AT A MEETING of the ENVIRONMENT POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE held at The Castle, Winchester on Thursday 16 February 2006.

PRESENT:

Also in attendance: Councillors J. K. Glen and T. G. Knight.

76. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs. E. M. Byrom,

A. S. Carew, G. M. Hockley, K. House and R. C. McIntosh.

77. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should normally at the time of the debate declare their interest, and having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.

78. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 January 2006 were confirmed by the Committee and signed by the Chairman.

79. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

There were no Chairman's Communications.

80. MEMBERS' QUESTIONS

No questions to the Executive Member for Environment : North Hampshire

and Spatial Strategy and the Executive Member for Environment :

South Hampshire and Resource Management had been received.

81. POLICY FOR THE EXTINGUISHMENT OF HIGHWAY RIGHTS

Councillor Hutcheson declared a personal interest as having made enquiries

about extinguishing highway rights outside his house although he had not

pursued this. He remained present throughout but took no part in the discussion

of the item. Councillor Mrs. P. M. Devereux took the Chair.

COUNCILLOR MRS. P.M. DEVEREUX TOOK THE CHAIR

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Environment (Item 7 in

the Minute Book) proposing a policy for responding to requests for the

extinguishment of highway rights for inclusion within the Highway

Maintenance Plan, to be considered by the Executive Member for

Environment : South Hampshire and Resource Management at his meeting on

28 February 2006.

Members requested that the policy statement be added to the procedure for the

extinguishment of highway rights, the order be changed to put the principle

first and a Member asked to be kept informed by receiving a copy of the

acknowledgement letter sent to applicants. The Director of Environment

advised that this may contravene the Data Protection Act.

RESOLVED:

That the Policy for Extinguishment of Highways Rights be supported.

AT THIS POINT COUNCILLOR P.R.C.HUTCHESON TOOK THE CHAIR

82. RESPONSE TO THE CONSULTATION PAPER ON PLANNING

POLICY STATEMENT 3 : HOUSING

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Environment (Item 9 in

the Minute Book) providing information about the consultation paper on the

draft Planning Policy Statement 3 : Housing (PPS 3) and its key proposals.

During the course of discussions, Members raised a number of concerns which

were noted by the Executive Member, inter alia:

- that representations should be sent to the Government drawing attention the incompatibility of the advice purporting to favour brownfield development but actually likely to result in the development of more greenfield sites particularly as windfalls were not to normally be allowed for in the land supply. It was felt that windfall provision should be taken into account if brownfield development was to continue to take priority over Greenfield.

- suggested that the threshold for affordable housing should be 10 instead of the indicative 15 national minimum proposed by the Government, though the Committee also considered other possible thresholds.

- Suggested that the percentage of affordable housing on each site should be maximised, 40% was considered by some Members to be an appropriate target for South East England.

- that the whole post Barker thinking on affordability was fundamentally flawed as it did not consider important issues and relied on a simplistic assumption of the impact of additional supply on price.

- consideration should be given to income to house price ratios rather than simple headline price considerations.

RESOLVED:

That the report having been presented, Members agreed the proposed

response prepared by the Director of Environment to the Government's

Consultation paper on Planning Policy Statement 3 : Housing as set out in

Appendix 2 of the report.

83. PLANNING-GAIN SUPPLEMENT RESPONSE TO GOVERNMENT

PROPOSALS

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Environment (Item 8 in

the Minute Book) explaining the Government's proposals to introduce a new

levy on development and setting out the County Council's response to the

consultation document relating to the introduction of the Planning-gain

Supplement (PGS), to be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on

27 February 2006.

The Director of Environment presented the main issues raised by the

consultation document. Members noted that the Government had promised that

the majority of PGS funds would be recycled to the local level with the

overwhelming majority of PGS funds recycled within the region from which

they derived and it was anticipated that Local Government overall would

receive more funding than currently.

The Director of Environment suggested that there was potential for significant

leakage of funds from the local area and the tariff system would be clearer,

allow more scope and be more advantageous to Hampshire. She pointed out

that under PGS there would be less opportunity to be creative with land

purchases and disposals, which was another way of recycling planning gain

into County services such as new schools.

Whilst Members agreed that it was important for planning gain to be extracted

for community benefit, some thought it should be both collected and retained

locally for off site infrastructure whilst others felt collection should be

centralised for efficiency reasons.

RESOLVED:

(i) That the report having been presented, Members supported the proposed

response including the additional recommendation tabled at the meeting,

namely that if a Planning-gain Supplement is introduced, the funding

should be fully reallocated locally to provide local infrastructure, with only

surplus funds subject to transfer to the regional level.

84. ENVIRONMENT POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE -

FORWARD PLAN

The Committee received and noted a report of the Chief Executive and

Director of Environment (Item 10 in the Minute Book) setting out issues for

future consideration.