Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from those Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

Cllr Zarina Amin was appointed Chair for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Cllr Susan Lee-Richards, Jonathan Milner and Chris Friend.

To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on the 10 October 2023.

That minutes of the Panel meeting held on 10^th October 2023 be submitted to the next meeting of the Panel.

Members will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have any disclosable pecuniary interests or any other interests, which may prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items.

Cllr Harry McCarthy declared an “other” interest as the relative of a business owner in Huddersfield Town Centre.

Most agenda items take place in public. This only changes where there is a need to consider exempt information, as contained at Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. You will be informed at this point which items are to be recommended for exclusion and to be resolved by the Panel.

All agenda items were considered in public session.

The Panel will receive any petitions and/or deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also submit a petition at the meeting relating to a matter on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10, Members of the Public must submit a deputation in writing, at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting and shall subsequently be notified if the deputation shall be heard. A maximum of four deputations shall be heard at any one meeting.

A deputation had been received within the required timescale however this was withdrawn prior to the meeting.

To receive any public questions.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the period for the asking and answering of public questions shall not exceed 15 minutes.

Any questions must be submitted in writing at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting.

Public questions received within the required timescale were not within the remit of the Growth and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel and were referred to the appropriate panel.

The purpose of the report is to:

-        highlight the content of the Interim Housing Position Statement to Boost Supply which has been prepared as a positive and proactive response to the lack of a five-year housing land supply,

-        note the timeline for next steps to progress to Cabinet for a decision to approve the document.

Contact:  Mathias Franklin,  Head of Planning and Development and Andrea Lane, Senior Planning Officer,

Councillor Graham Turner, Cabinet Member for Finance and Regeneration, introduced the item, advising the Panel that the report being presented, outlines the aim to boost housing supply, in light of the fact that there is no longer a five year housing land supply, which needs to be addressed.   He explained that the presenting officers will go through this in more detail and there will be an opportunity for the Panel to ask questions and make comment regarding the content of the report.

Andrea Lane, Team Leader, Planning Policy and Strategy, informed the Panel that the Kirklees Local Plan requirement is to build 1,730 new homes each year.  Since the local plan was adopted in 2019, Kirklees has successfully maintained a rolling supply of housing land against this requirement.  However, the 2023 annual update of the five-year housing land supply positions, demonstrates 3.96 years supply of housing land.

The Panel was informed that when an authority does not have a five-year land supply, this triggers a presumption in favour of sustainable development.   This means that when planning applications for housing are being determined, they should be considered in the context of presumption in favour of sustainable development, known as ‘Tilted Balance’.

The presumption in favour of development is triggered, unless the policies that protect areas or assets are of a particular importance, such as the green belt, or listed buildings provides a clear reason for refusal, or the adverse impacts of the development significantly outweigh the benefits.

The Panel was informed that as a response to this trigger, officers have prepared an Interim Housing Position Statement to provide clarity to agents, developers and the public, regarding how the Tilted Balance will be applied to planning applications for housing, in light of the lack of a five-year housing land supply.

The statement sets out three principles that will be used in the decision making when determining planning applications:

First principle  -       sets out what the presumption in favour of development means, what the policy is, and that is taken from national planning policy guidance which has to be applied when there is a lack of five-year land supply.  This does not mean it will overrule general planning considerations

Second principle -   relates to safeguarded landsites as these sites are currently protected in the local plan from development but are intended to be assessed for future development in the next local plan.  These sites were not allocated for housing in the local plan because they would have some specific site constraints, such as highway issues. Assumption in favour of sustainable development will be applied to these sites where these constraints can be overcome

Third principle -       relates to the quality of design, high quality design to ensure developments continue to achieve well-designed high-quality homes and quality places

The summary also includes a summary of wider council actions that are already being undertaken to boost supply and deliver new homes, such as work with Housing Growth and the Homes and Neighbourhoods team.

The Panel  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The purpose of this report is to give an update on the progress of Our Cultural Heart programme following Cabinet approval at Gateway 3 on the 27^th June 2023 to progress the delivery of Phase 1 of the masterplan.

Work is now progressing in preparation for Cabinet to review the programme again at Phase 1 Gateway 4 in December 2023.

Contact: David Glover, Senior Responsible Officer, Cultural Heart

Councillor Graham Turner introduced the item, advising that this is an update on progress with the Cultural Heart, and the information will be presented with the aid of a few slides to show progress to date. 

Edward Highfield, Service Director, Skills and Regeneration, reminded the Panel that a commitment was made to update the Panel between each of the gateways to provide a retrospective look at what has been achieved and to look forward in terms of what is ahead.

Referring to the slides, the Panel was informed that the gateways that the council has adopted are tied to the RIBA stages of development.  Gateway three was where the concept design was confirmed, looking at spatial co-ordination, that is the headline master planning of the moving towards gateway four, which is the technical design where all the detail is finalised.

In June 2023, gateway three was brought before Cabinet, and this was seeking approval to sign off the spatial co-ordination and move towards the technical design, which locked in the principle of phasing, rather than undertaking the whole Cultural Heart project in one go.  It was decided to take a phased approach which introduces significant benefits in terms of flexibility and being able to respond to market opportunities and secure external funding. 

The gateway three report in June, locked in the principle of phasing and it confirmed phase one.  It sought delegated authority to make contractual arrangements with the delivery team, the most noticeable was to appoint BAM construction Ltd for phase one and get them working.  This was not unconditional and there was no commitment to construction at that stage.  

The aim in appointing BAM was to work initially on the Pre-contract Service Agreement (PCSA), to progress to gateway four. By getting the contractor on board early, it enabled the contractor to pick up the detailed design to get to the stage to go back to Cabinet with gateway four, in terms of the final scheme, providing more certainty around cost and seeking approval to proceed or not to proceed from gateway four onwards.

The June report talked about combining the museum and the gallery rather than having a separate museum and a separate gallery, being mindful of cost and value for money at all stages.  The gateway three report confirmed the principal of a combined museum and gallery and that frees up a future development on the Green Street plot, that was previously going to be the gallery. In June 2023, Cabinet gave approval to proceed as outlined.

The Panel was shown a diagram of the Cultural Heart redline boundary and advised that the diagram shows the library, food hall, public realm and the event square and this will be phase one, which is the subject of the gateway four report which will shortly be going to Cabinet. 

In summary, the Panel was informed of the following:

Phase one

-      New library

-      Food hall

-      Events Square

Design and build Contract

-      Pre-contract Service Agreement (PCSA) awarded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Panel will consider its Work Programme and Forward Plan of Key Decisions items relating to Growth and Regeneration.

Contact: Jenny Bryce-Chan, Principal Governance Officer

RESOLVED

That the work programme and forward plan be noted.