Issue - meetings

Emma Boshell, Planning Officer, Spatial Policy gave the Committee an overview of her report and the interim results of the Draft Local Plan consultation events.

During lengthy discussions the following points were raised:

·  The amended policies under Regulation 18 would be seen by the parish councils that had worked with Design South East.  It would then come to Committee in December 2014 together with the representations. The new and deleted site allocations would come to Committee in January 2015.

·  The Design South East report would come to Committee before being made public.

·  Ms Boshell confirmed, as a result of the further call for sites 160 sites were received.  This figure included 60 sites rejected from the previous call for sites.

·  Traffic modelling work was underway with Kent County Council (KCC) based on the objectively assessed housing need figure of 19,600 as well as other scenarios.  Mr Jarman confirmed Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) needed to show it had tried to meet the assessed housing need by going through the process of looking at road junctions and infrastructure to establish if they can be improved.  MBC would need to robustly evidence a reduction in the 19, 600 figure otherwise the inspector would reject the final plan.  The traffic modelling may support a reduction in this figure.

·  Questions were raised regarding the criteria used for the designation of Rural Service Centres (RSC), in particular Harrietsham.  Mr Jarman explained Harrietsham was designated a RSC in the draft Local Plan partly because of the road and rail links in the area.  Mr Jarman confirmed the RSC criteria would be looked at again and a report brought to this Committee.

·  Mr Jarman went on to explain why RSCs were included in the plan.  A sustainability appraisal of the whole Local Plan was carried out and a hierarchy developed of the most sustainable places to build the 19,600 houses.  The hierarchy developed was:

1.  Town Centre

2.  Edge of urban area

3.  RSCs

4.  Larger Villages

·  After larger villages, Mr Jarman explained Policy SP5 would be used so no development is permitted as villages at this level did not have sustainable facilities.

·  Mr Jarman confirmed brownfield sites in villages took precedence for development over green field sites where they did not cause damage to the open countryside and were sustainable.

·  Ms Boshell confirmed consultation with KCC (as the education provider) had shown that education did not show as a concern in Harrietsham, but the consultation would be ongoing and future comments from KCC would be taken in to account.

·  Ms Boshell confirmed that representations made on the Local Plan after the consultation period would be considered after all the representations made within the consultation period.  It was noted that this was a legal requirement.

·  Consultation work with Parish Councils would help to identify the Parishes who wanted further developments in their areas.

·  Ms Boshell confirmed Councillors will be invited to a multi stakeholder event being held in September 2014.

·  Mr Jarman confirmed the timetable for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11