Agenda item

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 and that development which is appropriate to one stretch may not be suitable in another.  An acknowledgement that conflict can occur between different users of the river, for example cyclists and walkers, or boaters and fishermen will also be helpful;

·         In Principle 5 – Economic Principle on page 7, the Draft Plan currently states “We will optimise the assets of the River to help achieve a sustainable economy.  To avoid any misinterpretation of what is meant by a sustainable economy this principle should be re-written and should make clear the need to balance sustainable economic growth with environmental considerations;

·         In section 8 'Tourism', on page 15, policy 3 'Tourism', there is no objection to the policy but it should be noted that the Council has yet to decide the direction of its main tourism branding.  If the Council does decide to work with, for example, Oxford it could still give support to the Thames Waterway Plan with links on its website and provide information locally;

·         In section 9 'Sport and Recreation' on page 17, policy 7 Sport and recreation policy – objection - bullet point 3 of the possible actions to achieve this policy refers to providing facilities for multi sport clubs.  This action should be prefaced with “In appropriate locations”.  New facilities for multi sports may not be acceptable in the Green Belt or areas of open countryside;

·         In policy 8 'Sport and recreation' policy – objection - same comment applies as to policy 7 above;

·         In policy 11 'Access' – objection - in environmentally sensitive locations along the Thames it may not be appropriate to encourage the creation of car parks.  “Where appropriate” should be inserted in the policy itself and against bullet point one;

·         In policy 13 'Access' – objection - the third action under this policy refers to provide camp sites or budget accommodation at 16km intervals along the river.  The provision of camp sites may again not be appropriate along certain stretches of the river, “where appropriate” should be inserted into the action;

·         In policy 15 'Boating' – objection - comment made to policy 13 applies to the second action under this policy;

·         In section 10 'Powered boating' on page 25, policy 17 'Boating' – objection - add resisting the loss of public slipways to bullet point one and insert “where appropriate” in front of support provision of facilities like dry docks and boat repair yards for the same reasons as set out above;

·         In policy 18 'Permanent mooring' – objection - as written this policy will allow permanent moorings to be created anywhere along The Thames.  The current policy operated by the Council allows permanent moorings to be created only at or adjacent to settlements and by locks where they are most likely to be accessible and less likely to affect the character of the river sites environs.           The policy should be amended to reflect this policy approach;

·         In policy 20 'Residential boats' – that authority be delegated to the Chief Executive in consultation with Councillor Tessa Ward to agree the wording of an objection - this policy allows for residential boats that can be navigated but are lived on for all or most of the year, to be located in off-river basins with suitable facilities.  Because the Vale is very rural there is unlikely to be any location where it will be appropriate to encourage residential boats.  If residential boats were to use existing moorings this would take away spaces for those seeking to moor overnight.  This policy should not apply the Vale of White Horse District due to its special rural charcter;

·         In policy 21 'Hire boat' – objection - the last bullet point of possible actions under this policy to support the creation of new hire boat bases is too open ended and needs to specify where new facilities may be appropriate;

·         In policy 22 'Passenger boat' – objection - the same comment under Policy 17 applies to the second bullet point under possible actions.