a)  That Policy SP3 for Rural Service Centres and SP4 for Larger Settlements be deferred and will be considered alongside the Strategic Housing Land Allocations Assessment scheduled to be considered by Overview & Scrutiny and Cabinet in February 2014; and

b)  That the proposed policies listed below and associated plans of the Maidstone Borough Local Plan (as attached at Appendix A to the report of the Head of Planning and Development) be approved for public consultation:-

DECISION MADE:

a)  That Policy SP3 for Rural Service Centres and SP4 for Larger Settlements be deferred and will be considered alongside the Strategic Housing Land Allocations Assessment scheduled to be considered by Overview & Scrutiny and Cabinet in February 2014; and

b)  That the proposed policies listed below and associated plans of the Maidstone Borough Local Plan (as attached at Appendix A to the report of the Head of Planning and Development) be approved for public consultation:-

To view full details of this decision, please follow this link:-

http://services.maidstone.gov.uk/meetings/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=778

Interview with Michael Murphy, Principal Planning Officer, Spatial Planning

Rob Jarman, Head of Planning and Development and Michael Murphy, Principal Planning Officer, Spatial Policy introduced item 10: - Maidstone Borough Local Plan Public Consultation Draft - Group 3 Policies.

Michael Murphy informed the Committee that the policies identified the most sustainable areas in the borough for development. Those areas, in order of the most sustainable for development, are:

·  Town centre

·  Urban area

·  Edge of urban area

·  Rural service centres

·  Large settlements

·  Countryside

Therefore an exercise has been carried out to prioritise areas for development using this classification system. Sites in the borough had been independently assessed, and Yalding and Coxheath were to be designated as Rural Service Centres.

A representative from Yalding Parish Council stated that the areas that were being considered for development in Yalding were susceptible to flooding.

Rob Jarman responded to this concern by informing the Committee that raising objections based on perceived difficulties was not enough of a reason to halt development in an area. Instead a ‘positive planning’ approach should be used, where all possible mitigation steps must be examined before development ruled out. In this case it would have to be established that flood compensation steps would have to be deemed unfeasible before development was ruled out in Yalding. If ‘positive planning’ is not used and barriers are constantly put forward we are at risk of a planning inspector forcing the council to put flood compensation schemes in place.

A representative from Coxheath Parish Council raised concerns that designating Coxheath as a Rural Service Centre (RSC) would have a negative impact on the development of its local plan.

Rob Jarman responded that any neighbourhood plan that would be in place would have weight in local planning decisions; however it would be only one of many different policies that development would be judged against.

The Committee raised concerns that they did not fully understand what the consequences of designating a large village as a RSC would be. The committee asked what the implications would be if Yalding and Coxheath were designated as larger villages rather than RSCs.

The Committee were also concerned that they could not determine whether they could accept proposals for the designation of Rural Service Centres until they saw the evidence base that was used for determining the settlement hierarchy.

RESOLVED:

a)  That the Planning, Transport and Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommends that the proposed policies and associated plans of the Maidstone Borough Local Plan be approved by Cabinet for public consultation purposes subject to the following recommendations:

b)  That Cabinet give serious consideration to the possibility of removing Yalding and Coxheath as Rural Service Centres and reclassifying them as Larger Villages prior to Public Consultation; and

c)  That information be circulated to the Committee by Spatial Policy showing the evidence base for determining the settlement hierarchy categorisation for Larger Villages.