Issue - meetings

Recommendations

1. That the Executive approve that the updated LDS (attached at Appendix 1) shall take effect on 18 March 2025 and be published on the Council’s website.

2. That the Corporate Director Community Development in consultation with the Executive Member for Open to Business, be authorised to make minor amendments and graphical improvements to the LDS prior to publication on the council’s website

3. That the Corporate Director Community Development in consultation with the Executive Member for Open to Business be authorised to review and amend the timescales of local plan preparation in the LDS or equivalent when the requirements of the LURA 2023 plan-making reforms are known.

Considered a report of the Corporate Director of Community Development which sought approval of the council’s revised Local Development Scheme.

The Executive Member for Open to Business, Councillor Mark Crane introduced the report noting that preparation of a Local Development Scheme (LDS) was a requirement of national planning legislation and set out the timescales for preparing development plan documents including Local Plans. The current LDS had been approved in February 2024; however in light of changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in December 2024, all local planning authorities were required to produce an updated LDS.  In the ensuing discussion Councillor Crane recognised the challenges presented by the revised NPPF, not least the new housing need figure of 4077, and referenced further challenges in the near future occasioned by further legislative changes, but with his confidence in officers, he remained hopeful that the council would rise to these challenges.

Resolved (unanimously) that:

1. That the Executive approve that the updated LDS (attached at Appendix 1) shall take effect on 18 March 2025 and be published on the Council’s website.

2. That the Corporate Director Community Development in consultation with the Executive Member for Open to Business, be authorised to make minor amendments and graphical improvements to the LDS prior to publication on the council’s website

3. That the Corporate Director Community Development in consultation with the Executive Member for Open to Business be authorised to review and amend the timescales of local plan preparation in the LDS or equivalent when the requirements of the LURA 2023 plan-making reforms are known.

Reasons for recommendations

The preparation of a LDS is a statutory requirement as set out in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.