The Chairman of the Council, the Chairmen of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 13.
Minutes:
Question 1 - Councillor Hinton to Councillor Malvisi, Cabinet
Member for the Environment.
Firstly: Based on the Secretary of State decision on the matter of Swaledale Council v Quinn Estates Ltd and Mulberry Estates (Sittingborne) Ltd concerning the conditions and matters of their planning decision concerning in particular “Climate Change”
A.) What is the relevance of this Council’s decision to declare a “Climate Emergency” in respect of any meaningful actions that we can take to help achieve any result?
B.) How can the Cabinet’s decision to spend thousands of pounds on an audit of the trees in the District have any relevance?
Response:
A) The Climate Emergency that the world faces is so immense, and thoroughly entwined in every decision we make as human beings that it will not be solved solely by planning legislation. It will be tackled by us, you and I, our communities, our businesses all taking responsibility for the emissions we create and doing what we can to reduce that. Of course, our emerging Joint Local Plan pushes us further towards this goal, and this Council will continue to push further where we can. Just like we are in other areas such as:
- moving our fleet to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil
- decarbonising our leisure centre buildings,
- piloting a water filtration system at Kingfisher Leisure Centre to
reduce water use and reduce energy consumption
- building solar car port
- moving to green energy tariffs
- investing in energy efficiency initiatives for our council homes
- creating an energy prospectus for Suffolk
- focusing on sustainable travel
…to name but a few!
B) This Council recognises the increasing pace with which natural habitat is being lost and that it too, has now become a biodiversity emergency. A biodiversity Task Force was established in July 2020. Whilst it would have been easy for the group to consider many ambitions, it was acknowledged by the Task Force that their focus should be on achievable actions that they have control or influence over. These centre on understanding and enhancing wildlife corridors and enhancing the Councils’ arboricultural and environmental resources and expertise. Trees provide a multitude of benefits to people. Whilst some of the social and aesthetic benefits can be difficult to measure, there are tools which help quantify and value some of the environmental benefits provided by trees, including carbon storage, carbon sequestration, stormwater reduction, and pollution removal. We have limited data on the numbers of trees on Babergh land (current estimate 10,000 trees) and even less information about the trees that cover the rest of the district.
Our tree officers are managing an incredible natural capital asset, but until now we have had no way of quantifying what the combined asset is worth in terms of financial value or what the trees are providing us as ecosystem services. The tree canopy survey work will give us a complete picture and also makes the information easily available for all to see and understand.
Supplementary question from Councillor Hinton to Councillor
Malvisi, Cabinet Member for the Environment.
Will the Council be writing to the Prime Minister to declare that his ambition of carbon-zero by 2030 is unattainable given the restrictions in place on local efforts to improve carbon efficiency, in planning decisions in particular. And the wilful destruction of trees which move and store carbon dioxide. And when you are referring to trees on council land, there is a piece of council land in my village with a tree on it which the council is proposing to chop down so that they can give the piece of land to the housing association, and it will be easier for them to cut the grass. And if that’s not wilful destruction of a carbon soak, I don’t know what is. Old trees can not be replaced with the same efficiency of carbon reduction by new whips no matter how many are planted. There have been items in the press recently about net-zero buildings cancelled to help curb housing emission. if building regulations were changed the planning committee could ask people to put in heat source pumps, solar panels and more climate effective measures.
Response:
There are essentially two parts to your question if I am not mistaken. One is building regulations which we as a council cannot rewrite. We would love to rewrite them, but we will definitely lobby, and it is currently happening that the building regulations do come through with an amendment. But your second question was that you have a tree threatened to be demolished and I would suggest that you email me with the details of that situation, and I will take it up and see if I can save the tree.
Question 2 - Councillor Hinton to Councillor Arthey, Cabinet Member for Planning
Is it correct that the “Joint Legal Teams” have contracted out the negotiation of S106 Planning notices to an independent company and if so when and who conducted the competitive tendering process?
Response:
No, negotiation of S106 planning notices has not been contracted out to an independent company. Sometimes our legal service outsources the drafting of S106 agreements to external solicitors due to resource issues, such as when other urgent matters need to be prioritised. If S106 agreements are outsourced there is no cost to the authority so there is no requirement to undertake any tendering process.
Supplementary question from Councillor Hinton to Councillor Arthey, Cabinet Member for Planning
Is the Council aware that there has been a transfer of legal expertise from the joint legal team to the outside contractor as a result of this action? And is the Council aware that the fees charged for producing these 106 agreements, which local builders are forced to pay, have increased by 50% making smaller builders in particular less competitive in a market and reducing the choice for our future and existing residents?
Response:
I cannot answer what the whole of Council are aware of I’m afraid. But, if he is asking me am I aware that the costs associated with the drafting of these agreements by outsourced solicitors is higher than it would be if it was done in house, the answer is yes, I am aware.
Question 3 - Councillor Dawson to Councillor Arthey, Cabinet Member for Planning
A local resident received planning permission for the erection of a single storey rear extension for an application registered 25 Mar 20. The development was permitted on condition that it was begun not later than the expiration of three years from the date of the permission.
Can you please advise if there have been any amendments due to Covid-19 to Section 91 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended) that can give applicants relief from this timescale?
I understand currently all applications have to be applied for again when the application expires, please confirm?
Response:
The answer to the first part of your question is no, but the Business and Planning Act 2020 did provide temporary modification to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 to enable certain permissions which had lapsed, or were due to lapse, during 2020 to be extended. This was in recognition of the effect coronavirus has had on planning and construction and in particular the delays around commencement of new development.
Unimplemented planning permissions with time limits for implementation lapsing between 19th August 2020 and 31st December 2020 were automatically extended to 1st May 2021.
Unimplemented planning permissions with time limits for implementation which lapsed between 23rd March 2020 and 19th August 2020 also had time limits extended to 1st May 2021, provided an Additional Environmental Approval process was followed.
Outline permissions were also extended in the same way, whilst the deadline for submission of reserved matters which would have been due between 23rd March 2020 and 31st December 2020 was extended to 1st May 2021.
The legislation only applied to these specific periods and there has been no change to the statutory time period for the commencement conditions we apply.
The answer to the second part of your question is yes, if no work has been done that constitutes implementation of a consent another application would be required on expiry, or the planning permission will lapse.
Supplementary question from Councillor Dawson to Councillor Arthey, Cabinet Member for Planning
In February 2019 the Acting Chief Planning Officer recommended that planning consent be authorised to grant listed building consent for the Babergh offices at Corks Lane. Subject to the number one condition stated a standard time limit. This was a major condition put forward by myself at the time which was that building works would commence no later than 18 months from the date of permission granted. It has not commenced work within the timescale being 11th of June 2021 and this has been confirmed by Councillor Ward and minuted at recent meetings. Therefore, in light of this, can you confirm that the Corks Lane development will not be exempt from breeching a major condition as no amendment has been made under Section 91 of the Town and Country Act. And I think now as we have a rainbow Cabinet, I would like to see Councillor Arthey as the Cabinet Member for planning and Councillor Plumb as Chair of the Planning Committee, please can you give a personal assurance that this application will be resubmitted and returned to Committee as soon as possible as all other applications from local residents will have to be. Any further delay will cause further financial costs in respect of the security which have already exceeded probably £300,000 since we vacated in 2015.
Response:
I cannot really answer that question now, the reason being that I will have to check the date of the decision, I will have to check the conditions attached to that decision, and I will have to check the date of expiry. So, I can give you a written answer out of meeting.
Supporting documents: