Agenda item

Councillor Peter Topping, Leader of the Council outlined work being done to raise awareness of Neighbourhood Planning in South Cambridgeshire and outlined the work of the Neighbourhood Planning Task and Finish Group, details of which were set out in the report circulated with the Council agenda.  Councillor Topping drew attention to the consultation with Parish Councils that had begun on 18^th September.  He thanked Councillors de Lacey, Hales and Cathcart who had helped Councillor Turner on the task and finish group that had produced the recommendations. 

Commenting on the number of Neighbourhood Plans submitted, Councillor Topping stated that he expected the number to increase.  This was due to the economic pressures that pertained in the area.  He emphasised that the whole point of a Neighbourhood Plan was not to stop development, but to allow communities to comment on the placement of planned schemes.  The Council had increased officer capacity to support this work, including providing help for parishes undertaking technical assessments and referenda.  It was also proposed to set up a parish sounding board which would help spread best practice and enable those parishes starting this work to learn from the experience of others. 

Councillors  were invited to comment on the proposed future actions.  A summary of the comments made is set out below:

·           Councillor Deborah Roberts commented that unfortunately this had come at a most inopportune time.  Foxton Parish Council had started this process and she expressed thanks to officers who had been providing support.  She had no complaints about the idea or how officers had progressed it.  However, she could not confidently recommend other parishes give up their precious time and resources to do this.  She had no confidence in the Planning Department to listen to what parishes were saying and commented that, as a result parishes had lost confidence in the planning process.  Parishes spent a lot of time commenting on applications yet only 6% of requests by parishes to have applications come to the Planning Committee actually get there.  Councillor Roberts urged the new Chief Executive and lead Members to take steps to address this.

·           Councillor Bridget Smith recalled that she had been calling for the Council to provide support for Neighbourhood Planning since 2012.  Commenting on the consultation exercise, she had spoken to one of her Parish Clarks, who had been involved in the work of the task and finish group, about this and was disappointed to hear that they had received the document only 48 hours before the deadline for comments.  She was also concerned that the Council was recommending that parishes employed planning consultants and suggested this was against the whole ethos of Neighbourhood Plans which were meant to be community led.  With reference to grants, Councillor Smith commented that she had been informed that parishes didn’t need money as this was already there to be had through localities funds, but what was needed was people to support this work and she urged the Council had to resource this properly.  It was important that the Council was able to deliver its promises.  She suggested that advice be sought from an authority that was doing this well and had managed to get all its villages’ Neighbourhood Plans done without breaking the bank.  She was concerned that the Council was trying to absolve itself of its responsibilities and this was not good enough.

·           Councillor Douglas de Lacey commented on the relationship between Neighbourhood Plans and the Local Plan.  As part of the Task and Finish Group’s discussions it had been suggested that the Local Plan would be ‘light’ with the detail provided in the Neighbourhood Plans.  He stated that the implications of that were obvious in that all parishes would have to have a Neighbourhood Plan and would have to be bullied into doing it despite the lack of resource which Councillor Smith in her comments had very rightly underlined.  He asked what the Cabinet thought about the relationship between the two and asked that this be clearly embedded in information given to any Parish Council that was thinking about doing a Neighbourhood Plan for themselves. 

·           Councillor Tumi Hawkins thanked the Task and Finish Group for the work it had done.  She recalled that back in 2011/12 the Council was actively discouraging Parishes from doing Neighbourhood Plans but she was glad to see that Cabinet was now encouraging this.  She was concerned that it was a bit too late as had Parishes been encouraged to do this earlier we would have avoided lots of speculative development coming forward and planning appeals.  With reference to the availability of a grant from the Department of Communities and Local Government, Councillor Hawkins noted that this was available once a Neighbourhood Plan had been through examination and a referendum date set.  She asked who would fund work in advance of this stage in the process. 

·           Councillor Anna Bradnam indicated she supported comments made by Councillor Smith.  She had observed that some of the Parishes that were struggling to produce a Neighbourhood Plan were having enormous difficulties because of the complexities of the planning requirements that were already pending in their villages.  In some cases it might be appropriate to decide that a Neighbourhood Plan was not the right way forward because there was too much going on already for it all to fit together.

·           Councillor Tony Orgee commented that reflecting on his own experience in working on the Great Abington Neighbourhood Plan, he did not recognise the negativity being expressed by others.  The Parish Council had been extremely grateful for the help and support it had received from this Council.  The process was now well underway and they had employed a planning consultant.  However to suggest this this was not a locally led process was quite wrong.  The policies were being developed by the Parish Council and the role of the planning consultant was to help put this into appropriate language; facilitating the process not driving it.  

·           Councillor Francis Burkitt confirmed that there were other options available and recalled the project vision brought to the Council by Barton Ward in 2011 which was equivalent to a light touch Neighbourhood Plan.  The benefit of this was getting the Parish Councils working together to identify what they wanted for the area and to form a vision. 

·           Councillor Nick Wright, responding to comments from Councillor Hawkins, commented that it was never Cabinet’s intention to discourage Neighbourhood Plans, but what was on offer at the time was an opportunity to include what the Parishes wanted in the Local Plan.  Time had moved on and the Local Plan had been written, incorporating some proposals from Parishes.  It was therefore now appropriate to progress initiatives in other areas through the Neighbourhood Planning route.

·           Councillor Nigel Cathcart commented on resources and hoped that resources would not be taken away from the Local Plan or other areas to concentrate on Neighbourhood Plans.  And resource provided should be in addition to that currently available.