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1.      INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

1.      

1.1     At the 10th March 2020 meeting of the Strategic Planning and Infrastructure (SPI) Committee, Members resolved that officers should provide a short-written update at each future meeting concerning any slippage and/or progress on delivering the plan on the timescale agreed. This report provides the requested update.

1.2     Work on the Local Plan Review is now focussed on completing core work streams in preparation for the 21^st March 2022 special meeting of this committee.

1.3     The first work stream is the generation of proposed Main Modifications arising from the Local Plan Review Regulation 19 consultation documents. This committee will be asked to consider the Main Modifications in the context that they would then be put forward as proposals to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for subsequent consideration by a Planning Inspector.

1.4     These Main Modification proposals would then be considered by an Inspector appointed to conduct an Examination in Public into the Local Plan Review, and the merits of the Main Modifications. If Main Modifications are agreed, they would therefore form part of the Local Plan Review submission documents and would form part of the examination of the Local Plan Review that it is anticipated will commence later this year.

1.5      Having completed public consultation on the Local Plan Review Regulation 19 ‘Draft for Submission’ documents on 12th December, work is ongoing in processing and analysing the approximately 2,250 representations received.

1.6     The second core work stream is around the Duty to Cooperate and Statements of Common Ground. The Local Planning Authority has been undertaking further ongoing engagement in this regard and the 21^st March meeting of this committee will provide Members with an opportunity to consider the latest versions of the Statements of Common Ground (SoCG’s), in order that they may too be submitted to the Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State, along with the other submission documents.

1.7     It should be pointed out here that these SoCG’s are iterative documents which detail for the Inspector discussions on various elements of the Local Plan Review with statutory bodies, adjacent Local Authorities and other agencies, and as such, they are snapshots in time. Even when signed off at the point of submission, they remain as working documents and may be subject to further updates, where appropriate and agreed by relevant parties.

1.8     The final core work stream is associated with additional evidence that will support the key Local Plan Review proposals, including the proposals for the strategic sites at Heathlands and Lidsing and Invicta Barracks.

1.9     It is important that work is undertaken on strategic allocations while the Local Plan Review progresses and this will help inform future Supplementary Planning Documents for these schemes, as well as providing reassurance to the Inspector of commitment to delivery of the schemes from both the promoter and the Local Planning Authority. There is also a strong transport component to this work, involving work with Kent County Council on updates to transport modelling as part of the preparation for both submission and examination.

1.10  It is anticipated that progress reports such as this one will continue to be presented to the Committee between submission and examination, to provide brief updates on continuing work and discussions with the Planning Inspectorate around the timing of the examination as well as topics considered by the Inspector under ‘Matters, Issues and Questions’ (MIQ’s).

2.   RISK

2.1    This report is presented for information only has no direct risk management implications. Risks associated with the LPR are dealt with through the usual operational framework and have been previously reported.

3.        REPORT APPENDICES

3.1  None