Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Regeneration submitted a report for Executive’s consideration.

The report sought endorsement of the Draft Local Plan, which set out the Council’s emerging planning policy framework that would guide development and decisions on planning applications, covering the period 2022 – 2041. Critically, it set out the housing allocations where new housing development was proposed to take place, alongside other planning policies for: housing; economic growth; green and blue infrastructure; physical, social and environmental infrastructure; the historic environment; and design/placemaking. Once agreed, the Draft Local Plan would be subject to public consultation, following which the plan would be finalised and subject to further statutory consultation. It would then be submitted to the Government for independent examination ahead of its adoption.

Under the provisions of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the Council was required to prepare a statutory development plan, otherwise known as a Local Plan, for the borough that set out the policies and land allocations to guide development in the area. The Local Plan was a strategic document that would help facilitate the right type of development the Council wished to deliver to achieve its ambitions and support the long-term financial sustainability of the borough.

In September 2022, the Council agreed to commence work on a new Local Plan for the borough. The purpose of the review was to ensure all of the Council’s planning policies were up-to-date, and to bring them together into a single document. The review excluded Minerals and Waste policies, which were adopted jointly across the Tees Valley in 2011 and would be reviewed jointly by the Tees Valley Authorities separately to the Local Plan review. The review also excluded the adopted Neighbourhood Plans, which were prepared at the neighbourhood level and remained the responsibility of their respected Neighbourhood Forums or Parish Councils.

AGREED that Executive endorses the Draft Local Plan for the purpose of public consultation.

OPTIONS

Not to endorse the Draft Local Plan. This would mean the Council would not progress the Local Plan review as agreed previously by the Council and would retain existing out of-date policies for longer. This would, in turn, present more challenges in achieving the type and quality of development that would help the Council realise its ambitions.

REASONS

It was a statutory requirement to prepare a Local Plan that identified land for development and could be used as a basis for determining planning applications.

The Local Plan was critical for delivering some of the Council’s key strategic objectives, in particular population retention, increasing the housing supply and supporting economic growth. The development it would help secure would make a positive contribution to the financial sustainability of the Council. Whilst the Draft Local Plan stage was not in itself a statutory requirement, it would enable the Council to undertake necessary public consultation and progress to subsequent stages of plan preparation. An up-to-date Local Plan would also help the Council maintain control of development in the borough.