Agenda item

1.    That the 2023 Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) which is attached at Appendix 1 of report CAB3412 be approved and published as part of the evidence base for the new Local Plan; and 

2.    That authority be delegated to the Strategic Planning Manager, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Place and Local Plan, to make any necessary edits and minor alterations prior to the publication of the SHELAA.

3.    That it be ensured that Site Ref CS15 (Bushfield Camp) is correctly identified as being located within the Compton and Shawford Parish Council area before the SHELAA is published on the website.  

Councillor Porter introduced the report, emphasising that the SHELAA was a document that set out a strategic land availability assessment and was not setting out site allocations.  Many of the additional sites added were for employment use. 

Ian Tait and Councillor Godbold (Badger Farm Parish Council) spoke during public participation as summarised briefly below.

Ian Tait

He referred to the sites in Pitt Vale which had been removed from the SHELAA although he explained the original two sites were now one site which was now being promoted by a single developer.  He advocated that the council should be purchasing land to build a new council housing estate and the Pitt Vale site could fulfil that need.  He also asked where the five sites owned by the council within the SHELAA were located and whether these could deliver meaningful numbers of new affordable housing.

      Councillor Godbold

He highlighted that the Bushfield Camp area was stated as being in the Winchester town area in the SHELAA, when it was in Compton and Shawford Parish. The area of Bushfield previously known as area WIN32 had now been renumbered and site CS15 close to Sainsburys had also been added.  The parish council was concerned at the collective impact of the potential development at these locations. 

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillors Laming and Horrill addressed Cabinet as summarised briefly below.

Councillor Laming

He requested that development at Bushfield Camp be sympathetic, having regard to the landscape and areas of SINC and protective species here. He was concerned that the site had moved away from employment to a mixed development, and he questioned whether inclusion of homes may negatively impact on overall viability.  He also referred to other sites adjacent to Bushfield and so he suggested a need for an overall masterplan for the area and for the whole town area. 

Councillor Horrill

She considered that the council should reiterate that the SHELAA was not specifying site allocations with a presumption for planning permission. She also asked when the council would receive the Regulation 18 consultation responses.  There had also been some redefinition of boundaries in the latest SHELLA and whether this was reflective of any change in strategy.  She also requested that there be conversations with ward councillors of those wards particularly impacted with sites coming forward.

Councillors Porter and Tod and the Strategic Planning Manager responded to the points raised by members of the public and councillors.  It was confirmed that officers would check that specific sites such as Bushfield were referred to as being in their correct parish boundary.  It was also confirmed that Pitt Vale was not an allocated site within the Regulation 18 document. Furthermore, sites listed in the SHEELA were those put forward by owners that could be developed, and they could suggest what was envisaged the site would be eventually used for, however this was not what necessarily would come to fruition.  Ownership of sites were not in the public domain.

Cabinet agreed to the following for the reasons set out in the report and outlined above.

RESOLVED:

1.                 That the 2023 Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) which is attached at Appendix 1 of report CAB3412 be approved and published as part of the evidence base for the new Local Plan; and 

2.                 That authority be delegated to the Strategic Planning Manager, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Place and Local Plan, to make any necessary edits and minor alterations prior to the publication of the SHELAA.

That it be ensured that Site Ref CS15 (Bushfield Camp) is correctly identified as being located within the Compton and Shawford Parish Council area before the SHELAA is published on the website.