Issue - meetings
Motion
Meeting: 17/10/2022 - Council (Item 57)
57 Motions on Notice 
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A period of up to an hour and a half is allocated to consider the motions on notice at this meeting. This may only be extended with the agreement of the Council.
The Motions will be published in a supplementary pack.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chairman explained that four Motions on Notice had been received for consideration at this meeting. For the first of these, submitted by Councillor R. Hunter, the wording of the Motion had been amended after the main agenda had been published and this had therefore been reissued in a supplementary pack. As agreed by group leaders prior to the meeting, following changes to Council meetings, an extended time of one and a half hours had been allocated to the consideration of Motions on Notice at the meeting.
The Local Plan
Council considered the following Motion on Notice that was submitted by Councillor R. Hunter:
“This council believes that the local plan preferred options paper should have been published this autumn as previously planned and should be published as soon practicably possible with or without further infrastructure assessment to avoid any further unnecessary delays to the completion of our next local plan.”
The Motion was proposed by Councillor Hunter and seconded by Councillor S. Robinson.
In proposing the Motion, Councillor Hunter commented that the Motion focused on the decision that had been taken to delay publication of the preferred options paper for the Council, which would have identified potential sites for development. It was suggested that this delay would cause anxiety for many residents, due to uncertainty about whether particular land might be identified as suitable for development. In addition, Members were asked to note that the deferral would delay the provision of affordable housing in the District. Members were asked to note that the original wording of the Motion had been amended at the suggestion of Officers.
Reference was made to the Strategic Transport Assessment for the District, which had been postponed, however, Councillor Hunter suggested that the delay of this document did not justify deferring the preferred options paper. Other Councils in Worcestershire were proceeding with their work on their Local Plans and Councillor Hunter suggested that it would be more transparent and appropriate to proceed at a similar pace in Bromsgrove.
In seconding the Motion, Councillor Robinson stated that, whilst Members might have different views about the reasons for the deferral, it had been unfortunate that there had been limited notice provided to Councillors of the delay. Members had been working to a particular deadline and Councillor Robinson suggested that any concerns about meeting this deadline should have been raised at an earlier stage in the process with Members. Should the preferred options plan be deferred, it was suggested that clarification would need to be provided as soon as possible about the new deadline.
The Portfolio Holder for Planning and Regulatory Services responded to the Motion by explaining that, as advised and explained at a meeting of the Strategic Planning Steering Group, the plan had been delayed for further infrastructure work to be undertaken. The Portfolio Holder for Planning and Regulatory Services expressed the view that providing residents and businesses with more certainty over the infrastructure required to support the plan was key, which was why a decision ... view the full minutes text for item 57