Minutes:
Nick Harding said that the rollout of faster broadband to all parts of the country may yet have an impact on planning. There is also the potential for a planning angle for legal obligations in respect of environmental improvements/ ecology. The new Secretary of State has announced there will be a national design guide with a consultation on a new national design code next year and also a requirement of local authorities to each have their own code in the future.
There is currently a building regulations consultation about future home standards to drive higher the eco credentials of new residential properties, with a web link to the consultation and documents, and NH will circulate the presentation after the meeting. In the autumn there will be an accelerated planning green paper and it is suggested there will be a new tiered planning system. Detached homes will potentially be able to add two storeys without planning permission. Upwards extensions of town centre buildings and the potential to demolish town centre buildings and replace with residential development are some of the other proposals.
The Chairman raised a question submitted in writing by Ted Brand. He asked what the anticipated timescale is for the results of the March Area Transport Study as this appears to be delaying current major applications and is likely to affect future applications. CCC has only stated it will be completed this winter.
NH advised the study is funded by the Combined Authority with the work being carried out by FDC officers in conjunction with CCC. Study work is underway and due to be completed at year end. The outputs from that will include some indicative junction improvement schemes and will be subject to public consultation early in 2020. Post consultation, the package of improvement schemes will be reported back to the CA to agree how they will be carried forward. The Chairman said that hopefully we would have an update for the next meeting.
NH gave an assurance that FDC will be considering planning applications in the usual way whilst this transport study is ongoing. We can only reasonably refuse an application on the grounds that the proposal is running contrary to a transport improvement scheme that may be coming out of the study.
Councillor Mrs Laws raised that she had spent time with the validation team and was sorry to report that the quality of applications coming in was very poor, i.e. one application had four documents missing. Many of the errors are down to lack of proof reading or not double checking the application. The team cannot move forward with applications that contain such mistakes. There is an open approach in that staff can contact agents and advise what is missing or incorrect but this causes time delay. We offered a training session on validation but it was cancelled due to lack of support. Councillor Mrs Laws added that she was not directing this comment to anyone around the table but it needed to be noted. She requested that we all work together as she hears criticism over the length of time taken on validation but these mistakes are often what cause the delay; there were 11 applications that could not be processed because of simple errors. Nobody wants these costly time delays, staffing issues are sorted; the team is very good and approachable. Martin Williams agreed that the team are very good but in defence of developers, different authorities have different requirements.
Councillor Mrs Laws asked if it was worthwhile arranging another session on validations for agents and developers. The Chairman said it was disappointing there was little take up last time; it is a sensible offer to make in view of the proportion of incorrect applications. Councillor Mrs Laws said she would be able to provide statistics to support this view but unfortunately those that needed to hear this are not at this meeting.
David Thomas took the opportunity to raise how under exploited the waterways are in March and the local area. In view of the current consultation on the local plan, he would encourage all to think about the value of the waterway system and how we can make more of it and respond to the consultation. Opportunities have been missed. This may not be the right forum to raise this but looking at the bigger picture there is uplift in property values linked with attractive navigation, figures suggest that any boats stopping in any location spend an average of £100 in the town it is stopping in. Therefore we all have a vested interest in this. Councillor Mrs Laws said this subject was very high on a working group agenda under tourism. She agreed it needs investment and promotion but people do need to respond to the consultation.
The Chairman raised the issue of the next agenda, noting that attendance at the meeting today was poor and asked if we are covering the right things in this forum. In January we will be hearing about £100k homes and the local plan update. Forum members further suggested: any update on the Wisbech Rail Link; progress on Wisbech Garden Town; the Royal Haskoning report on drainage issues; Cambs Local Nature Partnership and an update on the Fenland Biosphere. NH offered to update on the March Transport Study if there was any news.
The next meeting will be at 3pm in the Council Chamber on 15 January 2020.