Agenda and minutes

Councillor Millar noted that the order of the agenda would be varied so that  item 9 would be taken before item 8.

Councillor Palethorpe proposed and Councillor Amos seconded “That  Councillor Mary Clarke be appointed Chair of the West Northamptonshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee for the ensuing year.”

Upon a vote the motion was carried.

(Note: Councillor Chris Millar was in the Chair until this point in the meeting.

Councillor Millar proposed and Councillor Palethorpe seconded “That  Councillor Tim Hadland be appointed Vice Chair of the West Northamptonshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee for the ensuing year.”

Upon a vote the motion was carried.

Apologies were received from Councillors Robin Brown, Penny Flavell and Andre Gonzalez de Savage.

The minutes of the meeting of the Joint Planning Committee held on 31st January 2011 were agreed and signed by the Chair subject to the fifth paragraph on page 3 being amended to read “…..other highway infrastructure improvements as identified in Policies N4, N8 and N11……”. 

• Personal
• Prejudicial

None.

To consider any issues that the Chairman is of the opinion are Matters of Urgency.

None.

There was none.

(copy herewith)

The Head of the JPU submitted a report that provided a summary of the Representations Stage of the Joint Core Strategy Preparation Process, a quantitative analysis of the representations to the Pre Submission version of the Joint Core Strategy (JCS), a summary of the main issues raised by the representations and set out the next stages of the JCS preparation process.

RESOLVED:   1. That the summary of the Representations Stage of the          Joint Core Strategy Preparation Process (Regulations 27 and 28), including the requirements of the Regulations and how these have been met were noted.

                            2. That the quantitative analysis of the representations to   the Pre-submission version of the Joint Core Strategy be noted.

                            3. That the factually based summary of the main issues raised by the representations to the Pre-submission version of the Joint Core Strategy, as attached as Appendix 2 of the report be noted.

                            4. That the next stages on the Joint Core Strategy   preparation process be noted.

(copy herewith)

The Chair made the following statement:

“The Committee is preparing a Joint Core Strategy for the West Northamptonshire area with a view to adopting this plan at the earliest possible date.

Against the background of the emerging changes to the planning system it is considered prudent that the Local Development Scheme, which is purely a work programme, should not be considered by the Committee this evening, rather, it should be further updated and brought back before the Committee. The Committee will be kept regularly informed of progress on this in the coming months.

In addition, a significant number of representations have been recently received on the Pre-submission version of the Strategy. In the light of this, and in order to ensure that the Joint Core Strategy is prepared and subsequently adopted at the earliest possible date, additional time will be built into the plan preparation process to allow officers in the Joint Planning Unit and across the partnership to continue ongoing discussions and negotiations on these representations to take place. This is with a view to preparing focused changes to the Strategy which will have the effect of further strengthening it in time to be brought back to this Committee.

In the light of this, a further updated Local Development Scheme work programme will be brought to a future meeting of this Committee.

Therefore, with the agreement of the Committee, I propose that the consideration of a further updated Local Development Scheme be taken at a future meeting of this Committee.”

In answer to questions the Head of the JPU commented that an updated Local Development Scheme would be brought to the Joint Committee at the earliest possible date, bearing in mind that this was against the background of ensuring clarity relating to emerging Government changes to the national planning system. He assured the Joint Committee that the JPU would work as quickly as possible with all the partners to bring forward the Local Development Scheme and the Joint Core Strategy.

RESOLVED: That the report be withdrawn and that a further updated Local

                      Development Scheme be brought to a future meeting of the

                      Joint Committee.