Resolved: That Cllr. Mrs. Hunter be appointed as Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing municipal year.

 (Cllr. Mrs. Hunter in the Chair)

Resolved: That Cllr. Thornton be appointed as Vice Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing municipal year.

Any interest not already registered.

No additional declarations of interest were made.

The Portfolio Holder for Planning advised Members that:

·                     a new 2 year fixed term contract Conservation Officer post was being advertised along with a replacement Planning Officer;

·                     the Chief planning Officer apologised for not being present and had advised that his priority was ‘developing less experienced staff’;

·                     planning application numbers were high and more than the previous year;

·                     75% of planning appeals were being won by the Council;

·                     with regard to s.215 enforcement notices, one had recently been served in St Johns and he hoped to have a monthly campaign;

·                     progress was being made on large applications such as Fort Halstead, which would possibly be going to the Development Control Committee meeting in September;

·                     the Government’s response to the the Gypsy and Traveller consultation was still awaited;

·                     with regards to Gatwick, he would be attending a meeting with Paul Carter at Edenbridge.  Transport for London (TfL) were keen to gain the south east franchise;

·                     he would be attending the first meeting of the municipal year of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Forum the following week and he was hoping to try and secure some funding for Otford Palace Tower as they had recently secured some external funding for Darent Valley;

·                     he was committed to improving the viability performance on affordable housing; and

·                     with regards to regeneration there was the possible opportunity to form a working group with the Economic & Community Development Advisory Committee;

Action 1: The Housing Policy Manager be asked to circulate a paper on affordable housing.

Action 2: Cllr. Gaywood to raise his development control committee constitutional concerns with the Chief Officer Legal & Governance

There were none.

Members considered a report which provided details of the role of the Committee, its areas of responsibility and key issues and challenges facing those areas.  Members received a short presentation from the Head of Parking and Surveying, the Strategic Planning Manager and the Development Manager on the relevant service areas and had the opportunity to ask questions.

Action 3:  Head of Parking and Surveying to keep the Portfolio Holder up to date on any Landcharges issues via briefing meetings and if necessary bring a report to Committee.

Resolved:  That the report be noted.

Members noted that subject to the Planning Advisory Committee’s agreement, the Housing & Health Advisory Committee had agreed that the “Housing Needs” Working Group be reconstituted with 6 members to include Cllr Dr. Canet, Cllr Eyre, Cllr Gaywood, Cllr Horwood and Cllr Parkin (Councillors Dr. Canet, Gaywood and Horwood also being members of the Planning Advisory Committee).  The Planning Advisory Committee were therefore being asked to agree to the working group and appoint an additional member.  The Committee discussed appointing Cllr McGregor but he had tended his apologies and in his absence Cllr Scholey agreed he would take up the position if Cllr McGregor did not wish to.  The Committee requested to see the presentation received by the Housing & Community Safety Advisory Committee by the previous working group.

Resolved: That

a)    the setting up of the joint Working Group to consider Housing Need and using the planning system to provide more properties of the type needed within the District, be agreed;

b)    the Working Group consist of six Members; and

c)    either Cllr McGregor or Scholey be the additional member from the Planning Advisory Committee.

The Strategic Planning Manager presented a report which provided a summary project plan for the work needed to achieve an adopted Local Plan.  Preparation of a Local Plan was required by Government. The current Core Strategy and Allocations and Development Management Plan were to be updated and combined in a new Local Plan for Sevenoaks District ensuring compliance of policy with any changes in national planning policy since their adoption.  It was requested that all key decisions be determined within years 2 and 3 of the current administration.  It was also requested that local Members be kept thoroughly apprised.

Resolved:  That

a)        preparation of an Area Action Plan (AAP) for Swanley and Hextable be commenced;

b)        subject to the agreement of the  Economic & Community Development Advisory Committee’s , a joint working group of 6 be set up to include Cllrs. Clark, Halford and Hunter,  looking at the protection of employment land especially with regard to the Swanley and Hextable AAP; and

c)         the work programme summary for preparing a Local Plan be accepted and noted.

Members were advised that a Sevenoaks Infrastructure Delivery Plan was first prepared in 2010 for the Core Strategy (adopted 2011) and that this was a “live” document which illustrated the infrastructure that was required to support development across the District. Following the adoption of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Charging Schedule in February 2014, the Council was currently updating its draft Infrastructure Plan which would be used as evidence for the new Local Plan and provide up to date information for elaborating the Council’s Regulation 123 List (adopted November 2014) which set out the infrastructure that could be funded through CIL receipts.

An updated report would be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 17 September 2015.

The Planning Officer (Policy) advised that Town and Parish Councils would be provided with a second chance to submit comments as the previous deadline had fallen over the run up to the elections, it would also give a further opportunity to reinforce that it was a ‘live ‘ document.

Resolved:  That the report on the progress of the Infrastructure Plan as an important element of the evidence base for the new Local Plan and CIL Regulation 123 List, be noted.

The work plan was noted with the following additions agreed:

It was noted that the Gypsy and Traveller Plan (the third development plan document) would also be reported at some stage during the year, and it was hoped that the Squaring the Housing Circle working group from the previous municipal year would be able to show the presentation given to the previous Housing & Community Safety Advisory Committee.