Agenda item

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning which seeks approval from Members to publish the Draft Gloucester City Plan for a six week period of public consultation.

The Interim Planning Policy Manager introduced the report which invited the Sub-Committee to recommend to Council that the Draft City Plan be approved for the purposes of a six week period of public consultation.

He advised that the first full draft of the emerging City Plan was appended to the report and the emerging City Plan had been the subject of three previous consultations.

He noted that references to the strategic allocation at Twigworth would be removed prior to consideration by Council on 1 December as the allocation had not been agreed by Tewkesbury Borough Council.

The Chair referred to Policy D8, Community Facilities and noted that the wording was misleading as it did not make clear that points 1,2 and 3 were requirements and point 4 was an alternative to those points. The Head of Planning undertook to address the issue.

Councillor Dee was disappointed by the decision of Tewkesbury Borough Council not to accept the Twigworth strategic allocation and stated that he had very little confidence in going ahead with further joint planning. He stated that  if the authorities did not work in harmony for the next phase there was a risk that the City would run out of developable land and would become a mere bystander.

The Head of Planning noted that there would be potentially five or more partner authorities for the next phase of strategic planning. He believed that the timescale for the JCS would be extended following Tewkesbury Borough Council’s refusal to accept Twigworth and the Ministry of Defence’s revised plans for withdrawing from Aschurch. He noted that there was a risk of the Inspector finding the JCS unsound due to the lack of a land supply.

The Chair asked what would be the impact on the City Plan should the JCS process stall. The Head of Planning advised that consultations on the City Plan could continue.

Councillor Dee expressed concerns regarding development to the south of the City as transport and road systems were inadequate.

He noted that the JCS situation should not in any way reflect on the Officers involved. He believed that the City Council had given more than its fair share to keep the JCS moving.

He called for some formal recognition from the Government that the City had no current development plan through no fault of its own and needed to be protected from marauding developers.

The Head of Planning noted that should the JCS stall, applications would still come forward for the strategic allocation sites.

RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND to Council to

(1)          approve the Draft Gloucester City Plan for the purposes of a six-week period of public consultation (Appendix 1).

(2)          note the representations made to the City Plan Part 1 during the public consultation period (Appendix 2); and

(3)          endorse the resulting officer responses set out within the response schedule (Appendix 2).

(4)          delegate authority to the Managing Director of the Council in consultation with the relevant Leaders of the Council to make minor changes to the draft City Plan and Proposals Map in terms of formatting, presentation and accuracy, including any minor changes following the considerations at Planning Policy Sub-committee and Council, prior to publication for public consultation purposes.