Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Martin. 

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of intention from any Member of the Committee to make representation as Ward Councillor on any item within the agenda.

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 February 2012 were approved as a true and accurate record.

Approval was sought to carry out works to a lime tree, protected by a Tree Preservation Order. The tree was located outside a detached property, which had gardens fronting onto Oundle Road.

The owner of the property was a Peterborough City Council staff member and the item had therefore been referred to the Committee for consideration for the purposes of transparency.

The Landscape Officer addressed the Committee and advised that the applicant, being concerned for his liability with regards to the tree, had sought advice as to what works were required and appropriate.

The works which had been proposed works would be of no detriment to the tree and would not detract from the visual amenity value that the tree currently provided.

Following brief debate and questions to the Landscape Officer in relation to the nature of the works to be undertaken, a motion was put forward and seconded to approve the routine health and condition works to the lime tee. The motion was carried unanimously.

RESOLVED: (Unanimously) to approve the application, as per officer recommendation, subject to:

1.      The two conditions outlined in the committee report

Reasons for the decision:

Subject to the imposition of the conditions, the works should be granted consent for the following reasons:

-   The Applicant had sought advice from the Case Officer as to what works were required and appropriate;

-   The works were deemed to be appropriate, would not affect the health of the tree nor detract from the visual amenity value that the tree currently provided. The works would also demonstrate that the Applicant was addressing his ‘Duty of Care’ under common law; and

-   The removal of deadwood was considered an exemption under the regulations and the provision of the legal clearances over the road (5.2 metres) and footpath (2.4 metres) could no be reasonably denied as these were a legal requirement.

The Committee received a report which was submitted following recent new and amended Acts of Parliament, in particular the Localism Act 2011 and the amended Town and Country Planning Acts, and recent and forthcoming changes to regulations governing matters such as plan making, planning applications and consultation with communities.

The Committee’s views and comments were sought on a review of the Statement of Community Involvement, which was appended to the committee report. The Statement was due to be presented to Cabinet on 26 March 2012 for approval for the purpose of public consultation. If approved by Cabinet, consultation with stakeholders and the public would be undertaken in April and May 2012.

It was a statutory requirement for the Council to set out how it would consult the public on planning matters and this was set out in the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). The Council had adopted its first SCI in February 2008 and during the past four years there had been considerable changes, especially since the Localism Act 2011 had been given royal assent in November 2011. A refresh of the SCI had therefore been recommended by Officers.

Parts of the SCI were in need of updating from the 2008 version in order to ensure that updated government guidance was properly reflected. There were also two new significant sections which had been added to the SCI relating to a ‘Pre-application Advice Note’ and ‘Neighbourhood Planning’.

Full details of these additions were outlined in the committee report, but in summary, the Localism Act had put in place much stronger requirements for developers to undertake consultation with communities before submitting a formal planning application to the city council. The Act also enabled local planning authorities to prepare a local ‘advice note’ on this matter which a developer was required to have regard to when undertaking pre-application consultation.

To ensure the city council was well prepared in this regard, a draft ‘advice note’ had been set out in the SCI and views were sought on it. A final version would then be prepared, taking account of both the consultation responses and any other national guidance issued in the interim.

The second significant new section in the SCI was entitled ‘Neighbourhood Planning in Peterborough’. This section set out how the Council intended to take forward the wide range of issues which came under the ‘Neighbourhood Planning’ section of the Localism Act.

The SCI also touched upon what alternative options a local neighbourhood had if it did not want to undergo the formal neighbourhood planning process. This would include taking advantage of Supplementary Planning Documents and Community Action Plans which were in the process of being prepared by the Neighbourhood Managers

Members were invited to comment on the SCI and the following points were highlighted:

·         Portions of the document were quite repetitive and may be confusing to members of the public;

·         The document would be better split into three, separating out the Parish Councils  and Neighbourhood Planning  should be separate;

·         The document did  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.