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.
Minutes:
Question submitted by Councillor R. Jenkins
“The McCarthy and Stone development Park Road, Hagley required an infrastructure improvement, namely a public footway, to be installed as a specific planning condition of planning approval being granted by this Council in 2014.
The footway was required to be open to the public before the first occupation (which was in December 2015) and the intention of the public footway was for wider community use and it gives direct pedestrian access from the 192 homes Wychbury Fields and 77 homes Wychbury Lawns developments to local schools, public transport and the village centre and shops.
Question. Can the Portfolio Holder for Planning give a full explanation as to why the footway has remained unopened for public use for at least the 31 months since it should have opened, including how soon after December 2015 the Planning department first took action to remedy the breach.
Also how the Planning department's actions to resolve this issue have complied with its own Enforcement policy, and also state on what date the public footpath will finally open.
In addition, as this is a long standing breach of a planning condition it continues to deny a public facility to many hundreds of people, including being an obstacle to the encouragement of people to walk and/or cycle, use public transport and a healthier lifestyle.
Whilst the breach continues does this place the Council in contravention of policies of its own current adopted Local Plan, namely Strategic Objective SO6 (encouraging walking and cycling), BDP12 (8.96) Sustainable Communities, BDP16 (8.132, 8.133) Sustainable Transport and BDP25 (8.247) Health and Well Being? If so what redress is there and to whom?”
As the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Strategic Housing, Councillor C. Taylor responded that officers had been working with Worcestershire County Council with the aim of opening up the footpath. However, the layout of the footpath caused complications, which meant that the Highways Department was unwilling to adopt the footpath due to the potential costs involved. McCarthy was aware of its responsibilities and as soon as they responded to the Council Councillor Taylor agreed to notify Councillor Jenkins.
Councillor Jenkins expressed concerns that the answer provided had not addressed her question and she requested a full response in writing to all of the points raised in her question. Councillor Taylor advised that he would ask the Development Control Manager to provide a detailed written response.
Question submitted by Councillor S. Colella
“The Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting planned for 30th July has been cancelled due to lack of business. The substantive item on the agenda was to have been the Transport Planning Review draft report, but this report is still awaited from WCC and therefore the report will not be ready. A letter from the Chairman has been sent to WCC chasing up the outstanding information. The next planned meeting of the Board will be 3rd September.
This is totally unacceptable raising significant concerns as regards the willingness and cooperation of WCC in supporting BDC in one of the most strategically important issues that face the residents of Bromsgrove yet we can’t get a timely meaningful report. This shows a total disregard to the problems that we face in this district and concerns me greatly that as a responsible authority for producing a Strategic Supplementary Planning document that will inform the Bromsgrove Development Plan it continues to give me absolutely no confidence whatsoever that our transport and travel problems will be resolved anytime soon.
Does the leader and Cabinet agree with me that this lack of cooperation and fulfilment is not acceptable and that this council supports the Overview and Scrutiny Board by writing to the leader of WCC expressing our my deepest concerns?”
The Leader responded by advising that he would be happy to write to Worcestershire County Council. This letter would emphasise that all aspects of highways information required by Bromsgrove District Council should be provided in a timely manner. This was not an issue in relation to the County Council preparing a planning document; instead this was about having appropriate input and responding to the Overview and Scrutiny Board in a timely manner.