Issue - meetings

To receive a briefing from the Place Portfolio Holders regarding the Place business areas and their portfolios.

Committee Members received a briefing and presentations from three Executive Members responsible for Place Portfolio areas: Cllr R. Biggs, Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy, Cllr E. Humphreys, Portfolio Holder for Place and Economic Prosperity, and Cllr N. Bramhall, Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhood Services.

The Chair, Cllr N. Harrison, also introduced the Director of Place Services, Luci Mould, and the Head of Planning, Head of Economic Prosperity and Head of Neighbourhood Operations.

Cllr R. Biggs, Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy, gave an overview of achievements during the 2019/20 on planning policy which included the adoption of the Development Management Plan (DMP) on 26 September 2019, following public examination in 2018. Cllr Biggs thanked officers for their work to complete the DMP. The Portfolio Holder gave Members updates on the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), the Core Strategy Review and updated Members on Transport and work with Surrey County Council, Highways England, and Network Rail to improve infrastructure in the Borough. He also gave an update on the work of the Southern Building Control Partnership with Tandridge and Mole Valley District Councils and added that the Partnership’s financial performance had improved year on year.

Members asked questions and discussed the following topics:

·         Permitted development – Members asked about permitted development in relation to office conversions to residential properties and the planning policy position going forward. It was noted that the Council did not agree or control this current central government policy, but they were working hard to influence local MPs to press for a change in national policy.

·         Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) – Members discussed the plan for preparing SPDs to provide detailed guidance to help implement DMP policies and asked about priorities. The Head of Planning updated Members on the recent public consultation on four SPDs which were due to be adopted by Executive and Council in April. The SPDs were: Affordable Housing, Barn and Farm Conversions, Historic Parks and Gardens and Reigate Shopfront SPDs. The next step was preparing an SPD for Horley Business Park. A Member group (DMAG) would be set up later in the year to look at other potential SPDs. Chair, Cllr N. Harrison, noted that a meeting of the reconvened Local Development Framework Scrutiny Review Panel, a task group of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, had taken place to review the public consultation on the SPDs and was due to be discussed at this Committee at its meeting on 16 April 2020.

·         Building control – Members asked about updated fire safety building controls that were emerging following lessons learned from the Grenfell fire disaster in London and the ongoing Public Inquiry, inspections and public scrutiny. It was noted that there would be a number of recommendations and legislative changes for building inspectors that would have an impact on the work of Southern Building Control Partnership going forward. Members thanked Southern Building Control Partnership inspectors for their work including in the north of the Borough where inspectors had worked at the weekend to prevent potential damage and danger to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41