Issue - meetings

A report on the key issues arising from representations on the draft Maidstone Borough Local Plan, submitted during public consultation (Regulation 18) which ran from 21 March to 7 May 2014by Sue Whiteside, Team Leader, Spatial Policy Team.

Rob Jarman, Head of Planning and Development presented the report.

Mr Jarman explained the report was a summary of the issues arising from representations on the draft Maidstone Borough Council Local Plan, submitted during public consultation (Regualtion18) which ran from 21 March to 7 May 2014.

Mr Jarman went on to say Officers had made no judgements on the representations made. Representations on land allocations would be presented at a later meeting.

Mr Jarman then gave the Committee a brief overview of the report.

Mr Jarman explained if everything went according to the plan the Maidstone Borough Local Plan would go before examiners in February 2016 and would be adopted in July 2016.

During discussions the following points were raised:

·  All representations made during the consultation would be considered by Members and Officers.  However, the Council would have to justify any changes made to the draft plan.

·  Mr Jarman explained the public consultation process was fundamental to the local planning process.  The Council had spent a considerable amount of time on the consultation and confirmed the public would be listened to when shaping the Local Plan.

·  Neighbourhood Plans and the Local Plan should be aligned.  There should be no competition between them.  Mr Jarman confirmed Officers were timetabling in meetings with parish councils to discuss the differences between Neighbourhood Plans and the Local Plan to achieve alignment between the two.

·  Mr Jarman confirmed the next stage was to carefully consider all representations made. It was confirmed by Mr Jarman that parties who had made representations, which had been used to change the Local Plan, would be notified.

RESOLVED:

a)  That the key issues arising from representations submitted during the Maidstone Borough local Plan Regulation 18 public consultation be noted;

b)  That it be recommended when representations to the Local Plan are collated, each representation be provided with a response explaining why the representation had been / not been taken forward and included in the Local Plan using the template report attached to the agenda for the meeting.