Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

The Chair paid tribute to Councillor Michael Tebbutt who had sadly passed away.  A minute’s silence was held in honour of Councillor Tebbutt.

Apologies for non-attendance were received from Councillors Robin Carter, Mark Dearing and Anne Lee.  Councillor Keli Watts was in attendance as substitute for Councillor Lee.

The Chair invited those who wished to do so to declare any interests in respect of items on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were made.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 2023 were approved and signed as a correct record, subject to:

Minute 35 – Kettering Energy Park Draft Masterplan Document

ii.  amend ‘78% of B8’ to ‘up to 70% of B8’.

RESOLVED:

(i)        To note the report.

(ii)       To progress matters as set out under paragraph 5.1 of the report.

(iii)      To note the recommendation of officers that the plan should be progressed on a county-wide basis rather than as two separate plans.

The Head of Service (Minerals and Waste) provided a briefing on matters and issues relating to the updating/review of minerals and waste planning policies and proposals that are currently contained within the adopted Northamptonshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan.  There was a statutory requirement on minerals and waste planning authorities, of which NNC was one, to review their adopted planning policies. 

There were a number of issues which both North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) and West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) would need to consider in advance of agreeing a timetable for the review of minerals and waste planning policies.  The key issue to consider was whether the local plan should be reviewed/replaced on a county-wide basis or be split into two separate minerals and waste local plans.

Through local government reorganisation, minerals and waste planning had been established as a service hosted by NNC, that covered both NNC and WNC, but this did not dictate that minerals and waste planning policies should be county-wide.

During discussion on the briefing, the following key points were made:

i.              Splitting policies would enable different strategies and policies to reflect that both halves of the county were not necessarily the same.  Policies could be progressed at the pace wanted by the respective authorities.

ii.            A countywide plan would include economies of scale as there would be no requirement to double up on everything, including not having separate consultations or examinations, which would also bring a cost benefit.

iii.           It was noted that there was not yet a budget for the costs of developing a new plan, whether individually or jointly.  The Assistant Director clarified that the greater costs of developing the plan would largely fall at the latter part of the work when we would start to introduce costs into the MTFP, which would require going through the budget setting processes.

iv.           There were lots of plans for house building in the area, was there the capacity to manage this going forward?   In response, officers advised that there was not a direct correlation between house building and minerals extraction.  It was also noted that some of the large companies no longer saw Northamptonshire as a key location in which to develop quarries.

v.            There was a lack of information about waste and the new authorities had not yet discussed waste treatment and disposal.  There were some concerns about a countywide approach for waste.  Officers confirmed that a Waste Needs Assessment was needed to factor in the growth of housing and commercial development.  The market was changing, and the industry was now focussing on larger, regional sites.

vi.           Had development of regional plans been considered?  Officers advised that regional working was a potential way forward.  There were already statutory regional working parties for aggregates, which we were involved in but it would be possible to set up sub-regional arrangements.  The Interim Executive Director advised that the Council was about to procure a waste disposal contract for the end of 2025, which would run for 10 to 20  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

The Executive Forward Plan for January to April 2024 was noted.

The Chair thanked members and officers for their attendance and closed the meeting.

The meeting closed at 11.07am.