Agenda and minutes

An apology for non-attendance was received from Councillor Kevin Thurland.

There were no declarations of interest from Members of the Panel. 

Councillor Jim Hakewill had submitted a declaration in relation to agenda item 5, Adoption of the Kettering Site Specific Part 2 Local Plan, in that he had a disclosable pecuniary interest as a landowner in Braybrooke and indicated that he would leave the meeting room during any discussion on issues relating to Braybrooke.

RESOLVED to accept the minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2021 as a correct record.

Sue Bateman, Senior Planning Officer, introduced the report which asked the Panel to consider the Isham Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan prior to its consideration by the Executive.  Ms Bateman was accompanied by Tim Murphy and Hector Martin from Place Services who had compiled the Character Appraisal and Management Plan.

Consultation on the document had taken place between January and March 2021 and comments had been received from 21 respondents including residents, the parish council, neighbourhood planning group and local ward councillor.  All responses had been considered and several amendments had been suggested.

During discussion on the report, Members sought clarification that residents who already had unsympathetic uPVC windows in place would not be forced to replace them with timber.  It was confirmed that any future replacement would be like for like and timber was recommended, however timber to uPVC would be more problematic.  Mr Murphy explained that issues which had come through the consultation had included parking and the inclusion of the Isham Mill industrial structure.  It was noted that whilst the parish council were in general agreement with the proposals, they had raised a number of points that they did not support and officers were requested to further assist the parish council with their concerns before the report is considered by the Executive on 30 September.

RESOLVEDto recommend to the Executive that:

(i)           it adopts the Revised Isham Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan.

(ii)          it revises the Isham Conservation Area Boundary.

Reasons for Recommendations – To accord with the Council’s duty to formulate and publish proposals for the preservation and enhancement of conservation areas and then to actively manage their protection and physical improvement.

(Due to the size of the document Appendix A is attached as a separate document)

Julia Baish, Development Team Leader, introduced the report which asked the Panel to consider the Kettering Site Specific Part 2 Local Plan prior to its consideration by the Executive and then Full Council.

Kettering Borough Council (KBC) had submitted the local plan to the Secretary of State in May 2020, with a public examination being held in October 2020.  Further consultation had been undertaken between March and April 2021 on the modifications proposed by KBC and accepted by the Inspector.  The outcome of the examination was that with the recommended main modifications the Plan was sound.  The Plan was now ready for formal adoption by the Council, where it would supersede the 1995 Kettering Borough Local Plan.

During discussion on the report, members congratulated everyone who had been involved in getting the Plan to this point.  It was disappointing for all members that a number of the local green spaces had been removed by the Inspector, but it was hoped that this could be looked at in a wider context during the review of the JCS.  There were some lessons to be learnt around green spaces as the Inspector was concerned that the spaces included in the Plan had either not been put forward by local communities or there were no reasons included as to why the space was important to them.  Asked for clarification about any substantial policy changes made by the Inspector, officers advised that a small number of policies had been deleted including retirement/care homes, which was already sufficiently covered in the JCS,  and town centre boundaries, which were covered in other policies.  The McAlpine’s Yard housing allocation had also been deleted due to unresolved flood risk issues; however this did not have a significant impact on the Council’s housing numbers which still met the JCS requirements and it was likely a planning application for the site would come through in the future.  With relation to Gypsy and Travellers Sites, it was acknowledged that this was an issue for all North Northamptonshire and progress was being made on developing a separate allocations document on a North Northamptonshire basis.

RESOLVED to recommend to the Executive that:

(i)           the Kettering Site Specific Part 2 Local Plan be recommended to Full Council for adoption.

(ii)          delegated authority be given to the Executive Member for Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Assistant Director for Growth and Regeneration, to make any further Additional Modifications to the Kettering Site Specific Part 2 Local Plan or its accompanying Policies Map that relate exclusively to factual updates, grammatical corrections and formatting for the purposes of publishing the Plan to presentation standard.

(iii)         delegated authority be given to the Executive Member for Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Assistant Director for Growth and Regeneration, to prepare and publish the Adoption Statement and the Sustainability Appraisal Statement and fulfil any other duties required under Regulation 26 and 35 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.

Reasons for Recommendations

1)     The NPPF  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

Rob Harbour, Assistant Director for Growth and Regeneration, introduced the report which presented the relevant sections of the draft Corporate Plan which related to climate change, the environment and growth, for the Panel to consider and provide advice and feedback to the Executive.

The Corporate Plan would be a high-level document, with more detailed information about the actions to deliver the Plan contained within Service Plans which would be developed once the Corporate Plan had been developed.

During discussion on the report, Members welcomed the priorities which had been included for safe and thriving places and green, sustainable environment but acknowledged that they needed to be paid for.  The Executive are encouraged to work together with external bodies to support delivery of the Plan and to seek appropriate sources of funding as appropriate. Mr Harbour acknowledged the importance of funding and advised that resources on how to support this was being considered as part of the transformation work for the Council.  Other key points made by the Panel included:

·      S106 Monies

There is a need for a review of S106 monies as it is important to ensure that we receive the required contributions from developers.

·      Town Centres

There is a need to consider what the long-term aspirations for our town centres are, particularly with a reduced retail footprint.  The words ‘our key’ should be replaced with ‘all our’ as all towns were important and there may be unintentional problems in the future if we started to prioritise towns.  However, it needed to be acknowledged that four of our towns were growth towns and would need different support.  Town centres need to be supported as there is a move for them to become more residential by converting buildings and building flats which does impact on smaller towns, such as parking.  The identities for our towns needs to be enhanced and developed.

·      Renewable Energy

New technologies such as hydrogen should also be included.  The installation of renewable energy technologies is not currently required for new developments and developers should be encouraged to include.

Panel members were asked to email any further comments on the proposed priorities to the Chair, copying in George Candler.

RESOLVED that the comments on the proposed priorities in the Corporate Plan relevant to this Executive Advisory Panel be forwarded to the Executive for consideration.

The meeting closed at 11:12am.