Council and councillors

To receive Report No. 68/2022 from the Portfolio Holder for Planning, Highways and Transport.

In consultation with Cabinet Councillor O Hemsley, Leader of the Council:

1.    APPROVED the Issues and Options report (Appendix 1) for the purposes of public consultation.

2.    DELEGATED authority to the Strategic Director of Places, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Planning, to make any minor changes to finalise the consultation document and facilitate the requirements of consultation software as well as to make any changes agreed at Cabinet;

3.    APPROVED the Statement of Community Involvement (Appendix 2) including minor revisions to the text; and

4.    APPROVED the Local Development Scheme (Appendix 3) setting out the timetable for the preparation of the Local Plan.

Report No. 68/2022 as amended by an addendum was introduced by Councillor O Hemsley, Leader of the Council. During his presentation Councillor Hemsley responded to a query raised outside of the meeting regarding housing space capacity. The figures that were in the report were for the whole planning period of the core strategy and in developing a long term plan there would be clearly variations over that planning period to where the supply is located.

The addendum to the report took into account the updated information on calculation of Rutland’s local housing needs figure, following the publication of the Office of National Statistics (ONS) the latest housing affordability index which had not been available during the original drafting of the report. The updated local housing needs for Rutland were now calculated at 142 dwellings per annum as of March 2022 compared to the previous figure of 129 dwellings back in February 2021. The implications of this change to the draft Rutland Issues and Options Report was set out in Appendix A to the addendum.

In response to a query it was confirmed that consultation would include a whole range of methods of communication. There will be virtual and face to face opportunities which Members strongly welcomed. The plans for the consultation would be with the Local Plan Working Group in the near future to put those details in place.

Strategic Director of Places Penny Sharp wanted to reassure Members that a very comprehensive Community and Engagement Plan throughout the duration of the Local Plan process but particularly at the Issues and Options stage.

The main route for people to respond to the Issues and Options would be online. There will be different sections on the website where people can direct themselves to the areas that they are interested in. Current work was being undertaken with the providers of the consultation platform to see if it could be made clear for the public to be able to navigate themselves. If some members of the public can not get access to the online platform, there was the ability for people to respond via hard copy also.

RESOLVED

In consultation with Cabinet Councillor O Hemsley, Leader of the Council:

1. APPROVED the Issues and Options report (Appendix 1) for the purposes of public consultation;

2. DELEGATED authority to the Strategic Director of Places, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Planning, to make any minor changes to finalise the consultation document and facilitate the requirements of consultation software as well as to make any changes agreed at Cabinet;

3. APPROVED the Statement of Community Involvement (Appendix 2) including minor revisions to the text; and

APPROVED the Local Development Scheme (Appendix 3) setting out the timetable for the preparation of the Local Plan.