Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to recommend the Council continues to prepare a new Local Plan for South Kesteven and agrees to consult on its Regulation 18 Draft Local Plan for a minimum period of six weeks.

Purpose of report

The purpose of this report was to recommend the Council continues to prepare a new Local Plan for South Kesteven and agreed to consult on its Regulation 18 Draft Local Plan for a minimum period of six weeks.

Decision

That Cabinet:

1.    Approves the consultation of the Regulation 18 Draft Local Plan (Appendix A) in accordance with the timetable contained within the Council’s Local Development Scheme (approved by Cabinet May 2023).

2.    Delegates authority to the Assistant Director of Planning, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, to make any minor, inconsequential amendments to the document (in order to correct matters of fact or aid clarity to the reader) prior to its publication for consultation purposes.

Alternative options considered and rejected

The alternative of not publishing a Draft Local Plan was discounted.  Whilst the Council had already discharged Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning Act (Local Planning) (England) 2012 by publishing the Issues & Options, it was best practice to keep the community informed and to seek comment, as the plan evolved.

Publishing the Draft Local Plan also ensured that Local Plan reamined on track and adhered to the timetable set out in the Council’s Local Development Scheme.

Reasons for decision

The reason for the decision was to ensure the Council had an up-to-date, legally compliant Local Plan and met the agreed timetable. Work on the Local Plan was ongoing, and once a Local Plan was signed off, work could begin on the next iteration of the Local Plan.

It was vital for local authorities to ensure that their Local Plans were up to date, relevant, and addressed housing need, as well as tacling other areas, such as climate change.

It was the government that determined housing need, and their latest method for determining this demanded 701 new houses per year in South Kesteven District.

The new Local Plan was expected to run until 2041. In this current draft, suitable sites were identified to meet housing demand; the Council would need to make evidence-based choices in the coming years. The Local Plan also updated the provision of employment land, and also addressed issues such as gypsy and traveller accommodation.

It was vital to know the views and priorities of residents, and they, along with landowners and others were encouraged to take part in the public consultation opening on 29 February 2024.

Further details would follow when the Local Plan reached the next stages of its formulation, which were as follows:

The following points were highlighted during debate:

·       Decisions rooted in, and backed up by data would be important to the authority, in order to better understand the needs of the community.

·       Efforts to rebuild a sustainable community must be redoubled, particularly in light of recent flooding events in the District.

·       The preparation of the Local Plan was not political. There were four sets of opinions that would feed into the final Local Plan; experts, circumstances (such as climate change, biodiversity and the housing crisis for example), Council members, and the public.

·       The current Local Plan was approved in 2020 but the Planning Inspectorate pointed out that the issue of gypsy and traveller sites within the District needed to be addressed in future iterations of the Local Plan. If travellers arrived in the locality and there were no designated sites, it would be difficult to resolve any issues that may occur.

·       A Local Plan Working Group, containing members of all political groupings on the Council had been set up to look at aspects of the Local Plan as it reached different points in its timeline.