Cabinet Member for Planning – Nick Ridley
Minutes:
48.1 Councillor Ridley introduced the report and informed Council that the Statement of Community Involvement was a joint planning document with Mid Suffolk that explained how the Council would engage with the public and other stakeholders in the preparation of planning documents and in determining planning applications. The current version of the Joint Statement of Involvement for the two Councils was published in March 2014. It had been necessary to update this document to reflect greater use of the Councils website, the move to Endeavour House and the opening of the Customer Access Point in Sudbury, to also reflect the support offered to Neighbourhood Planning Groups in producing a neighbourhood plan, to acknowledge the introduction of the Community Infrastructure Levy, and to detail the introduction for pre-application charging service. The 2017 planning regulations also introduced the requirement to review the Statement of Community Involvement every 5 years. This Statement of Community Involvement draft update will inform the preparation of the wider communities and communications strategies being prepared by both Councils. It is recommended that a 4-week public consultation is undertaken on the draft update in May and June, a final decision would come back to Council for adoption later this year.
48.2 Councillor Ridley then MOVED the recommendations in the report.
48.3 Councillor Ward seconded the recommendations and reserved the right to speak.
48.4 Councillor Busby raised concerns relating to public access.
48.5 Councillor Ridley whilst accepting that there had been some problems with the website stated that we were now in a digital age with many people preferring to use digital access to Council services and this needed to be recognised in the Statement of Community Involvement.
48.6 Councillor Davis added that whilst he accepted that there were problems contacting the Council as the Cabinet Member responsible for Communications he would be working hard with officers to address the problems.
48.7 Councillor Bavington added that he had tried to contact the Council about an urgent ward matter and had not been able to contact any officer and he felt that the technology was worse.
48.8 In response the Chief Executive stated that he wanted to address the points that had been raised but also reminded Members that the report was about the Statement of Community Involvement in relation to planning. In terms of contacting officers, changes have been made in which the chasing system works, a call hunting system has been introduced and when a mobile phone is engaged or not answered the phone will automatically move on to the next mobile phone in the hunt group.
48.9 Councillor Hinton felt that a four-week consultation period was not sufficient to consider an extensive document especially when a lot of it will have to go before parish councils.
It was Resolved:-
(i) That Council note the draft update to the Babergh and Mid Suffolk Statement of Community Involvement: Planning Issues, which updates the March 2014 adopted version.
(ii) That Council agree to public consultation for four weeks during May and June on the Babergh and Mid Suffolk Statement of Community Involvement: Planning Issues (Draft Update, April 2018)
(iii) That the Corporate Manager – Spatial Planning Policy be authorised to make minor technical and formatting amendments to the Babergh and Mid Suffolk Statement of Community Involvement: Planning Issues (Draft Update, April 2018) prior to consultation.
Supporting documents: