Agenda item

To receive and consider report 253/05 of the Strategic and Local Planning Advisory Group and make recommendations to the Executive for modifications to the Local Plan. 

MEMBERS ARE REQUESTED TO RETAIN THIS AGENDA FOR USE AT MEETINGS OF THE EXECUTIVE (IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THIS MEETING) AND THE COUNCIL (22 MARCH).  THE REPORTS WITHIN THIS AGENDA HAVE BEEN SENT TO EVERY MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL AND HAVE BEEN PRINTED ONLY ONCE TO SAVE PAPER. 

(Councillor Mary de Vere declared a personal interest in this item and in accordance with Standing Order 34, she remained in the meeting during its consideration.)

The Committee received and considered report 253/05 of the Strategic and Local Planning Advisory Group, which set out recommendations for changes to the Local Plan following receipt of the Local Plan Inquiry Inspector's report.  These changes were set out in a series of schedules, including the Inspector's recommendations and the Advisory Group's views on those recommendations. 

The Committee considered the major issues in some detail, noting that many of the other changes recommended by the Inspector were of a minor nature and had been supported by all Members of the Advisory Group.  The Committee largely agreed with the views of the Advisory Group but added a number of changes of its own. 

The major issue debated by the Committee was the Inspector's recommendation concerning the proposed allocation of 100 dwellings on the former Dow site at Letcombe Regis.  Further to the report, Members were advised that the Strategic and Local Planning Advisory Group had met again on 15 March 2006 and recommended that the Inspector’s policy for the former Dow site should be accepted for the reasons set out in paragraphs 8.20.33 – 8.20.50 of his report.  An amended schedule was circulated prior to the meeting outlining this. 

The Local Member spoke against the Advisory Group's recommendation for a number of reasons.  He believed that the proposed development of the site should not have been included in the first place, feeling that all of the issues had not been properly considered.  The officers at Oxfordshire County Council had changed their minds, no longer objecting to the allocation on highways grounds.  He criticised this decision and questioned what had changed to alter their opinion.  He urged the Committee to ignore this view and reject the Inspector's recommendation, thereby protecting the village from unsustainable development.  He suggested that the fall back position of a continuation of the B1 office use of the site was always a possibility and would have been taken into account in the Council's earlier decision.  The Local Member's objection was supported by some other Members of the Committee. 

Other Members believed that the Advisory Group's recommendations should be supported as the Council would need a very good reason to overturn the Inspector's recommendation.  With the latest view from the County Council removing the highways objections, it was considered that there was, reluctantly, no longer a good reason to oppose the Inspector's view.  By nine votes to eight, the Committee accepted the Advisory Group's recommendation.   

RESOLVED   

that the Executive be recommended to recommend on to the Council:

(a)               That, subject to the further amendments set out below, the schedules set out in Appendix 2 to report 253/05 be published as the Council’s statement of decisions on the Inspectors' reports and recommendations on the joint Didcot Local Plan Inquiry and the Vale of White Horse Local Plan Inquiry:

(i)         amend paragraph 2.11 of the Local Plan to reflect the Council's vision agreed in November 2005;

(ii)        the Inspector's recommended paragraph 5.23 which refers to the Wantage Relief Road is ambiguous and should be changed in the proposed modifications to read "It has been a long held objective of the District Council and Wantage Town Council that Wantage should have a relief road for the traffic which causes problems throughout the town, particularly in the historic town centre." (page 19 of the Development Control Committee's agenda)

(iii)       amend the reference to the Great Western Park development at Didcot, to state that any increase in the number of dwellings built on the site will count towards the Vale's housing requirements (page 30 of the Development Control Committee's agenda)

(iv)       the proposed modification PM8.40, for the development west of Didcot, should read as set out in Appendix A to these minutes;

(v)        in the context of the Inspector's report and the letter from OxfordshireCounty Council as highway authority (dated 10 March 2006) withdrawing its objection to 100 houses, the former Dow site at Letcombe Regis be identified for no more than 100 dwellings following the demolition of the former employment structures.  The revised wording for the Council's decision in relation to the Inspector's recommendation, the changes resulting to the analysis of the number of dwellings provided through the Local Plan and the proposed lower case text and policy are set out at Appendix B (by nine votes to eight);

(vi)       the term 'not more than four small dwellings to be permitted' in Policy H11 be clarified by adding the following words after the second sentence in paragraph 8.58 of the Local Plan "This is consistent with the objective of widening housing opportunities in accordance with the Housing Needs Survey which shows a shortage of one and two bedroomed dwellings in all tenure groups in the coming years (page 44 of the Development Control Committee's agenda);

(vii)      the Council's response to the Inspector's recommendation to Policy H12 should refer to the Council's position that the policy enabling one or two small houses within the built up areas of the other settlements in the Vale does not apply to very small groups of houses and ribbons of development (page 45 of the Development Control Committee's agenda);

(viii)     the proposed modification to the Proposals Map (PM Map 15) be amended by deleting the Bell Public House from the Primary Shopping Frontage in Mill Street and the Market Place in Wantage (page 125 of the Development Control Committee's agenda);

(b)               That, subject to the further amendments set out in (a) above, the changes set out in Appendix 3 to report 253/05 be published as the Council’s proposed modifications to the Local Plan for a period of six weeks, together with the required statutory notice advertising the proposed modifications and the Council’s intention to adopt the Local Plan if no objections are received;

(c)               that authority be delegated to the Chief Executive to publish (a) and (b) above according to the statutory requirements, and to make any minor consequential and editorial changes that may be necessary.  Should any substantive inconsistencies arise, the responsibility to resolve the issues be delegated to the Deputy Director (Planning and Community Strategy), in consultation with the Chair of the Strategic and Local Planning Advisory Group and the Development Control Committee Opposition Spokesman;

(d)               that the policies that are unchanged by the Inspector’s recommendations and the proposed modifications (Appendix 4 to report 253/05) be adopted for development control purposes from 27 March 2006 for applications received on or after 8 May 2006; and

(e)               that where no duly made objections are received to the proposed modifications to other policies within the six week consultation period, those policies be adopted for development control purposes on the Monday immediately following the closing date for comments.  If the closing date is 4 May 2006, then this should apply to applications received on or after 8 May 2006.