Agenda item

Councillor Cheryl Taylor Maggio, Chairman Langley Parish Council, asked the following question of the Chairman:

“Housing completions are shown in the Reconsideration report as running at 585 dwellings per annum (2339 in total April 2011 to March 2015), can the Borough Council advise how many of these completions arise from previously unidentified windfall sites, and if not why not?”

The Chairman responded as follows: 

There were 2,341 dwellings completed in the four years from 1^st April 2011 to 31^st March 2015.  Of these, 692 were built on ‘windfall’ sites.

A windfall site is a brownfield site which has not been previously identified through the Local Plan process, for example by being allocated in the adopted Local Plan (2000), identified in the Urban Capacity Studies (2002 and 2006) and Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments (2008, 2013 & 2014).

The number of completions on windfall sites has been declining over recent years. In 2009/10, there were 266 completions on such sites.  In 2014/15 the equivalent figure was some 135 dwellings.

Consistent with this downwards trend, the future supply from large windfall sites (that is, sites of 5 or more dwellings) can be expected to become more modest because;

·  Sites will be allocated in the Local Plan, so fewer sites will be ‘unidentified’

·  There has been a meticulous search for urban brownfield sites to allocate through the Local Plan process.  These are exactly the type of sites which would have counted as windfall sites previously

·  The Local Plan identified two ‘broad locations’ for additional dwellings on brownfield land, namely the Town Centre for 600 dwellings (and Councillors have indicated this should be raised to 700) and Invicta Barracks for 1,300 new homes.

Based on analysis of the available data, a windfall allowance of 114 dwellings per annum for the last 9 years of the plan is considered to be ‘realistic’ as required by the NPPF. 

Councillor Cheryl Taylor Maggio asked the following supplementary question:

“Is the Chairman aware that a windfall allowance of 210 properties per annum is fully justified on the basis of current planning guidance and recently achieved windfall completion levels, and if that windfall allowance was adopted it would not be necessary to release some 850 green field dwellings, such as the site H1(10) Sutton Road, while still achieving the required housing target.”

The Chairman responded as follows:

There are two aspects to your supplementary question, the latter part I cannot directly answer because I have declared an interest in that site, so I ask that you receive a written response from Officers.  I think the first part of your question is fairly fully explained, the logic and the rationale, in the main answer to your question.

Councillor Simon Reeves, Langley Parish Council, asked the following question of the Chairman:

"The Landscapes of Local Value (Supplementary Report) states  atpara 1.3 “where development sites allocated in the Draft Maidstone Borough Local Plan fall within landscapes of local value, specific policy criteria will mitigate the impact of development on the landscape”. Is not the Borough Council as ever putting the‘cart before the horse’ and should not an analysis of local landscape quality inform the selection of suitable development sites in accordance with an overall strategy to achieve sustainable development options?"

The Chairman responded as follows: 

Analyses of local landscape quality have preceded every stage of Local Plan preparation, including early work with Kent County Council and others to identify Special Landscape Areas (SLA) in the original Maidstone Borough Wide Local Plan 2000.  For the 2014 consultation draft of the emerging Maidstone Local Plan, a comprehensive Landscape Character Assessment study was carried out by consultants Jacobs for the Council which reported in March 2012, and subsequently a Landscape Capacity Study by the same consultants was published in January 2015.

These studies comprised a detailed analysis of local landscape character and sensitivity in the light of central government guidance, primarily through the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which requires a criterion based approach to any local landscape designation.  As a result of the application of criteria, as discussed in the SPST Committee report on 14^th July, Landscapes of Local Value (LLV) are recommended to form part of Policy SP5 The Countryside, which seeks to protect the countryside generally, and the areas delineated in particular.  Specific development management policies will then inform the determination of any subsequent applications for these areas, in addition to the general and specific protection afforded by Policy SP5.

 
Councillor Simon Reeves asked the following supplementary question:

“Should the borough council not be ashamed at the amount of effort the 41 parish councils of Maidstone have put into responding to seemingly endless consultation and taking time off work to attend copious workshops on the issue over the past 2 to 3 years only for their views to be ignored.”

The Chairman responded as follows: 

Last year, in my capacity as Cabinet Member, I actually attended in excess of 26 of those direct liaison meetings and I can assure you personally that those comments received were actually fully noted and have been used throughout the process of consideration and I think that the work with the parishes and other groups is on-going.