Minutes

Apologies received from: Sarah Bell, Dino Biagioni  Marcel Cooper, Emma George, Shanna Jackson. Emma Nasta, Ben Hornigold, Carol Pilson, David Rowen and Martin Williams.

Present: Stephen Buddle, Matthew Hall, Nick Harding, Simon Jackson Councillor Mrs Dee Laws, John Maxey (Chair)

The action schedule was agreed.

Nick Harding stated there are no further updates at this time, but the intention is to circulate the draft plan to members before Christmas and it is hoped to be able to go out to public consultation in the new year.

John Maxey asked whether during the consultation process, will a further update concerning the position surrounding viability will be published and Nick Harding confirmed that it would be made available.

John Maxey stated that we are aware that numbers keep rolling forward and ask for clarity as to whether the number is still 36 and Nick Harding confirmed that was still the case. John Maxey asked whether there was any intention to change the end date and Nick Harding explained that the Government requirement is to review any adopted plan after 5 years to see whether there is the need to make revisions and that process will be followed.

This item was postponed to the next meeting.

Kate Wooldridge and Will Evans from EPS presented to the forum members. Kate explained that they deliver 3d topographical surveys and models. Kate advised that they undertake ground level assessments and Geo bio assessments.

John Maxey thanked them both for the presentation and invited the forum members to ask questions.

John Maxey stated that he uses EPS and he explained that he has found that the system to be very flexible in ways of what it can bring to a project and also how cost effective it is.

John Maxey stated that he has found the system beneficial for tree surveys as it is a very good way of identifying and recording what trees are on site. Will Evans said that by using the drone feature, the survey can give a true height of a tree and the 3d imagery used is also an exciting feature. He advised that the only limitation is how the data is used.

Wendy Wooldridge asked whether any forum members have had experience of aerial data submitted on their projects. John Maxey stated that his agency has a member of staff who is licenced to fly a drone and drone footage is used as marketing tool, but he has not yet used it on the technical side of things to date.

John Maxey asked Nick Harding whether it is something that could provide value for Planning Officers to assist them when making decisions and Nick stated that it is not something that he has ever come across any applications where drone-based survey have been submitted at Fenland or at Peterborough. John Maxey asked whether Nick Harding whether he can see a benefit in terms of complex designs in the landscape as well as being technically accurate to be presented in this format. Nick Harding stated that in terms of development in an urban environment that is sensitive in respect of the impact on the setting of cultural assets it would be extremely useful but elsewhere given the flat nature of the landscape in the area, probably less so. He added that it is the impact on the visual element would come to the fore and highlighted the incinerator proposal for Wisbech which will be a substantial size and information will be provided to see how it will sit within the landscape and in that type of case the technology would be a beneficial tool and would come away from existing methods currently used and could prove to be more accurate.

John Maxey stated that the associated costs are an obvious reason for this type of survey to be looked into by agents and developers and Stephen Buddle highlighted that he has a couple of schemes ongoing and he may consider it.

Will Evans added that he has been very impressed with the results which are more accurate.

Nick Harding advised that appeal hearings and enquiries are now being held in person, but a consultation exercise is taking place to see if these can be held remotely.

The biodiversity metric 3 has now been published and is on the CLG website along with a consultation on the small site metric which finishes in October and he recommended that agents and developers have a look at it as it may prove to be helpful.

He advised that the Government had proposed an 18-month short and direct approach to the preparation of local plans, including a traffic light system for development and zoning, but there has been a significant pushback from some politicians and therefore Government had originally said they would report back on the consultation this month, however it now seems likely that they are going to rethink the Local Plan reforms and go back out into consultation on them.

Nick Harding also advised that Michael Gove is the new Secretary of State with the planning portfolio.

John Maxey advised the forum that he has some experience with the larger biodiversity metric, and he added that the production of one is not as complicated as it may seem. He explained that it looks at recording what is being done on site and it gives it some value to looking at biodiversity information.

Nick Harding highlighted the changes to the NPPF:

Paragraph 73, where it states that large allocation should be supported by genuine choice of transport modes and maps, plans, design guides and codes should be used to secure a variety of well-designed homes to meet the needs of different groups in the community and he added that in the new local plan larger development schemes will be looked at to reflect the housing needs that have come out of our research in the local area.

Paragraph 98, it states that the council should proactively work with agents and developers to ensure the required facilities that are needed to support the development are discussed and delivered as part of the application process. Nick Harding added that Fenland has significant viability challenges, and it makes it difficult to deliver against that paragraph of the NPPF.

