Agenda and minutes

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relating to the work of the body in question.  Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

There were no members of the public present.

This report considers an update to the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) and any recommendations thereon from the Strategic Planning Board on 8^th  February 2013.

The Cabinet Member for Strategic Communities announced that a ruling had been made over the weekend which may have an impact on consideration of this matter. He therefore intended to adjourn the meeting until 2.30 pm to allow time for the implications of the ruling to be considered.

Before the meeting was adjourned, Councillor S Corcoran was afforded the opportunity to speak. Councillor Corcoran asked that consideration be given to the exclusion of part of Sand 1, an area of land close to Junction 17 of the M6 at Sandbach which had previously been designated for employment use and which would, he felt, provide a good site for a business park; its inclusion within the SHLAA would, he felt, make it difficult to resist plans for residential development. He also asked that the number of houses proposed for Sand 1 be reduced from 700 which he felt was too many. The Cabinet Member undertook to consider the matter.

The meeting was then adjourned.

(Meeting reconvened at 2.30 pm)

The Cabinet Member considered the report which provided an update on the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).

Paragraph 47 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) required local authorities to do certain things in order to “boost significantly” the supply of housing. One was to ensure that the Local Plan met the full objectively assessed need for housing, as far as was consistent with the policies of the Framework. Another requirement was to identify and update annually a supply of specific “deliverable” sites sufficient to provide five years of housing against their housing requirements. The NPPF did not specify how the supply of housing should be identified and updated each year, but it was ordinarily done via a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment

The advice provided that housing supply should be updated annually. To properly gauge supply, an assessment needed to made at a single point in time to capture accurately all the various changes in supply and to provide a consistent baseline for measurement. Accordingly the current SHLAA took a base date of 1^st April 2012.

The approach taken by the Council in certain key areas of preparing the SHLAA was detailed in the report.

The Cheshire East Local Plan Development Strategy stated that ‘Sufficient land will be provided to accommodate at least 27,000 homes between 2010 and 2030. This will be phased as follows:

·     2010 to 2015 - at least 1,150 homes each year (5,750 total)

·     2016 to 2020 - at least 1,250 homes each year (6,250 total)

·     2020 to 2030 - at least 1,500 homes each year (15,000 total)’

This illustrated an intention to increase housing supply steadily over the plan period, and especially after 2020.

Employing the figures with the Development strategy document, a five year supply therefore equated to:

·     6,050 dwellings in Years 1 to 5 (April 2013 to March 2018)

·     7,000 dwellings in Years 6 to 10 (April 2018 to March 2023)

·     7,500 dwellings in Years 11 to 15 (April 2023 to March 2028)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.