Agenda item

The Senior Planning Officer presented a report which gave an outline of the proposed approach for the delivery of a comprehensive development brief for the North Walsham Sustainable Western Extension.  He recommended that the Working Party agree to the approach, with the addition of the need to consider the extension to the link road and possible inclusion of further land to enable the delivery of the extended road.

The Chairman stated that he was pleased that it was recommended that NNDC take the lead in this matter.  Councillor Ms V Gay, who was unable attend this meeting, had expressed the view that there should be two or possibly three local members on the Delivery Group.  He supported her view.

Councillor P Heinrich welcomed the report.  He considered that it was critical that NNDC took the lead on this matter.  He also considered that two or three local members should sit on the Delivery Group.  It was important to avoid a fait accompli presented by the developer and he was concerned at one developer taking on the delivery of the western extension.  North Walsham did not oppose the scheme provided there were safeguards with regard to the quality of the overall design.  He considered that the extension of the link road was most important and could not see that any proposals would work effectively without it.  He recommended that recommendation 3 of the report should be amended to require decisions on the project lead and constitution of the Delivery Group to be made by the Working Party and that a minimum of two councillors from the affected Wards be included together with the Cabinet Member for Planning.  He also recommended that the Delivery Group should report to the Working Party on a regular basis and at least every three months.

Councillor N Dixon requested assurances that work on the Development Brief would not prejudice Local Plan work or place a workload on the Planning Policy Team which was not sustainable and that the current priorities would be maintained.

The Planning Policy Manager explained that the recommendation allowed the possibility of engaging external consultants where required.  The resource implications were not clear at present and the preparation of the Brief would be a lengthy process.  However, he considered that there were resources and capacity in the team to proceed with preparation of the Brief without too much impact on Local Plan work.  It had been agreed to prepare the Brief prior to undertaking Section 19 consultation.  At the request of North Walsham members it had been agreed to address ongoing concerns regarding deliverability before the Plan was submitted for independent examination.  It would be within the gift of the Council to revisit that decision if the Plan was slowed down. 

Councillor J Punchard asked the Planning Policy Manager to confirm if the process would be similar to the Fakenham Development Brief.

The Planning Policy Manager explained that the outcome of the process would be similar in that it would produce a document which specified master planning for the site, but the process itself would be different in that the Fakenham brief had been developer led.

Councillor Ms K Ward reassured the Working Party that Cabinet was mindful of the importance of the North Walsham brief and the implications for the Local Plan, and that additional funding would be available if it was needed to expedite the work.

The Planning Policy Manager stated that none of the representations made on the draft Plan had been considered and a decision could not be made until the responses had been considered.  He recommended the amendment of the recommendation to make it clear that the Development Brief was prepared without prejudice to the ongoing preparation of the Local Plan and consideration of the representations made during recent consultation.

It was proposed by Councillor P Heinrich, seconded by Councillor J Punchard and 

RECOMMENDED

1.     That NNDC Officers to lead on the delivery of the North Walsham Sustainable Western Extension including consideration of the extension of the link road across the railway to the industrial estate and whether other land may need to be included in future consideration;

2.     That a Delivery Group be set up to oversee and guide the production of the Development Brief, without prejudice to the ongoing preparation of the Local Plan and considerations of the representations made during recent consultation;

3.     That decisions on the project lead and constitution of the Delivery Group be made by the Working Party and include a minimum of two councillors from affected wards together with the Cabinet Member for Planning; and

4.     That the Delivery Group should report to the Working Party on a regular basis and at least every three months.

The Working Party discussed the composition of the Delivery Group in terms of Members to be appointed.  As a result of those discussions and notwithstanding the above decisions it was agreed that membership of the Group should be cross-party.

RECOMMENDED

That the Delivery Group include the following Members:

Councillor Ms V Gay or Councillor P Heinrich

Councillor N Dixon

Councillor J Punchard