Agenda and minutes

The Leader of the Council with responsibility for PRED welcomed everyone to the meeting.

There were no declarations of members' interests.

No apologies for absence had been received.

The purpose of this report is to seek approval of the Portsmouth Local Development Scheme (LDS) for publication on the council's website. The LDS sets out a timetable and project management plan for the preparation of planning policy documents to be prepared over the next three years. 

RECOMMENDED that the Leader with responsibilities for PRED agrees

1.         To adopt the Local Development Scheme, 2017.

2.         To delegate authority to the Assistant Director of Culture and City Development to modify and make editorial changes to the Local Development Scheme in consultation with the Portfolio Holder

(TAKE IN REPORT)

The Planning Policy Manager, Selina Crocombe, introduced the report which is to seek approval of the Portsmouth Local Development Scheme (LDS) for publication on the council's website. The LDS sets out a timetable and project management plan for the preparation of planning policy documents to be prepared over the next three years. 

The 2017 LDS, which supersedes previous versions, sets out a planning work programme for the Council over a three-year period to 2019. The LDS will be regularly reviewed to keep it up to date.

The Leader of the Council with responsibility for PRED said this was a very useful document.

DECISION:

The Leader of the Council with responsibility for PRED

1.      adopted the Local Development Scheme, 2017.

2.      delegated authority to the Assistant Director of Culture and City Development to modify and make editorial changes to the Local Development Scheme in consultation with the Portfolio Holder.

The purpose of the report is to set out the results of the twelfth Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) (previously known as the Annual Monitoring Report) for Portsmouth City Council.

RECOMMENDED that the Leader with responsibilities for PRED approves the AMR for publication on the Council's website.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

Toby Ayling, Principal Planning Officer, introduced the report which sets out the results of the twelfth Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) (previously known as the Annual Monitoring Report) for Portsmouth City Council.

He drew members' attention to paragraph 4.2 of the report which advises that the approach now is to report on a selection of key indicators which show significant facts or trends rather than report on all indicators every year.

He advised that 4.3 of the report identifies the key findings to note and that student accommodation in the city will be closely monitored.

He said that the AMR is required to be published on the council website and made publicly available to provide an update of progress on the planning policies contained in the Portsmouth Plan.

During discussion the following matters were raised:

·         Members were surprised at the number of permissions that had been granted but that had not been acted on.

·         Fort Cumberland was not included in the key indicators listed in section 2 of the appendix - findings of key indicators - progress towards the development of major regeneration sites. This was because it was part of the historic environment and could not be singled out above any other historic and heritage assets within the City.  The Assistant Director of Culture and City Development said that this would be picked up at a later date.

The Leader of the Council with responsibility for PRED, Councillor Donna Jones, said that this was a good report and contained much useful information.

DECISION:

The Leader of the Council with responsibility for PRED approved the Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) for publication on the Council's website.

The purpose of the report is to provide feedback on the public consultation on the Statement of Community Involvement.

RECOMMENDED that the Leader with responsibilities for PRED notes the consultation findings and agrees the publication of the Statement of Community Involvement on the Council website.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

The Planning Policy Manager, Selina Crocombe, introduced the report, which provided feedback on the public consultation on the Statement of Community Involvement.

She said that paragraph 3 of the report set out the way in which the consultation had taken place and the responses received are set out in Appendix 1 with the proposed responses.  Nothing major had arisen out of the consultation that had run for four weeks.

During discussion, Members noted that the response had been very low and the Planning Policy Manager said that a possible reason for this was that the general public seemed not to be particularly exercised by this subject.  She said this experience was common across many local authorities.

Members asked whether a further reason for the low response could be because social media had not been used during the consultation .The Planning Policy Manager said that there had been attempts to engage with the public using many different methods, but said that she expected that consultation would be extended to social media such as Twitter and Facebook in the future.  Members considered this to be desirable.

DECISION:

The Leader of the Council with responsibility for PRED noted the consultation findings and agreed the publication of the Statement of Community Involvement on the Council website.