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 meeting of the committee, concerning any slippage and/or progress on delivering the plan on the timescale agreed. This report provides the requested update.

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

1.3     At the 6^th October Full Council meeting, in addition to approval to commencement of the Regulation 19 Consultation exercise, agreement was given to the subsequent submission of the Local Plan Review documents to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Houisng and Communities. This submission was however contingent upon the schedule of Main Modifications resulting from the Regulation 19 consultation being brought back to this Committee for final approval.

1.4     In light of the above, and the numbers of representations received to the consultation, consideration has been given to the timing of that committee, and it is intended for the Main Modifications to be considered at a special meeting on 21^st March 2022. This will enable the Local Plan Review to be a single agenda item and for the analysis of responses and proposed schedule of Main Modifications to be completed and submitted in accordance with the adopted Local Development Scheme.

1.5     Processing of the representations has been described and clarified in previous reports and verbal updates to this committee. It is the case that the majority of processing has now been completed, allowing greater resource focus on the various stages of analysis. However, as noted in previous reports and updates, processing commenced whilst the consultation was still ongoing in order that analysis could be commenced shortly after the completion of the consultation, and this has therefore been ongoing for a number of weeks.

1.6     In recent updates to this committee on the Local Plan Review, initial findings of the analysis have been provided. The latest position has not changed as analysis has progressed, with the overall majority of representations being made on the Lidsing Garden Community proposal. A large number of representations have also been made on Heathlands Garden Community proposal and, to a lesser extent, the continued inclusion of the Invicta Barracks site as carried forward from the 2017 Adopted Local Plan.

1.7     The majority of representations seek to highlight concerns over the garden community proposals, with a particular focus on landscape impacts (including the impact on the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), transport impacts, including provision of transport infrastructure and need for mitigations, and infrastructure requirements. For Lidsing, there remains a particular concern regarding the impacts on nearby communities and infrastructure within Medway’s administrative area. 

1.8     Engagement and the progression of technical work with key consultees and Garden Community promoters has been continuing. This may result in further Statements of Common Ground being brought to this committee prior to submission. It is also anticipated that further transport information may be available for submission as work in this regard continues, with a particular focus on garden community impacts as the basis for ongoing work around satisfactory mitigations. In particular, this will seek to ensure focus on matters raised in Regulation 19 representations.

1.9     The transport work and other infrastructure work, along with other key matters, such as landscape and more detailed masterplanning and design work, will continue with regard to the main developments of Invicta Barracks, Heathlands and Lidsing. This will satisfy a dual purpose of providing reassurance to the Local Plan Review examination Planning Inspector of ongoing work, whilst complying with the requirements of the Regulation 19 policies that commit to undertaking more detailed work as part of the production of Supplementary Planning Documents.

2.   RISK

3.        REPORT APPENDICES

3.1    None