Issue - meetings

Purpose of paper

·       To update the Health and Wellbeing Board on the Local Plan update in Kirklees, its purpose and importance

·       To ensure members are able to ask further questions about the Local Plan update

·       To ensure members are able to feedback on Local Plan update

Contact:  Lucy Wearmouth, Head of Improving Population Health and Hannah Morrison, Team Leader, Planning Policy and Strategy

Lucy Wearmouth and Hannah Morrison, provided the Board with an update on the Kirklees Local Plan, advising that in terms of the Local Plan, it is currently in the early engagement phase and there is still plenty of time to feedback through the process. The aim of the discussion at the Board is to enable members to find out more about the Local Plan, particularly if there has been no prior involvement and also to update Board members on how to can get involved.

In summary, The Board was reminded of the vision, priorities and ambition within the Kirklees Health and Wellbeing Strategy (KHWS) and that Healthy Places, which is one of the priorities in the KHWS, is an important theme within the Local Plan.  The vision for the Healthy Places priority is: “The physical and social infrastructure and environment supports people of all ages who live, work or study in Kirklees to maximise their health opportunities and to make the healthy choice the easy choice”.

The Board was informed that there are strong connections between Planning, Public Health and Health, and referring to the presentation slide entitled how the planning system can support health outcomes, the Board was advised that a great deal of work has already been undertaken with colleagues from Planning.

The planning system can contribute towards improving the health and wellbeing of the Kirklees population in several ways, for example:

•       The Local Plan through a spatial strategy which supports sustainable development and through planning policies which seek to support healthy placemaking, by promoting healthy and safe communities.

•       Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) – this is guidance produced to support Local Plan policies and of specific reference to health includes: Hot Food Takeaway SPD and Open Space SPD.

•       Health Impact Assessments as part of the determination of planning applications.

In reference to Hot Food Takeaways, the Board was informed that Public Health provide Planning with a tool which brings together a number of health indicators, which helps to understand health within a particular local area.  For example, if an application for a new hot food takeaway is received, a postcode of where the takeaway intends to be located, allows information to show what is happening in the area, in terms of levels of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, things that have an impact on health and wellbeing, which are related to obesity.  If an area hits a range of different indicators, the advice would be to carefully consider that application.

The other aspect to bring to the Board’s attention is health impact assessments, which is already taking place.  When a new application for a major planning development within Kirklees is received, colleagues in the Public Health Team will assess the application, according to health.  For example, does the planning application consider access to green spaces, is it considering the community around it, questions are also asked regarding air quality, a broad audit of the application is undertaken, and advice is given to the developers in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8