Agenda item

Leigh Palmer, Head of Planning and Nadeem Din, Planning Policy Lead, presented the report which sought agreement from the Cabinet for a period of public consultation on the Regulation 18 Local Plan ‘Towards a Spatial Strategy and Policies Approaches’, and publication of supporting documents. During discussion, the following points were highlighted:

·       The process for proving the soundness of the Council’s evidence gathering and its submitted Local Plan would be through examination by the inspector. The Council’s evidence would be supplemented as the Plan progressed towards examination and it was felt that a credible case was being presented, that demonstrated the existing constraints on housing development such as landscape, the South Downs National Park (SDNP), coastline, rivers/flooding and ancient woodland. The document provided for consultation included the setting of a ’range’ for the housing target which was informed by technical assessments of the land. The process going forward would include discussions and engagement (under the duty to cooperate) with neighbouring authorities on land availability, which would demonstrate to the Inspector that the Council was taking a ‘no stone unturned’ approach to addressing its identified needs.

·       The proposed split of housing numbers between Lewes District and the SDNP authority was a long-standing figure, although it had not yet been agreed between the SNDPA and LDC. The number allocated to the SDNP did not need to be solely delivered in Lewes and could be across the entire park. If consensus on the final figure could not be reached, it was felt that the Council would be able to successfully evidence its position.

·       The document acknowledged that 40% was the requirement for affordable housing provision, however, the trend for Lewes was currently lower (based on viability grounds). As a result, the Council would continue to aim for 40% but would set as policy direction, a minimum level of 25% provision on-site, with the difference taken as a cash contribution, allowing the Council to provide its own housing across the district. The document also recognised that a positive direction from the Council towards the provision of two-bedroom dwellings by developers was required, as this was where a larger portion of housing need arose.

·       The Council was discussing its expected growth plan in terms of housing numbers with all infrastructure providers, including Southern Water. The Environment Agency had been involved in the draft production of evidence and would continue to be involved as the Plan progressed. There was a statutory obligation to provide infrastructure for approved sites.

·       The sites marked as red (unacceptable for development) were not yet set as such and should mitigation measures be proposed, for example by a developer, the sites could be moved to another category which identified them as acceptable, following further evidence-based work. The sites would not be set until the final submission of the document and developers would be able to challenge the sites that remained red, at the enquiry stage.

·       There were two separate levels of need in the document for Travellers/Gypsies as there were two different definitions and the document had policies for both definitions. The provision of sufficient sites for Travellers/Gypsies would come from a combination of site allocations and a policy direction that obligated large residential housing developers to provide a proportion of their land for Gypsy/Traveller accommodation.

·       The scale for the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) from development acknowledged that Government had mandated a minimum of 10%, although the Council aspired to a higher net gain. The current scope looked at whether 20% was attainable across all sites, however, this could become site specific if viability became an issue, which would then potentially impact on the ability to deliver affordable housing. The Council was not yet at the stage where the higher end of the scale could be evidenced.

Resolved to support the Officer recommendations in the Cabinet report, in full.