Meeting documents

Considered report previously circulated, which identified the factual changes to Policy SS1 and other material considerations since the Core Strategy was adopted and sought Members approval for an approach to the delivery of employment land that was not strictly in accordance with Policy SS1 with regards to employment land delivery at Monkton Heathfield.

During the discussion, the following points were made:-

·         Members highlighted with the formation of the New Council, it would take time to compile a new joint Local Plan and queried how long that would take.

The creation of a new Local Plan was a good aspiration and officers could have pushed out consultations for the TDBC Local Plan but they were aware that it would not have been adopted in time and would then fall under the New Council.  WSC had adopted their Local Plan two years ago, with an early review date which would fall within the formation of the Local Plan for the New Council.   Members were given an approximate time frame of 18 months between a review and adoption of a new Local Plan.

·         Concern was also raised on how much of West Somerset was covered by Exmoor National Park and whether the New Council would meet the necessary housing requirements.

Exmoor National Park was a separate Planning Authority with their own requirements to provide new housing which was separate to that of WSC.  WSC did not receive the same amount of larger and controversial applications as TDBC.

·         Members queried whether the new Park and Ride was still on track and where it would be located.

The Park and Ride scheme was a specific requirement of the proposed development and was believed to be part of the 106 Agreement.  It was due to be located at the Walford Cross end of the development.

·         Members requested clarification on what employment land was.

Clarification was given and ideally employment land would be located on the peripheral of the development.

·         An officer from the developers was present and advised the Committee that he had been working in partnership with all parties and they hoped to be able to submit a planning application by the end of March 2019.

The Assistant Director for Planning advised that they would prefer not to receive a planning application prior to the adoption of the Master Plan because the Plan guided all decisions made on planning applications.

·         Members agreed the Master Plan was an important document.

·         Concern was raised that residents urged the developers to complete the work they had already started prior to the start of the next phase.  Some of the roads and public areas had not yet been adopted.

·         Members queried what public input would be fed into the types of dwellings that would be built on the site.

Master Planning guided the decision on what types of dwellings were built.  Those decisions were made at a higher level than individual applications.

·         Members requested that community event details were circulated to all Councillors for the Taunton Deane area.

·         Members requested that social housing should be built first .

The Master Plan should look at phased completion of social housing.  The Housing Enabling Officer probably wouldn’t want all social housing to be built first and that it needed to be done in stages to keep a balance of tenure on the site.

Resolved that the Scrutiny Committee noted the content of the report and supported, in principle, the release of a part of employment land south of Langaller Lane as set out in the report.