To consider the head of policy and programmes’ report.
Minutes:
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.
Supporting documents:
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