AT A MEETING of the STRATEGIC PLANNING JOINT ADVISORY PANEL held on 12 November 2002 at Civic Offices, Southampton City Council.

PRESENT:

Hampshire County Council

Councillors: K.B. Estlin (Chairman); C.R.H. Davidovitz; J.K. Glen; K. House; M.J. Roberts

Portsmouth City Council

Councillors: J. Patey; B. Maine

Southampton City Council

Councillors: Ms. J. Baston; S.J. Letts; A. Samuels

7. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

No declarations of interest were made at this point of the proceedings.

8. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 25 June 2002 were confirmed by the Panel as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Arising thereon:

(i) Proposed National Parks

It was noted that if the creation of the proposed National Parks for the New Forest and South Downs was agreed, they would be strategic planning authorities in their own right. The Countryside Agency had proposed that the New Forest National Park Authority should prepare a Structure Plan for its area in conjunction with the three Hampshire strategic planning authorities and hence the Terms of Reference for the Strategic Planning Joint Advisory Panel would require an amendment to include that National Park Authority as a member. The Countryside Agency had proposed that the South Downs National Park Authority should prepare a Unitary Development Plan for its area, separate from country structure plans.


(ii) Mineral and Waste Local Plan Review

The stakeholder consultation process, that had been conducted over the last year, had finished and a final report from the consultants was awaited. A First Deposit Draft of the Plan was currently being prepared for publication in due course.


(iii) Roll Forward/Review of the Structure Plan

Members from Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils expressed some concern in respect of the forthcoming Stakeholders Conference scheduled for Tuesday 3 December 2002 in that position papers in support of the Structure Plan were not far enough advanced in order to aid discussions at the Conference. Attention was also drawn to the Queen's Speech to be delivered on 13 November and what it might contain concerning proposals to reform the planning system. A representative from the Government Office of the South East confirmed that a letter would be sent to strategic authorities advising them to continue with Plan preparations. Although change was anticipated in some form, it would not happen overnight. In order to resolve concerns, it was agreed that officers from the three strategic authorities would meet prior to the Stakeholder Conference to discuss the way forward.

9. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman confirmed that he had no communications to bring to the attention of the Committee.

10. DEPUTATIONS

No requests to make a deputation had been received.

11. LOCAL PLAN PROGRESS AND ISSUES

The Panel considered the report of the Hampshire Director of Environment, Portsmouth City Planning Officer and Southampton Executive Director of Development and Sustainability (Item 5 in the Minute Book) updating Members on the current situation with each District Council's urban capacity study and major development area.

At the last meeting of the Panel, it was agreed that this update would be delivered via a short presentation by each District Council. However, the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) comprising County, City and District officers had considered this matter and felt that this method of delivery would be very time-consuming. Therefore, in order to expedite this particular item, each local planning authority had been asked to prepare a short position statement appended to the report. It was recognised that the position statements contained some very useful information, albeit in different formats, due in part to geographical differences. The importance of producing robust and deliverable urban capacity studies by all local planning authorities was agreed.

A full discussion ensued and a number of amendments to the report's recommendation were agreed.

RESOLVED:

(i) In order to facilitate comparison of key indicators and in particular housebuilding information in respect of each District Council's Local Plan, each District be asked to reformat the data provided using the Eastleigh Borough Council's format as a model.


(ii) Officers of the strategic planning authorities should, in conjunction with local planning authorities, undertake a check of the methodology and assumptions of the urban capacity studies to ensure they are realistic and consistent with the agreed Hampshire Guidelines for Urban Capacity Studies.

12. STRATEGIC TRANSPORT IN SOUTH HAMPSHIRE

The Panel considered the report of the Hampshire Director of Environment, Portsmouth City Planning Officer and Southampton Executive Director of Development and Sustainability (Item 6 in the Minute Book) making Members aware of the proposal to seek an integrated management approach to strategic decisions on transport in South Hampshire and to address the relationship of this Panel with the emerging political structure.

The Hampshire Director of Environment reported that there were a vast range of initiatives that needed to be delivered and the proposal to establish a Joint Strategic Transport Forum was an appropriate way to bring together all the relevant agencies instrumental in delivery. This was consistent with the Joint Advisory Panel's strategic role in transport planning matters and it was important that the two processes interlink.

RESOLVED:

(i) That the Panel endorses the intention to work closely with the proposed Joint Strategic Transport Forum on matters of strategic planning for South Hampshire.


(ii) That Members be kept up-to-date on progress, with a further report to be submitted for consideration at a future meeting of the Panel.

13. HAMPSHIRE HOUSE COMPLETIONS STUDY

The Panel considered a report of the Hampshire Director of Environment, Portsmouth City Planning Officer and Southampton Director of Development (Item 7 in the Minute Book) informing Members of the conclusions arising from a study into the reasons for a fall in housing completions within the Structure Plan area in recent years.

It was reported that in-depth research had been carried out which identified several reasons why the housebuilding rate had been low as detailed in paragraph 2.1 of the report. Attention was also drawn to paragraphs 4.3 to 4.6 which detailed actions required by other bodies to assist the strategic planning authorities. Councillor K. House requested that his opposition to 4.3(iv) be recorded. It was noted that the introduction of the Communities Bill, drawn up by the Deputy Prime Minister, would signal the start of publication of a list of those local planning authorities who do not achieve their housing completions target.

Members expressed concerns on a number of issues such as affordable housing and the need to address this and the position in respect of the release of Ministry of Defence brownfield sites. The report was welcomed as a very valuable piece of research.

RESOLVED:

(i) That the three strategic planning authorities be recommended to implement the actions in paragraph 4.2 of this report and work with the local planning authorities to ensure the deliverability of housing in the urban capacity studies; the progress on implementing these to be reported to the next meeting of the Panel.


(ii) That the views of the Hampshire local planning authorities, housebuilding and training representatives, the Government Office for the South East, the South East England Regional Assembly, the Learning and Skills Council, the Ministry of Defence and the South East England Development Agency, be sought on the Study Report and the recommendations set out in paragraphs 4.3 to 4.6, and that their views be reported to the next meeting of the Panel.

14. CURRENT STRUCTURE PLAN PROJECTS

The Panel considered the report of the Hampshire Director of Environment, Portsmouth City Planning Officer and Southampton Director of Development and Sustainability (Item 8 in the Minute Book) briefing Members on Structure Plan related projects not covered in other reports on the agenda. The report detailed progress on the South Hampshire and Blackwater Valley sub-regional studies, the home movers and business needs surveys, the checking of urban capacity studies and monitoring to guide decisions on whether to release any of the reserve housing sites and the enhancement of the Structure Plan information available on the internet.

The importance of paragraph 4 of the report detailing research that had been carried out in support of the roll forward/review of the Structure Plan and the longer term aspirations were highlighted.

Attention was also drawn to paragraph 6 of the report confirming that the outcome of Stage Two of the South Hampshire Study would be reported to the next meeting of the Panel.

In respect of the forthcoming Stakeholders Conference, Portsmouth City Council officers suggested that it would be helpful to receive notification of the topics that would be on the agenda in order to aid discussions at the officer meeting (paragraph 8(iii) of the Minutes refers). It was agreed that Hampshire officers would draft an agenda for the Stakeholders' Conference to be submitted to the Chairman for agreement shortly and any elected Member should direct their views in respect of its content to the Chairman as soon as possible.



RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

15. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

It was agreed that the next meeting of the Panel would be held on Thursday 20 March 2003, at 10.00am, in Meeting Room F of the Central Library, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth.

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