Issue - meetings

To deal with any questions on notice from Members of the Council, in the order in which they have been received.

A period of up to 15 minutes is allocated for the asking and answering of questions.  This may be extended at the discretion of the Chairman with the agreement of the majority of those present.

The Chairman advised that four Questions on Notice had been received for this meeting.

Question Submitted by Councillor Rone-Clark:

“In April 2021, in response to a petition with 5000 signatures and a motion submitted by then Cllr Mallett, calling for an urgent feasibility study R.E. a potential Western Relief Road, then portfolio holder for planning Cllr Kent told this council he had commissioned a Strategic Transport Assessment (STA) to be released to the public by 'the end of the summer (2022)'.

In September 2022, 17 months after the STA was first promised, I made an FOI request in response to the lack of communication on this from BDC...it returned nothing of substance, not even a draft overview of findings...

At a subsequent meeting in late 2022, I asked Cllr Thomas, my 2^nd planning portfolio holder , to comment on the status of the STA...he informed me that the STA didn't really exist and was merely a small extension of the local plan; despite the fact that in March 2021, Bromsgrove District Council went out to tender for a contractor to carry out a strategic transport assessment, advertising this on their website and social media!

Then, on April 9^th 2023, two years after this issue was first raised in this chamber, The Bromsgrove Conservatives tweeted 'pledge #4 for Bromsgrove: we havecommissioned a strategic transport assessment for the district...'

My question, put simply: what on earth is going on?”

The Cabinet Member for Planning, Licensing and WRS responded that the Strategic Transport assessment would be a suite of reports and assessments which primarily shaped and then supported the policies that would be contained in a new local plan for Bromsgrove District. It would be published alongside all the other elements of the evidence base when the plan was next ready for consultation. As explained at recent Strategic Planning Steering Group (SPSG) meetings, the planning system was subject to significant reforms now which made plan making a  difficult process. Officers had continued to progress the local plan as far as possible whilst these ongoing reforms were being considered. This had included working with Worcestershire County Council on developing tools to assess the likely impacts of new development across Bromsgrove District, and then predict the infrastructure improvements that would be required as a result. As explained at the SPSG meeting on the 5^th October, WCC officers had been asked to present the STA tools they had developed to BDC members, this would be taking place at the SPSG meeting on the 16^th November, to which all members were invited.

Cllr Rone Clark asked a supplementary question about how much STA modelling Councillor Taylor had inherited when he took up the portfolio.  Councillor Taylor responded that there had been robust conversations with Worcestershire County Council about the lack of progress.  He reiterated that County Council representatives had been invited to the meeting on 16^th November.

Question Submitted by Councillor D Nicholls:

“To ask the Leader, following  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56