Agenda and minutes

To record apologies for absence. 

Councillors Alice Badcock and Mike Murray had both sent their apologies for absence. 

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 9 February 2018. 

RESOLVED: to approve the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 9 February 2018 as a correct record and agree that the Chairman signs them as such. 

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.  

None

None

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak. 

Councillor Judy Roberts asked Cabinet how the joint spatial plan could be valid if the route of the proposed Oxford to Cambridge Expressway was unknown. 

In response, it was reported that councillors and officers working on the joint spatial plan had recognised this issue and had raised the question with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.  The Oxfordshire Growth Board had also discussed the matter on 25 September and had requested its chairman to write to the Government to raise this concern. 

Councillor Roberts asked if the Vale could seek special stakeholder status in the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway discussions with Government. 

In response, it was reported that the Vale would be a stakeholder and would attend such events as the council needed to be involved as closely as possible. 

To consider the head of planning’s report. 

Cabinet considered the head of planning’s report on the Oxfordshire Joint Spatial Plan, also known as the Joint Statutory Spatial Plan.  The report sought approval of:

• the Local Development Scheme, which set out the timetable for the plan’s production;
• the draft Statement of Community Involvement for public consultation; and 
• the Scoping Document, setting out the role of the spatial plan. 

The Cabinet member for planning outlined the role of the spatial plan and the documents under consideration.  The spatial plan would set out the strategic plan for Oxfordshire but would not set out the detail. 

In response to the draft documents under consideration, Cabinet noted that the head of planning would meet his counterparts at the other Oxfordshire principal councils to suggest some points of clarification to improve the documents; these are set out in the addendum to these minutes.  In particular, he suggested that the wording of the scoping document in the first sentence of paragraph 3.10 should be amended to read: ‘Whilst the Joint Statutory Spatial Plan will determine the spatial strategy and strategic growth areas, it will not allocate sites except at the request of the relevant local planning authority’.  Cabinet concurred with this suggestion, considering it essential. 

RESOLVED: to

(a)      approve the Local Development Scheme for the Joint Statutory Spatial Plan (as set out in Appendix 1 to the head of planning’s report to Cabinet on 28 September 2018); 

(b)     approve the draft Statement of Community Involvement 2018 (as set out in Appendix 2 to the head of planning’s report to Cabinet on 28 September 2018) for the Joint Statutory Spatial Plan for a six-week period of formal public consultation; and

(c)     authorise the head of planning, in agreement with the other Oxfordshire councils’ equivalent, to make any necessary minor and presentational changes to the draft Local Development Scheme 2018 and draft Joint Statutory Spatial Plan’s Scoping Document before publication, and the draft Statement of Community Involvement 2018 before formal consultation commences.

RECOMMENDATION to Council:

(d)     to approve the Joint Statutory Spatial Plan’s Scoping Document (as set out in Appendix 3 to the head of planning’s report to Cabinet on 28 September 2018).