Agenda item

The Executive Member for Place, Planning and Regulatory Services.

The Leader, Councillor Biggs, introduced this item as the Portfolio Holder for Place, Planning and Regulatory, Councillor Michalowski had sent his apologies.

The Executive were asked to approve and adopt the updated Reigate & Banstead Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) in Planning (Annex 5) and approve a consultation on the review of the SCI’s requirements on publication of names and postal addresses from comments on planning and related applications.

The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) is a statutory document which sets out how the Council will engage with residents on various aspects of planning. Since 2018, Councils have to complete a review of this document every 5 years. The current SCI was adopted in April 2019.

The review has refreshed the SCI to reflect changes in digitisation and engagement tools as well as improving formatting and accessibility. The report also recommends a review be undertaken into the approach of publishing responders’ names and postal addresses.

Two matters will be put to Full Council for a decision on 28 March 2024. These are to review and publish the Reigate & Banstead Local Plan: Core Strategy policies and an indicative timetable for a new Local Plan to be approved. Local Plan policies have to be reviewed every 5 years and as the last review was July 2019, this needed to be completed. There have been no changes in legislation or regulations, but new guidance was published in 2019 for Local Plan reviews to be subject to Duty to Co-operate discussions with neighbouring authorities. This has been undertaken.

There are also implications for decision making on planning applications as policies older than 5 years from the date of adoption or review can be deemed out of date, so attract less weight. The Core Strategy also contains the Council’s housing numbers that it must provide over the plan period (2012-2027) or 6,900 or 460 per annum.

The latest LDS/indicative timetable reflects the latest position on preparation of the new Local Plan as presented to Overview and Scrutiny Committee in October 2023. An update was given to Overview and Scrutiny at its meeting on 14 March 2024. There were no further comments from the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Harrison.

A Visiting Member felt that the item had not been fully reviewed at the last Overview and Scrutiny Committee as there was a six page Addendum but not the full report to scrutinise. The Member asked for clarification as it was noted in the report that it was not proposed to amend any details in the Core Strategy but in the Duty to Cooperate feedback, against Surrey County Council’s response, it states that this will be amended. It was unclear whether changes are being made to the Core Strategy or not.

Tanya Mankoo-Flatt, the report author and Principal Planning Development Officer, said it was the draft Local Plan review that went to our Duty to Cooperate partners for comment and that the draft Local Plan Review was amended as a result of the comment from Surrey County Council. It was not a comment to amend the Core Strategy so there were no changes to be made to the Core Strategy.

A Visiting Member also asked for an update on when the updated A23 Great Street Design Code Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) was due to be published. The Head of Planning said the current report and recommendations were an entirely separate item from the Local Plan. The SPD went out for consultation in the New Year; comments were back, and the Council was working with respondents and with consultants on responses. It was hoped that the SPD would come forward for adoption at a future meeting.

RESOLVED – that the Executive approve:

(i) And adopt the updated Reigate & Banstead Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) in Planning (Annex 5); and

(ii) A review of the Statement of Community Involvement’s (SCI’s) requirements on publication of names and postal addresses from comments on planning and related applications.

Also Council was asked to approve and adopt at its next meeting:

(iii) the review of the Reigate & Banstead local plan: Core Strategy policies (Annex 1), which concludes that the Core Strategy policies remain “up to 101 Agenda Item 5 date” and effective for the purposes of planning decisions, and that it be published; and

(iv) That, subject to the approval of Recommendation (iii),

an indicative timetable for a new local plan (Annex 4) be approved.