Issue - meetings

-          The Panel will receive an update on the progress of the Kirklees Local Plan.

-          The Panel are asked to note the revised national planning policy and implications for the Local Plan update programme.

Contact: Johanna Scrutton, Planning Policy and Strategy Group Leader, and Mathias Franklin, Head of Planning and DevelopmentTel: 01484 221000

Cllr Graham Turner, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Regeneration introduced the item, advising the Panel that this is likely to be the first of many updates as the Local Plan is rolled out.  Progress is being made, however, as the Panel will appreciate, these things take time, and there is short capacity within the Planning Department, however reasonable progress is being made and things are moving forward.

Johanna Scrutton, Planning Policy and Strategy Group Leader, provided the Panel with an update on the Local Plan Review, advising that the review was undertaken in the summer 2023, in order to get it through the process before the end of the five year period, which for Kirklees was February 2023.  A report outlining the process to be taken was presented to the Scrutiny Panel in September 2023. 

The Panel was reminded that the assessment was based on the Planning Advisory Service Review template which looked at three main topics covering 14 questions, regarding the delivery of the spatial strategy, whether there were any Council priorities that had impacted on the plan, and whether the plan policies themselves were still compliant with local plan guidance.

The review outcome indicated that the plan was out of date in several areas including, the lack of five year land supply, the Council not meeting its housing delivery targets, and the potential for employment delivery.  There were known sites that were coming forward, however they had yet to enter the planning process in terms of the Council's priorities.  While the Local Plan was found to be sound in terms of sustainability, the Council's climate action plan was developed after the plan was adopted, therefore, the review provided an opportunity to relook at plan policies to assist towards net zero.

In terms of the planning policies, service users were spoken to, monitoring for development management in applications and appeals were looked at, and most of the policies were still found to be working.  It is also important to stress that the whole of the plan is not out of date, the Local Plan National Planning Policy Guidance and the supplementary planning documents will continue to be the main tools that will be use in determining planning decisions.

The Planning Officers Society were invited to give an independent view on whether it should be a partial or a full review.   In their opinion, because of the interrelationship between the strategy, the planning policies, the cost and transparency to communities, it was determined that it would be better to do a full review.

The Panel was informed that in order to address the situation that the Council did not have a five year land supply, an interim housing position statement was produced, and that was presented to scrutiny in November 2023 and taken to Cabinet in December 2023.  Work has also been undertaken on a revised Local Plan timetable, which is not just the timetable for the local plan, but a whole range of other planning policy documents and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8