Issue - meetings

To receive and consider report 58/05 of the Strategic Director. 

(Time: 3.05pm to 3.15pm)

The Executive received and considered report 58/05 of the Strategic Director.  The Environment Agency had prepared a draft Thames Waterway Plan for consultation with key stakeholders, including the Vale.  The Environment Agency was intending that the River Thames Alliance should adopt the Thames Waterway Plan and that Councils should modify their own plans and policy documents to reflect it. 

At a meeting of the Executive in July 2004, the authority had agreed to join the River Thames Alliance and appointed Councillor Peter Green as its representative.  Councillor Green had been consulted on draft plan and was content with the officer's suggested amendments to it.    The purpose of the partnership was to bring together key stakeholders including the Environment Agency, local authorities, riparian landowners and river user groups to focus on strategic issues affecting the rejuvenation of the River.  One of the objectives was to produce jointly agreed proposals for the development and management of the river and the preparation and implementation of a sustainable ‘waterway plan’ for the Thames. 

The Vale was consulted on the draft policies and actions in October 2004 and Jayne Mills of the Environment Agency gave a presentation to relevant Members and officers at that time.  A small working group of officers and Councillor Green replied, on the Council’s behalf, to the draft policies and actions.  Whilst many of the Council’s comments on the draft plan had been taken account in the revised draft plan, there were still two main concerns:

·         Greater weight should be given to balancing environmental issues with the desire to see greater use of the river

·         Some policies were either inappropriate or too open ended to be adopted by the Council in the review of its Local Plan.  The proposed vision, core objectives and policies contained in the Draft Plan were appended to the officer's report

The report set out a series of suggested amendments.  The Executive agreed with the majority of these, except that with regard to policy 20, Members suggested that there should not be an objection to the policy per se, but rather there should be an objection to the creation of residential boat moorings in off-river basins in the Vale District.  It was agreed that delegated authority could be given to agree the wording for the response to this policy. 

RESOLVED

that the Environment Agency be thanked for the opportunity to comment on the Thames Waterway Plan, and that amendments to the plan be sought as set out below:

·         In section 1 'Introduction', on page 4, add after Thames ‘and its environs’;

·         In the 'Core Objective' on page 4, bullet point two after “improve and maintain” add “in a sustainable manner” and in bullet point four insert at the start “where appropriate”;

·         In section 3 'Underlying Principles', on page 6, at the start of this section of the plan it will be helpful to describe the diverse character of the Thames and some of the special policy areas through which it runs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59