Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies.

There were no Substitute Members.

The Chairman stated that Item 11 - Response to Medway Local Plan 20223 – 2040 Regulation 18 Consultation would be taken as an urgent item because the Item had been provided to the Committee after the publication date.

There were no Visiting Members.

There were no disclosures by Members or Officers.

There were no disclosures of lobbying.

RESOLVED: That all items on the agenda be taken in public as proposed.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2023 be approved as a correct record and signed, subject to changing the following text in Minute 51, to read:

“Councillor Jones disclosed that she was a former member of the Against Lidsing Garden Development working group for Item 10 – Maidstone Local Plan Review: Proposed Main Modifications and Minor Changes, having resigned following her election to the Council.”

RESOLVED: That the Forward Plan relating to the Committee’s Terms of Reference be noted.

The Cabinet Member for Planning, Infrastructure and Economic Development introduced the report and stated that the government was consulting on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill which related to plan making and that the council had until 18 October 2023 to respond. The consultation involved 15 chapters and 43 questions on the changes proposed including: planning content and evidence, speeding up the plan making process, better engagement and digital technology.

The Committee agreed that the consultation response was appropriate but asked whether a proposal to shorten the process of plan making to 30 months was practical.

In response the Strategic Planning Manager stated that the Council would have to give notice when the 30 month time frame would start and that the government was intending to clarify that the start of the plan making process would not be included in the time frame.

RESOLVED to RECOMMEND to the CABINET MEMBER:

That the proposed response to the consultation at Appendix 1 of the report be approved.

The Cabinet Member for Planning, Infrastructure and Economic Development introduced the report and stated that Medway Council was preparing a new Local Plan and that included consulting on the vision and strategic objectives of the new Local Plan. Medway Council had also identified four categories of locations for growth and that it estimated 28,339 homes would be required in the unitary district until 2040 to meet its local housing need. The proposed response highlighted which growth locations impacted Maidstone the greatest, including matters related to transport and infrastructure, and the lack of reference to the needs of gypsies, travellers and travelling showpeople.

The Committee agreed that the consultation response outlined in Appendix 1 of the report was acceptable for this stage of the process, but questioned why Medway Council’s Local Plan included a need for employment land until 2037 and not 2040.

The Principal Planning Officer stated that Medway Council’s evidence base for their employment land assessment ran until 2037 and that the authority would potentially need to extend their evidence base into the future to reach 2040.

RESOLVED to RECOMMEND to the CABINET MEMBER:

That Maidstone Borough Council’s response to the Medway Local Plan Regulation 18 consultation, attached as Appendix 1 to this report, is submitted to Medway Council, ahead of the 31^st October 2023 deadline.

6:30 p.m. to 6:52 p.m.