Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Town Hall - Maidenhead

Contact: Tanya Leftwich  01628 796345

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting, explained the fire procedures and asked everyone around the table to introduce themselves. 

 

The Chairman explained that the meeting was being recorded.

 

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Malcolm Alexander and Gerry Clark (substitutes were Councillors Julian Sharpe and Adam Smith).

2.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 217 KB

To receive any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

None.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 112 KB

To confirm the Part I minutes of the meeting of Wednesday 12 July 2017.

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on the 12 July 2017 were agreed as a correct record.

4.

Petition to hold an officer to account

To consider the following petition:

 

http://petitions.rbwm.gov.uk/PLANSTOPANDSTART/

 

We the undersigned petition The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to stop the current Local Development Plan (Regulation 19) consultation and restart it only AFTER advising residents that they are invited to comment on any aspect of the plan.

 

Submitted by Andrew Cormie of Holyport Residents Association – Deadline to sign up by: 06 August 2017 – Signatures: 431

 

More details from petition creator:

 

The RBWM Head of Planning sent a letter dated 27 June 2017, Andrew Cormie, limiting comments on the Reg 19 Consultation.

 

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has responded on 17th July 2017 to a request by Andrew Cormie, advising that there is no limitation at the second stage - (so-called Reg 19) as to what topics of the plan residents may comment upon. He points out that the Reg 19 stage is the first opportunity that anyone would have to request involvement in the hearing sessions for the Local Plan.

 

I have asked Head of Planning to stop the consultation, restarting after giving proper advice, and received no response. In order to stop it I therefore call, through this petition, for the matter to be discussed at an RBWM Planning and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting, at which the Head of Planning must be questioned. Under the RBWM Constitution Rule C10.37, I wish that the Lead Member for Planning will also be questioned at the meeting.

 

I urge all residents to sign this petition.

 

 

 

Minutes:

The Chairman explained that this was a historic event as it had never come to Panel before.

 

The Chairman invited Anu Chawla (Vice-Chair of the Holyport Residents Association) to address the Panel for 5 minutes.

 

Anu Chawla explained that her speech had been prepared by Andrew Cormie (Chairman of the Holyport Residents Association) and would be presented by herself in his absence.  The Panel was informed that there were seven documents (Document 1 = Council News 170802, Document 2 = Council Reg 19 170804, Document 3 = Representation Form Guidelines, Document 4 = email from Councillor D Wilson 170621, Document 5 = a letter from Councils Head of Planning to Andrew Cormie 170627, Document 6 = emails from Councils Head of Planning to Andrew Cormie series 01 and Document 7 = emails from Andrew Cormie to the Councils Head of Planning series 02) referred to in the speech which had all been emailed in advance of the meeting. 

Anu Chawla went on to explain that this meeting arose from the petition Andrew Cormie created to have the Local Plan Consultation stopped and restarted after residents had been given the correct and complete information.  However on 2nd August, Council issued their News Release, listed here as Document 1 where the Council had announced that they had extended the period of Local Plan Regulation 19 Consultation and that they would proceed in accordance with appropriate Regulation. It was noted that the Council had also provided the text of the clarification provided by Government in response to Andrew’s question.

Anu Chawla stated that the Council had drastically failed to operate in a proper legally correct manner and if they had not been stopped, the Inspector would have rejected the plan at the Regulation 20 stage due to non compliance with due process.  The Panel was informed that the situation had since become worse, as Council on 4 August had misled the public again by issuing Document 2 with Document 3.

Anu Chawla informed the Panel that Document 2 was an email from Council which stated “The information contained in the email we sent you at the end of June 2017 continues to apply during the extended period for making representations; the only thing that has changed is the deadline for making representations.”  The Panel was informed that the email contained an attachment, Document 3, which explained about the same scope of comments as originally stated.

It was stated that the wording in the press release did not align with the email sent out by the Head of Planning in August.

The Panel was informed that Document 4 was an email of 21 June from Councillor Derek Wilson, Lead Member for Planning, to Andrew Cormie, in which Councillor Wilson referred to “...next stage of the regulation process to test the 'Plan' on 'Technical and Legal Soundness...”

Anu Chawla explained that Document 5 was a letter of 27 June from the Councils Head of Planning to Andrew Cormie of the Holyport Residents Association that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Public House Article 4 Directions pdf icon PDF 92 KB

To comment on the report to be considered by Cabinet on the 24 August 2017.

Minutes:

The Panel was informed that the Lead Member for Planning would bring before Cabinet in August.  It was noted that ‘non immediate’ meant it would not come into effect for 12 months.

 

The Head of Planning informed the Panel that the report included in the agenda had since been revised and summarised the changes as below:

·         Added in that there were 121 pubs in the Borough.

·         Para 2.6 had been added to and now included that officers would liaise with colleagues at Wandsworth and Hammersmith & Fulham where this work had already been done in order to derive any learning and apply it in the Borough. 

 

The Chairman invited the speaker, Mark Newcombe, to address the Panel for his allocated three minutes.

 

Mr Newcombe (Pub Protection Officer in Maidenhead & Chairman of the Craufurd Arms Society) informed the Panel that he supported the motion to progress the non immediate Article 4 Direction to remove the permitted development rights related to pubs.  It was noted that the sole message to asset companies was that the Royal Borough recognises the importance in ensuring the protection of our pubs for generations to come.

 

Mr Newcombe explained that the addition of the Article 4 Direction would be an important step by the Council in recognizing the valuable contribution that pubs make to the well being of others and the community. 

 

The Craufurd Arms was Maidenheads first community owned pub, the fiftith in the country, an achievement that we as a Panel should be proud of.  The campaign for real ale will continue to follow the business rate reliefs pubs and a freeze on beer duties, and while we continue to assess pubs as asset community value on a case by case value – without it the Craufurd Arms could’ve been sold to developers. 

 

Mr Newcombe explained that he felt this would help pubs remain as pubs.  Mark Newcombe thanked the Council for their support and advice received over the last four years and stated that he looked forward to working together in the future to save the Royal Borough’s pubs. 

 

Councillor Adam Smith commented that he believed the impending legislation (related to the Neighbourhood Planning Act) would be coming into force on the 23 May 2018.   It was noted that if this was to be the case then Councillor Smith was concerned that the Public House Article 4 Directions had three issues:

o   That Article 4 would be gold plating what the Neighbourhood Planning Act was hoping to achieve.

o   It imposes costs.

o   It was indiscriminate and would relate to every pub.

 

Following the ensuing discussion the following points were noted:

·         The Head of Planning explained that that the work on this could be stopped and delayed going to Cabinet if the Panel so wished. 

·         The Head of Planning explained that a planning application would need to be submitted which meant that every application would be looked at on a case by case basis.  

·         Councillor David Hilton stated that the Council was not preventing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Dates of Future Meetings

·         Thursday 19 October 2017.

·         Thursday 7 December 2017.

·         Thursday 1 February 2018.

·         Wednesday 18 April 2018.

Minutes:

Members noted the following future meeting dates (7pm start):

 

·         Thursday 19 October 2017.

·         Thursday 7 December 2017.

·         Thursday 1 February 2018.

·         Wednesday 18 April 2018.