prior to its submission to Cabinet.

            The Policy and Strategy Manager addressed the Committee and stated that there had been numerous changes made to the Policies prior to the submission of the document to the Planning Committee for comment. A summary of these changes was as follows:

·        PP1 – ‘The Location and Design of New Development’. The Policy had been re-worded and was now called ‘Design Quality’. The re-wording of the Policy had been undertaken as it was felt that the original version could have been construed as being quite negative

·        PP2 – ‘Amenity’. The Policy had previously been divided into two parts and in order  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

            The Committee received a report which sought its comments on the Design and Development in Selected Villages Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) (Consultation Draft), prior to its presentation to Cabinet on 13 December 2010 for approval for the purpose of public consultation in early 2011.

            Members were advised that once the document had been out for public consultation, it would be brought back to the Planning Committee for further consideration prior to its adoption.

The Design in Selected Villages SPD set out detailed development management design related policies for selected rural villages. These were to be used on a daily basis by planning officers when considering the detailed aspects of applicable planning permissions.

            It was important to note that the SPD did not set strategic growth targets for villages and nor did it allocate new land for development. 

            Once adopted, the policies would become extremely important when determining planning applications. They would give the Council powers and justification to either refuse or approve an application, particularly on detailed design matters, which could be extremely sensitive in local village communities.

            Consultation had previously been undertaken with Parish Councils and the feedback which had been gathered from them with regards to the document had been of a positive nature.

In summary, the SPD contained an introduction and overview of how to respond to the consultation, a small set of generic policies for development in villages, which applied to all of the villages and finally an individual chapter for each of the villages. Each of the individual chapters was around 4 pages long and contained a description and history of the village, background recent studies and policy documents for that village, a specific policy for that village, links to a wider evidence base and finally a map of the village. 

            Members positively commented on the document and stated that it was extremely well crafted, being both readable and logical.

            The Committee was advised that its comments would be relayed to Cabinet for consideration prior to the approval of the document for public consultation.

            RESOLVED: to comment on the Design and Development in Selected Villages SPD (Consultation Draft), with such comments being reported to Cabinet on 13 December 2010.