Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to seek approval to publish the 2015 SHLAA update report.

RECOMMENDED that the Cabinet Member

a.         approves the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment 2015 update (attached as Appendix A of this report) for publication.

b.        authorises the Assistant Director of Culture and City Development to make editorial amendments to the study prior to publication, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Regeneration and Economic Development. These amendments shall be restricted to correcting errors and formatting text and shall not alter the meaning of the report.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

The Cabinet Member for PRED, Councillor Luke Stubbs varied the order of the meeting to deal with this item immediately after Minute 6. This was as a courtesy to two members of the public who had asked to make deputations on this item.

Jacqueline Boulter, Principal Planning Officer, introduced the report explaining that housing development was the government's key focus and the authority was required to identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide five years' worth of housing against their housing requirements.

She stressed that this was not a full SHLAA.

Mr Rod Bailey was invited to make his deputation which included the following points

·         He was disappointed about the inclusion of Furze Lane which he said was against the weight of public opinion and therefore against the intentions of localism and appeared to conflict with statements made by Brandon Lewis, Minister of State for Housing and Planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

·         The SHLAA identifies more than the required number of houses so there was no need to include Furze Lane.

·         There is no social site allocation for housing

·         He believes inclusion of this site is inappropriate and unnecessary, is inconsistent with national policy and unsustainable

Mr O'Hara then made his deputation which included the following points

·         The site identified is the major breeding ground for Brent Geese on the Solent coast and if substantial numbers of houses were built there, this would have a serious detrimental effect on the geese, as more people would be drawn in to the area.

·         He believes the site to be unsuitable for housing and that there is no requirement for all the housing identified and would like this site to be removed from the SHLAA.

In response to the points made in the deputations, the Principal Planning Officer explained that the SHLAA was not an allocation and not even a draft allocation.  It simply identified potential sites. This site was included some years ago and nothing has changed since then so it has to remain included at this stage. She said that there is a very long and detailed disclaimer at the beginning of the document that makes the situation clear.

The Assistant Director of  Culture & City Development said that the document does not pre-determine or pre-judge whether the sites identified are suitable. It was necessary to identify potential sites as the city council is required to assess its performance against its plan targets and in particular, whether it is likely to meets its targets in the first five years. The SHLAA update represents this assessment.

DECISION:

that the Cabinet Member for Planning, Regeneration and Economic Development

(a)  Approved the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment 2015 update (attached as Appendix A of the report) for publication.

(b)    Authorised the Assistant Director of Culture and City Development to make editorial amendments to the study prior to publication, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Regeneration and Economic Development. These amendments shall be restricted to correcting errors and formatting text and shall not alter the meaning of the report.