Decisions

To award a call-off contract for merchant banking services to Barclaycard, using a Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Framework (RM6118), to commence as soon as possible and expire on 31 January 2026. 

1.       To authorise the Joint Local Plan to proceed to Issues consultation. Consultation documents to be published in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Transformation, and the Head of Service for Policy and Programmes, for a 6-week consultation.

This is in accordance with Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended).

2.       That prior to consultation commencement, officers prepare an online, interactive version of the Issues document, as well as a desktop-published version.

3.       To publish alongside the Issues Consultation any necessary supporting documents, including:

•         Sustainability Appraisal (SA) Screening and Scoping Report - May 2022

•         Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) Scoping Report - May 2022

•         Draft Settlement Assessment Methodology - May 2022

•         Duty to Cooperate Scoping Document - May 2022

Cabinet considered the head of policy and programmes’ report, being the corporate plan performance monitoring report for quarter 3, 2021/22.  This covered the period 1 October to 31 December 2021. 

The Cabinet member for corporate services and transformation reported that the monitoring report provided a strategic overview of performance, focusing on the activity to deliver the priorities in the corporate plan. 

The report had been considered by the Scrutiny Committee.  The committee had found the report helpful in understanding and monitoring the council’s activity.  The committee had asked the Cabinet member to consider improving the report’s promotion to the public, and suggested a press release each quarter along with social media posts.  The Cabinet member would be working with officers and the Cabinet member for community engagement on these suggestions during the next quarter. 

The Climate Emergency Advisory Committee had considered and welcomed the report also. 

Cabinet welcomed the performance monitoring report and thanked the Scrutiny Committee for its suggestions.  Cabinet recognised that not all councils undertook this level of reporting; this illustrated the council’s commitment to openness and accountability.  Cabinet thanked officers for the large amount of work being undertaken to further the council’s corporate objectives, particularly during the third quarter of 2021/22. 

RESOLVED: to note the corporate plan performance monitoring report for quarter 3, 2021/22. 

Cabinet considered the head of policy and programmes’ report on a draft supplementary planning document for Dalton Barracks, a strategic housing allocation in the adopted local plan. 

The Cabinet member for corporate services and transformation referred Cabinet to the consultation statement and proposed modifications to the Dalton Barracks draft supplementary planning document.  The report asked Cabinet to consider the main issues arising from the consultation, to consider the proposed modifications, and to adopt the supplementary planning document. 

Cabinet recalled that the Local Plan 2031 Part 2 was adopted in October 2019 and allocated land at Dalton Barracks for a mixed-use development of 1,200 homes, removing that land from the Green Belt.  The local plan set out the council’s intention to produce additional guidance to allow planning of the allocated site.  The supplementary planning document contained that guidance.  

The Cabinet member reported that the strategic site allocation in the local plan covered part of the wider Ministry of Defence base at Dalton Barracks.  This was a result of a change the local plan Inspector had required to make the allocation smaller, so that it included only the land that would be needed for development in the plan period to 2031, and for which there was a well-developed evidence base.  Although the whole Ministry of Defence site had been selected by the government to join the Garden Communities Programme as a Garden Village in 2019, the supplementary planning document was focused on the part of the base that was allocated for development in the local plan. 

The supplementary planning document set out the design requirements and the information needed to support any planning applications for the site, to ensure that a high quality development was delivered.  The design and delivery of the new village would follow garden village principles.  The adopted supplementary planning document would be a material consideration in assessing future planning applications for the site.  Supplementary planning documents did not require independent examination, but they were subject to public consultation, which had been carried out in October and November 2021.  The Scrutiny Committee had considered the draft document inNovember 2021 and had supported it. 

A report on the public consultation process, the main issues and the proposed modifications was appended to the report.  There had been 218 responses, producing 863 categorised comments overall.  During the consultation period, officers had met with two local parish councils, St Helen Without and Wootton, to support them with their queries and consultation responses.  Since the close of the consultation period, further responses had been submitted by Natural England and the CPRE, the countryside charity.  The landowner of the site, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, had also submitted an updated response.  The Cabinet member reported that none of these late responses had raised new main issues that had not already been considered as part of the consultation process.  The landowners of the site had stated that they expected to submit a planning application during the last quarter of 2022.  Therefore, it was important that the council had a supplementary planning document in place as a material consideration to guide the form of that application. 

Modifications had been proposed to the supplementary planning document to address points previously raised by Cabinet members, including decentralised renewable energy supply, air source heat pumps, battery storage, electric vehicle charging, and active travel options. 

The Cabinet member recommended that Cabinet adopted the supplementary planning document with the proposed modifications.  

Cabinet supported the adoption of the supplementary planning document.  Cabinet could see that the document had taken into account the views of the two local parish councils, the landowner and the public  This had produced a document to guide a sustainable, green, exemplar garden village of high quality. 

Cabinet noted that officers would create a final version of the supplementary planning document and publish it along with an adoption statement, in accordance with the regulations. 

RESOLVED: to

(a)       adopt the Dalton Barracks Strategic Allocation Supplementary Planning Document, subject to the modifications set out in the head of policy and programmes’ report and appendices to Cabinet on 8 April 2022; and

(b)       authorise the head of policy and programmes, in consultation with the Cabinet member for corporate services and transformation, to make the changes set out in the report and its appendices, and any other minor amendments or typographical corrections to the supplementary planning document, prior to publication.