Minutes:
The Forum received a verbal update from Toby Ayling, Principal Planning Officer for Winchester City Council and David Hayward, Planning Policy Manager for Havant Borough Council regarding the commencement of the Local Plan consultations due to take place at Winchester and Havant respectively.
Toby Ayling outlined the aim to completely refresh the existing local plan for the Winchester District, provided an outline on the promotion and community engagement work and set out the next steps to be taken as part of the consultation process for the full draft plan, highlighting key changes to the previous planning approach taken. Following discussions with developers, the Plan proposes that the development at West of Waterlooville would be delivered over the plan period to 2039 and made reference to evidence for the capacity to deliver a potential further 250 homes on the Winchester part of the West of Waterlooville development.
It was noted that this was Winchester’s first draft of the plan and at present, it was envisaged that there would be a review of the masterplan for West of Waterlooville which would be brought to the forum for discussion as and when matters progressed, following the consultation process, consideration of the implications, the cumulative impact with other developments and any consequential infrastructure requirements arising from this.
Members of the public were encouraged to respond to the proposals set out in the draft plan with the consultation commencing on 2 November for a six week period until 14 December. Full details of the consultation were available online, with notifications disseminated via various methods and hard copies of key documents being made available at libraries. In addition, it was noted that a number of local plan events were taking place, the nearest being at Bishops Waltham on 18 November, with a briefing for all Winchester District Parish Councils scheduled to take place on 15 November.
The forum raised questions regarding Winchester’s local plan consultation which were responded to by relevant officers in relation to the following points:
· Additional development within West of Waterlooville – would this be covered under the existing Section 106 agreement? This was a matter to be further investigated, this was the initial first draft of the plan, therefore deliverability had not been specified at this time.
· Location within the masterplan of where additional homes could be provided – various methods were envisaged within the plan, including revisions to the estimated capacity of various phases and the development of land no longer required for expansion of a school.
· Facilities within the development, including off street parking provision and electric charging points.
· Consent – it was noted that additional planning consent may be required but this would be confirmed by officers in due course.
· Affordable housing balance – higher building standards.
David Hayward highlighted the action currently taking place on the new local plan for Havant Borough. It was noted that the council had recently commenced production of a new local plan ‘building a better future’ with a number of issues it was aiming to address including the growing housing need and increasing population. It was recognised that values in Havant were lower than average which reduced net gain and therefore housing mix was key with the need for affordable housing being significant. Suburban expansion was raised and opportunities to reduce carbon emissions would also be explored within the plan.
The constraints for Havant were reported due to its size and limited availability of sites, which it was noted could result in the council’s inability to meet housing need, therefore discussion was required with neighbouring authorities to support the local plan process. Havant’s approach differed from Winchester by being a full draft local plan with the consultation process taking the form of a discussion document with key themes.
This was available to access on the council’s website www.havant.gov.uk/localplan and at libraries and community centres, notably Waterlooville Community Centre and Waterlooville library - the deadline for comments to be submitted by midnight on 14th November 2022.
The forum raised questions regarding Havant’s local plan consultation process which were responded to by relevant officers in relation to the following points:
· Timeline – The timeline was expected to be 2024 for adoption.
· Possible changes to Park View Phase 10 as part of Havant local plan – It was noted that changes to the MDA were not anticipated.
· The affordability of affordable housing and social rented housing and the waiting times for these products.
· Priorities – such as improved building standards, local carbon design, affordable housing
In conclusion, the Chairperson thanked officers for their respective local plan updates and asked that information requested by the forum be passed to the Democratic Services Officer for circulation in due course.
RESOLVED:
That the verbal updates be received and noted.