Agenda and draft minutes

 To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors John Cattanach, Stephanie Duckett, Mike Jordan, Andrew Lee, Cliff Lunn and Andy Paraskos.

All Members are invited to declare at this point any interest they have in items appearing on this agenda, including the nature of those interests.

None.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice and supplied the text to David Smith, Senior Democratic Services Officer, democraticservices.central@northyorks.gov.uk by midday on Tuesday, 14 January 2025. Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item.

Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak -

·        at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which are not otherwise on the agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes)

·        when the relevant agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the agenda for this meeting.

If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not wish to be recorded, please inform the Chairman who will instruct anyone who may be taking a recording to cease while you speak.

Three public statements were received before the deadline of Tuesday 14 January 2025.

1) An individual submitted a public statement but was unable to attend the meeting and so they will receive a response in writing.

2) Councillor Peter Baumann of Sherburn In Elmet Town Council made the following statement.

Thank you, Chair & Councillors.

I am speaking to you today as Chair of Sherburn Town Council to express our concerns about the recommendation to cease work on the Selby Local Plan.

The Selby Local Plan has had significant time, effort, and financial investment. Halting it now risks devaluing these efforts and would undermine the hard work of local councils, community groups and residents who have invested in shaping their communities’ futures. It risks eroding public confidence in the planning process, too — residents have engaged in consultations, provided feedback, and invested time believing their voices would shape the Local Plan. Abandoning the Plan has the potential to send a message that their input holds little value, discouraging future participation in planning processes.

It may also lead to parish and town councils, including ours, having to cease work on their own Neighbourhood Development Plans and possibly repay grant funding as a result of the failure to produce a Plan. In Sherburn alone, we have spent over £5,000 on our NDP so far and have held several consultations with the community, in good faith that it would align with the Selby Local Plan.

Selby’s Local Plan has taken over 5 years to get to this stage, but it is now at the point where it is sufficiently advanced that both developers and the planning department recognise its weight. To scrap it risks creating a vacuum in the planning system, potentially for several years whilst the North Yorkshire Local Plan is progressed, leaving residents and councils without a clear framework for managing development. If developers get wind that this Committee and North Yorkshire Council are set to abandon it, they will exploit that uncertainty. It will become incredibly difficult to argue that any weight should be afforded to the policies and the land allocations within. Speculative applications will become harder to resist, undermining the ability to deliver strategic, sustainable and community-led growth.

Sherburn knows from experience the damage this can cause, placing a severe strain on infrastructure, from schools to healthcare to transport. Without a clear strategic plan, there is no guarantee that future developments will come with the infrastructure improvements we so desperately need.

Finally, while I recognise the challenges imposed by the revised NPPF in terms of housing allocation and 5-year supply, the worst possible outcome would be to have no plan in place—emerging or otherwise. Without a Plan, you risk leaving communities vulnerable to ad-hoc, uncoordinated development, undermining efforts to deliver sustainable growth and the associated essential infrastructure. A clear framework, even one still in progress, is far better than none at all.

For these reasons, we urge the Committee to reject the recommendation to halt progress on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 119.

To update and consult the Selby and Ainsty Area Committee on the recommendation to cease work on the preparation of the Selby Local Plan.

Considered

A report of the Corporate Director of Community Development updating and consulting the Committee on the recommendation to cease work on the preparation of the Selby Local Plan.

Steve Wilson and Linda Marfitt introduced the report, summarising the following key points.

-        It was highlighted that the report was seeking comments and recommendations from the Development Plan and Selby and Ainsty Area Committees. The Executive would consider those comments and recommendations on 4 February 2025, before making a final recommendation to Full Council on 26 February 2025. The Development Plan Committee plays an overarching, strategic, role, and the Area Committee takes a more local approach.

-        That the new National Planning and Policy Framework (NPPF) reinstates the requirement for local planning authorities to maintain a 5-year housing land supply and therefore the current 4-year housing land supply that can be demonstrated is unsatisfactory.

-        There are increased housing requirements following the publication of the NPPF which means that the current iteration of the Selby Local Plan has a shortfall of between 2000 and 3000 dwellings.

-        The Government provided guidance to the Planning Inspectorate in July 2024 to make it clear that Inspectors should no longer devote significant time to resolving outstanding matters to ensure submitted local plans are ‘sound’, and therefore the option to progress to submission without substantial further work would delay the Plan further.

-        There are uncertainties over the evidence base of the Selby Local Plan and therefore certain matters require updates and new consultations. This would be a substantial task.

-        That the policies and evidence base of the Plan would be used in the preparation of the North Yorkshire Local Plan where appropriate.

-        That if a formal decision is taken to halt the plan, the Council can continue to apply some weight to the most recent evidence base when making decisions on planning applications.

-        That the Selby Local Plan is not at a stage where it can benefit from the NPPFs transitional arrangements.

Following this, a discussion took place, the key points of which can be seen below.

-        It was clarified that if a decision is taken to cease work on the Selby Local Plan, appropriate weight can be given to some of the evidence base when specific sites are in question. One of the recommendations is that the Council uses sites identified within the draft Selby Local Plan as the starting point for discussions. It was also recognised that the current evidence base would be deemed inadequate if the Selby Local Plan was submitted.

-        Members were informed that communities would be engaged with regarding the identification of sites during the development of the NYC Local Plan and that work with NYC regeneration will go ahead to take advantage of arising opportunities. Members reminded Officers to engage with Parish and Town Councils.

-        Members raised that the Selby Local Plan was delayed due to Local Government Reorganisation.

-        It was highlighted that if the Selby Local Plan is continued,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 120.

Any other business that the Chair agrees should be considered as a matter of urgency because of special circumstances.

There were none.

Friday, 25 April 2025 at 10.00am.

10am Friday, 25 April 2025.