Issue - meetings

Local Plan Pause - External Review

Meeting: 19/07/2023 - Council (Item 72)

72 Local Plan - Critical Friend Review PDF 233 KB

To consider the specification of work to be undertaken by the critical friend and the timetable.

Additional documents:

report to Council critical friend 19.07.23 App A, item 72 PDF 296 KB

Minutes:

Council considered a report on the specification of work to be undertaken by the Critical Friend and a suggested timetable for that work.

It was proposed by Councillor J Sexton and seconded by Councillor C Bateson that Council agree the specification of work to be undertaken by the critical friend and the timetable as set out in the report.

A recorded vote was requested by Councillor J Boughtflower.

For (20):	M Arnold, E Baldock, C Bateson, S Beatty, M Beecher, M Bing Dong, H Boparai, M Buck, T Burrell, J Caplin, A Gale, D Geraci, M Gibson, K Grant, S Gyawali, L Nichols, K Rutherford, J Sexton, J Turner, H Williams
Against (8):	M Attewell, S Bhadye, J Boughtflower, R Chandler, K Howkins, N Islam, M Lee, A Mathur
Abstain (3):	L Brennan, S Dunn, D Saliagopoulos

Resolved to agree the specification of work to be undertaken by the Critical Friend as set out in Appendix A of the report and the timetable at paragraph 11.2 of the report.

Meeting: 26/06/2023 - Corporate Policy and Resources Committee (Item 67)

67 Local Plan Pause - External Review PDF 406 KB

Report to follow.

Additional documents:

Decision:

Committee resolved to:

1. Not agree to using the vision dated December 2021 as a baseline benchmark against which the Regulation 19 Submission version of the Local Plan and not to make a recommendation to Council to adopt the vision for this purpose;

2. Not agree the draft provisional specification of works drawn up by the proposed ‘critical friend’ for the review;

3. Agree to issue a direct award contract to Catriona Riddell Associates (CRA) to undertake a review of the Local Plan;

4. Agree to give delegated authority to the Chief Executive and the Group Head of Corporate Governance to enter a contract with CRA;

5. This recommendation was not voted on due to the vote against recommendation 1;

6. Agree that the costs for the review would come from the Corporate Budget;

7. Agree to set a date of 14 September 2023 for an Extraordinary Council Meeting (ECM) in line with the motion agreed at the ECM on 06 June 2023;

8. Agree to note the risk considerations; and

9. This recommendation was not voted on due to the vote against recommendation 1;

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report on the Council’s Local Plan following the decision made at Council on 06 June 2023 to approve the following motion:

“Spelthorne Borough Council formally requests the Planning Inspector to pause the Examination Hearings into the Local Plan for a period of three (3) months to allow time for the new council to understand and review the policies and implications of the Local Plan and after the three month pause the Council will decide what actions may be necessary before the Local Plan examination may proceed.”

During the debate it was proposed by Councillor Williams and seconded by Councillor Beecher that Standing Order 38.1 should be suspended so that the meeting could go beyond the 3 hour mark.

Committee resolved to suspend Standing Order 38.1.