Issue - meetings

Motion

Meeting: 24/01/2018 - Council (Item 82)

A period of up to one hour is allocated to consider the motions on notice. This may only be extended with the agreement of the Council.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Housing Needs

Members considered the following notice of motion submitted by Councillor S. R. Colella.

That Bromsgrove District Council suspends any discussions with Birmingham City Council and the Combined Authorities into taking any number of housing from the West Midlands conurbation until the impacts of delivering this council’s own objectively assessed housing needs have been determined and demonstrated via a full public consultation.

The motion was proposed by Councillor S. R. Colella, with a request for a named vote and seconded by Councillor P. M. McDonald.

In presenting the motion Councillor S. R. Colella highlighted a number of areas of concern and asked Members to support his motion. These included:

· The duty to co-operate with other bordering local authorities and with Birmingham City Council in particular.

· The need to consider the Council’s own housing needs before agreeing to provide for other local authorities.

· The Foxlydiate development on behalf of Redditch Borough Council.

· The understanding that Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council had suspended its Green Belt review.

· The lack of a Transport Plan and the number of Air Quality Management Areas within Worcestershire.

· How land for development will be identified.

· The impact these developments would have on the infrastructure.

In speaking to the motion Councillor P. M. McDonald also advised that it was his understanding that a commitment had been made by this Council to provide housing under the duty to co-operate agreement and reiterated Councillor Colella’s concerns around the need to address this Council’s housing needs before considering the needs of other local authorities. He also made reference to areas within his Ward which were earmarked for development and the concern that there was the potential for these to be allocated to other authorities. It was reaffirmed that any such negotiations should be put on hold under the Council was able to meet the needs of its own residents.

During the debate which followed a number of areas were discussed in more detail:

· The duty to co-operate should be in line with this Council’s timetable and not dictated to by others.

· Whether there was a conflict of interest in respect of the Portfolio Holder chairing the Strategic Planning Steering Group meetings.

· The need to ensure that we have the skills and abilities to challenge the duty to co-operate approaches from other local authorities. This had been done in other areas.

· The need to withdraw from any discussions until the housing needs of the Council had been agreed.

· The understanding that an agreement had been reached with Birmingham, following information provided at a Strategic Planning Steering Group meeting.

· The need to put the development plans of Bromsgrove and its housing needs first.

· Take action to slow down the process of duty to co-operate.

· Clarification as to whether the Council could withdraw from the meetings or whether these could be suspended

Councillor C. B. Taylor, as Portfolio Holder for Planning and Strategic Housing reassured Members that there had been no agreement or promise to take any houses and that the residents of Bromsgrove ... view the full minutes text for item 82