Paragraph 110 refers to the design of streets, parking areas, transportation elements which should reflect the national guidance including the national design guide and the national model design code.

Paragraph 128, the council needs to prepare designs guides and codes which should reflect the national guidance.

Paragraph 131: The Government is looking for street trees to be included as part of the design for development layouts.

Paragraph 134: Gives local authorities support for refusing poorly designed developments.

Paragraph 166 - Flood resilience has to be designed in and there are revisions to the vulnerability categories in the associated appendices to the NPPF.

John Maxey stated that with regard to Paragraph 98, at pre app stage, officers will engage with Agents and Developers to discuss the merits of an application however there are instances where there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

Nick Harding explained that in August, the CPCA agreed to help fund the County Council to progress to design stage the three highway improvement schemes which is good news as they were at risk.  John Maxey stated that he is concerned as the funding that was in place and ready to fully implement in 2022 has been scaled back to progress the design stage and also to progress the acquisition of the necessary parcels of land. He added there seems to be some uncertainty surrounding the funding commitment to actually build them bearing in mind the majority of development around Wisbech whether it is major residential or commercial allocations are dependent on it happening before they can effectively take place. He questioned whether there is any political pressure which can be applied to the CPCA or discussions between officers and officers of the CPCA to see where the funding sits.

Nick Harding stated that the delivery of the Wisbech Access Strategy will be one of the items to be discussed with the new Cambridgeshire County Council Director of Transportation. He added that the Council are keen to deliver sites identified for allocation in the new Local Plan and if any schemes are dependencies then it is in the Councils interest to ensure they take place.

John Maxey asked Councillor Mrs Laws whether there is any interaction on these points happening on a political level. Councillor Mrs Laws stated that yes there is some political initiative behind it, but the elected members at Fenland District Council and at a County Council level are pushing forward.

John Maxey stated that it had been raised previously about the formation of a subgroup of the forum to meet with the new Mayor to ascertain the intentions of various development budgets that the CPCA hold, and he asked whether members of the forum still wanted this subgroup to be formed and where there any volunteers who wished to sit on it. John Maxey agreed to liaise with some Wisbech forum members to see if there would be interested in sitting on the subcommittee.  

Nick Harding stated that there is currently a four-week backlog for validation and a temporary measure is in place to reduce that delay down to two weeks.

He added that with regard to validation performance, a workflow process review is due to start shortly with the My Fenland Project Team, and this may drive forward some efficiency measures in the way of working and can include ICT solutions and/ or could result in the My Fenland Team, which is a centralised administration resource, and it may mean that some of the functions that the planning team currently undertake can be broken down and shared and delivered by My Fenland. He added that no decisions have been made yet, but a long-term solution is being looked at, so the validation process is robust and resilient.

Nick Harding stated that with regard to performance the figures for Majors stand at 100%, whereas minors has slipped slightly and is at 75% in 8 weeks with extensions of time taken into account and the figure for others stands at 91% within 8 weeks. He added with increase of the number of validations coming through and the decrease of the 4-development management team who are undertaking further education has brought additional pressures in turning applications around in a prompt manner and therefore a proposal for short term increase in staffing capacity is being looked at for 12 to 24 months which still needs to be approved by staff committee.

Councillor Mrs Laws stated that the Tech team are very flexible when it comes to validation but there are certain cases where the agents need to be mindful on the information that they submit. She reiterated that Council staff are not extensions of agents and developers’ practices and highlighted that other local authorities are also running behind with validation due to the number of applications being submitted.

Nick Harding advised the forum of the officers who have left the team and those who are now in post.

He explained that that the new Executive Director for Highways at County Council is Sue Proctor and she commences at start of November and there are three assistant director posts, the Assistant Director for maintenance Jon Munslow, Assistant Director for Transport strategy and Network Development is David Allatt and the Project Delivery Assistant Director post has been temporarily filled by Alex Deans.

Nick Harding confirmed that David Allatt is the Assistant Director who will sit above the Highways Officers when dealing with consultations and he confirmed that Alex Woolnough has now left the County Council and now works at Peterborough City Council and his replacement is Phil Caves.

John Maxey asked for thanks to be passed from the Forum to Carol Freeman for all her assistance during her career at Fenland.

John Maxey stated that it is his intention to step down as Chairman of the Developer Forum as he has now reduced his working days to four. He added that he will undertake to set up the next meeting in January and he will be actively looking for somebody to take on the position of the  Chairman for the Forum going forward.

The dates of the next meetings are:

19 January 2022

13 April 2022