Issue - meetings

To consider the head of planning’s report. 

Cabinet considered the head of planning’s report on the emerging Local Plan.  The report set out the Local Development Scheme for Cabinet’s approval and sought endorsement of the work programme.  The council had to publish a local development scheme, setting out the documents that would comprise the Local Plan and the Local Plan timetable.  This was appended to the report. 

The Cabinet member for planning reported that, since the Council meeting held in May, officers had been reviewing sites capable of forming a strategic housing allocation and undertaking detailed appraisals.  All 15 sites referenced and published on the Council’s website continued to be potential housing sites until a decision was made by Council, scheduled for December 2018. 

Cabinet noted that the implication of the revised timetable was that the Local Plan would be submitted beyond the proposed transitional arrangement of the new National Planning Policy Framework but before the Housing and Growth Deal Local Plan submission deadline. 

Throughout the process officers had been in dialogue with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.  The Ministry was pleased that the council remained committed to the terms of the Housing and Growth Deal and would submit its Local Plan before the deadline specified in the Growth Deal Delivery Plan.  The Planning Advisory Service and the Planning Inspector’s advice had helped the plan progress further.  The Ministry had also advised that it was committed to deliver Oxfordshire’s planning freedoms and flexibilities and remained dedicated to delivering the other components of the Growth Deal, including the funding. 

Cabinet welcomed the support from the Ministry and approved the revised timetable and Local Development Scheme and endorsed the work programme provided. 

RESOLVED: to

(a)      approve the Local Development Scheme, as set out in appendix 1 to the head of planning’s report to Cabinet on 2 August 2018; and

(b)      endorse the work programme set out to progress the Local Plan and bring a publication version of the Local Plan to Council, as set out in the timetable.