Cabinet Member for Planning, Legal & Asset Management

To note the report and:

i)               Approve the publication of the draft Sustainability SPD for public consultation; and

ii)              Delegate authority to the Assistant Director of Planning in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Legal and Asset Management, to approve and publish any minor changes to the draft Sustainability SPD, prior to its publication.

That Cabinet noted the report and:

i)               approved the publication of the draft Sustainability SPD for public consultation; and

ii)              Delegated authority to the Assistant Director of Planning in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Legal and Asset Management, to approve and publish any minor changes to the draft Sustainability SPD, prior to its publication.

Two public speakers, Rob Acker and Graham Owens had registered to speak on the item. They were invited to address Cabinet.

Councillor Bermange thanked the public speakers for their thoughts and stated that he was very pleased to propose the report’s recommendations to Cabinet. He outlined the purpose of the SPD and offered fellow Cabinet Members a brief context on it. He stated that the last administration had not delivered on this as a priority within the borough. The new administration would live up to the commitment to climate change and sustainability. Once adopted it would become a material planning document for all applications moving forward.

Councillor Bermange then stated that the SPD if adopted would strengthen the existing carbon offset fund. He did however note that although the SPD was a huge step forward and that the borough would benefit from it, in a way the SPD did not yet go far enough. This was in no way stated as a detriment to officers or the groups that had been consulted on it, but just that sustainability was an ever-growing thing. He also stressed that the report before Cabinet was merely a draft and that further changes could be implemented in the future.

Councillor Coe asked in regard to the adopted Borough Local Plan (BLP), which limited what the proposed SPD could actually do. He asked what potential opportunities existed to look back and review certain aspects in the BLP.

Councillor Bermange responded by saying that if the Cabinet wished to go further, then significant changes would be required to the planning policy, which had been depicted by the BLP, in which the current administration had inherited. Any changes to this of significance, would be an extremely lengthy process. A partial review could be an option, with conversations with officers already occurring, but there were no timeframes currently being discussed. He said that if something was made less viable for a developer, then the deliverability of building affordable homes for example, could reduce. He hoped that there was a way forward and stated that it would remain under review.

Councillor K Davies, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Windsor Town Council, thanked Councillor Bermange, Ian Motuel, Planning Policy Manager and fellow officers for the work that they had put into the report. She commended the pre-consultation that had been carried out with both developers and also the community, ahead of the consultation going live. She thanked a number of individuals for their advice and thoughts on this SPD. She then stated that she wished to second the proposal.

Councillor A Tisi, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Windsor, asked what would happen if developers wished to go further than the SPD. Councillor Bermange responded by saying that the SPD stated what the Council wished for developers to do and offered mere base line requirements. However, it certainly encouraged developers to come forward with additional ways to be sustainable, in which the Council would welcome.

AGREED: That Cabinet noted the report and:

i)               Approved the publication of the draft Sustainability SPD for public consultation; and

ii)             Delegated authority to the Assistant Director of Planning in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Legal and Asset Management, to approve and publish any minor changes to the draft Sustainability SPD, prior to its publication.