Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence received.

Apologies were received from Cllr Donnelly and Jackman.

All Members who believe they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting must declare that interest and, having regard to Part 3 Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members’ Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code.  Furthermore all Members with a Personal Interest in a matter being considered at the meeting should consider, having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 4 of the Code, whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 5 of the Code, consider whether it is appropriate to leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3, Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Non-Pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 2 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

No declarations were made.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and agreed.

To receive any deputations notified under Standing Order 12.

There were no deputations.

To receive any announcements the Chairman may wish to make.

The Chairman reflected on concerns that a number of meetings of the Committee had recently been cancelled and there were applications in the pipeline.

The Development Planning Manager explained that there were applications which the Strategic Planning Team were unable to progress due to delays in applicants’ responses with information required by the Planning Authority. Delays had also been experienced in responses from agencies being consulted.

The Committee heard that to mitigate the situation:

·         Discussions regarding information required and the related deadlines are being held with applicants.

·         Validation guidance has been drafted, to be published and implemented in the autumn.

·         Customer events are being held specifically to convey the message that responses are required with the correct information within set timeframes.

·         Work is being done nationally to get people to apply to work in this field.

·         Three new officers are being recruited to the team.

·         Officers are working as hard as they can to progress applications.

The Committee noted that the situation is reflected across many Minerals and Waste Planning Authorities.

To consider a report of the Director of Universal Services to provide information to the Regulatory Committee on the Monitoring and Enforcement work undertaken by the Development Management Team (including monitoring and enforcement) during the period March to May 2023.

The Development Planning Manager introduced the report and drew the Committee’s attention to the following:

·         The Liaison Panel for Bowling Alley, Crondall had met the day before. There had been some issues with enforcement from Hart District Council.

·         Notices have been served on the operator at the Yokesford Hill Estate site to stop an increase in the height of the stockpile. The second Liaison Panel is due to be held at the end of the month.

·         There is a planning application in the pipeline for Waterbrook Industrial Estate, which would be coming to the Committee later in the year.

·         Complaints and concerns had been raised regarding Shedfield Equestrian Centre as detailed in the report. There are currently two retrospective applications in progress for the site for which officers are awaiting information.

The Committee was shown a photo of a ‘mountain’ of packs of PPE at Little Testwood Farm at Calmore. The Environment Agency are investigating this issue.

The Planning Development Manager explained that Strategic Planning is now in the same department of Trading Standards. This is leading to more joined up working between the two with intelligence being shared from site visits.

Resolved:

The contents of this report were noted.