Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors E. Gray, D. Hopkins, C. Hotham, H. Jones and R. Lambert.

The Chairman took the opportunity to welcome Councillor J. Clarke as a member of the Council following his election as Ward Member for Sidemoor, at the recent by-election.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no Declarations of Interest.

The minutes from the Council meeting held on 17^th July 2024 were submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that

1)    the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 17^th July 2024 be approved as a correct record.

As the Response to Proposed Reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system was a highly technical report, it was proposed by Councillor B. Kumar that the Standing Orders be suspended until the close of this meeting in order to permit the Strategic Planning and Conservation Manager to speak during consideration of this report. This would provide the opportunity for the Strategic Planning and Conservation Manager to respond to any questions Members might have. This was seconded by Councillor K. May and approved by Members.

Councillor K. Taylor proposed the approval of the Response to the Proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system report and this was seconded by Councillor K. May.

In presenting the report, Members were informed that the appendix to this report was Bromsgrove District Council’s response to the proposals for the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The response had been reached following several consultations with all Members. As a result of these consultations, Members had provided detailed responses to all questions included in the consultation document provided by Central Government. These responses were to be provided to Government by 24^th September 2024. The Portfolio Holder for Planning and Regulatory Services thanked all Members for their engagement during this process. Members also took the opportunity to thank the Officers, the Assistant Director for Planning, Leisure and Culture Services and the Strategic Planning and Conservation Manager for all their hard work and technical expertise.

Members were reminded that should they wish to provide any further responses, either individually or on behalf of their political group, they were permitted to do so. However, these would not be included in the Council’s response to the proposed reforms. It was suggested that should the Council not provide a response then this might lead Central Government to wrongly assume that Bromsgrove District Council agreed with all of the proposals, which it did not.

The response reflected several areas of concern with the proposed NPPF particularly in the areas of ‘need’ and ‘affordability’ and it was highlighted that any reforms should not be considered ‘as one size fits all’.

During the presentation of the report, it was noted that further commentary would be added to the document presented to Members at question nineteen within the response. This question was in respect of the number of houses that were to be built as part of the proposed reforms of the NPPF. It was hoped that the wording would strengthen the Council’s response in respect of the dissatisfaction of the extra number of houses and future use of the Green Belt for the building of houses. The additional wording was reported as follows:

‘With this in mind Bromsgrove District Council wishes to express significant concern and formally object to the outcomes of the new standard method. The addition of 318 dwellings per annum over the already challenging standard method numbers is not something the Council can support. Through the emerging  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34\24

There was no Urgent Business on this occasion.