Agenda item

To invite the committee to comment on the draft Statement of Community Involvement. The following documents are attached (with a report to follow):

·         Part 1 - Getting involved in shaping our future

·         Part 2 - Getting involved in the preparation of the Local Plan and planning policy

·         Part 3 - Getting involved in planning applications

·         Draft equalities impact assessment (EqIA)

Councillor Roger Cox, the Cabinet member for planning policy had submitted his apologies. In his absence, Ben Davis, planning policy officer introduced this item.  Also present to answer questions was Adrian Duffield, head of planning.

The committee considered the updated Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) which was out for public consultation.  As the consultation fell within the school holiday period it had been extended until 14 September, in accordance with the commitment set out in the draft SCI.

During the ensuing discussion the committee made the following comments on the draft SCI:

General comments

·         The consultation document should be reviewed before the final version is published to ensure that language is as user-friendly as possible.

·         A glossary of terms should be added to each part of the SCI.

·         Any footnotes should be on the relevant page rather than at the end of the document.

·         A separate user guide on planning applications should be produced.

·         A monitoring (measurement) system should be established to ensure that public engagement is effective

Specific

SCI Part 1

·         Page 4, Ease of access to information, bullet point 2: the feasibility of a dedicated planning service facebook/twitter account for consultations on planning policy documents and major planning applications should be explored.

·         Page 4, Ease of access to information, bullet point 5: delete “ and how your comments have been taken into account” and insert “and will provide feedback on your comments”.

·         Page 5, Where can I view planning documents? bullet point 8: delete “Westgate Library, Oxford” and insert “Oxford Central Library, Castle Quarter”.

SCI Part 2

·         Page 5, Who do we consult?: the list of statutory consultees to be publicly available.

·         Page 15, All consultation reports and statements should be accessible at a specific location on the Council website.

·         There should be a separate section on neighbourhood plans.

SCI Part 3

·         Page 6, What is a pre-application? second paragraph: delete “ any pre-application advice” and insert “any pre-application advice letter”.

·         Page 6, amend heading to read “Who might be involved in the Development Forum” rather than“ Who will be….”

·         Consideration be given to how the Development Forum fits into the planning application process (see flowchart on page 5, and narrative on page 6). The flowchart mentions a ‘developer forum’; and it is not clear whether this is the same as a Development Forum mentioned on the next page.

·         Page 7, Neighbour notification letter: criteria used to determine who may be directly affected by a proposal to be set out as examples.

·         Page 7, Site Notice: delete last sentence of paragraph 4.

·         Page 7, Email alerts. Use a full link rather than a ‘click here’, which doesn’t work from a printed copy of the SCI.

·         Page 8, Neighbourhood notification consultation: bullet point list to be included to show when wider consultation may be carried out.

·         Page 11, Does it matter what I think?: title to be deleted and  paragraph to be moved to precede “What types of comments are taken into account” on page 10.

·         Page 12, The paragraph setting out the Council’s policy on enforcement to be added together with information on how to report a breach of planning conditions and the contact details for the customer services team

·         Page 13-16, Consideration to be given to adding social media as another column for publicity in Appendix 1 of Part 3

·         Page 13, a new box for social media – facebook/twitter account to be added for consultations on major planning applications.

RESOLVED: to request the Cabinet member for planning policy to take the committee’s comments, detailed above, into account as part of the consultation on the Statement of Community Involvement.