Issue - meetings

The Chair, or his nominee, to answer any questions raised by members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 40.

Note: the deadline for questions to be considered at this meeting is 5pm on Tuesday, 2 November 2021.

At the time of publication of this agenda three questions had been received.

Three questions were received from members of the public in relation to agenda item 10, Updates from Task and Finish and/or Working Groups.  Only two questions are admissible for each agenda item, furthermore one of the questions submitted was rejected by the Monitoring Officer as it did not fall within the remit of the Environment and Sustainability Committee.

Question 1 from Kath Sanders

“As Mr Nigel Rowe mentioned in Question 5 at the July Council meeting "The government has made it clear that infrastructure constraints should be taken into account when setting “a sustainable housing target” and work on this has not yet been done."

The answer to him and to several of my questions at the last full council meeting in July referenced the draft Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) which residents have not had sight of. One reason for not publishing it seems to be that it was only draft and another that it was awaiting a Part 2. This has not precluded the publication of other draft reports in the Local Plan process or other reports where a Part 2 followed. 

There seems to be no mention of the IDP in the minutes of the Environment & Sustainability Committee meeting on 14th September, I don't believe it was mentioned at the Extraordinary E&S Committee meeting last night (6th October) and it is not in the forward plan for the next meeting on the 9th November. The Local Plan Task Group does not publish minutes but, in the last verbal update to the E&S Committee meeting on 14th September, it was not mentioned either.

Please can you provide an update as to when the Infrastructure Delivery Plan will be made available to residents?”

Response from Cllr Beardsmore, Chair of Environment and Sustainability Committee:

“Work is continuing to develop the Infrastructure Delivery Plan in line with the proposed site allocations for the Consultation on the pre-Submission version of the Local Plan (Regulation 19) in 2022.  This further work includes the Part 2 element which will consider individual sites in greater detail, in regard to their infrastructure requirements if any are identified. We Members feel our residents should see the full picture rather than seeing Part 1 ahead of the Part 2 element.  To ensure that the IDP as a whole is a robust, evidence based document it is necessary to provide the most up-to-date information as a means of supporting the work on the new Local Plan.  The IDP has previously been through two rounds of consultation with service providers and other key stakeholders to establish their needs in the context of the Borough’s housing requirements and anticipated growth.  These consultations have allowed the relevant providers to identify where additional services would be required however not all providers have identified needs as a result of the proposed growth. 

The IDP, as a whole, will be published in advance of the Regulation 19 consultation, which the Council’s Local development Scheme states is to be held in February and March  ...  view the full minutes text for item 509