Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no substitute members appointed.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15 March 2017 and 19 April 2017 (to follow).

The consideration of the Minutes of the meetings of 15 March 2017 and 19 April 2017 were deferred until the next meeting.

Please note that in accordance with the agreed Protocol for Public Speaking at Overview and Scrutiny, the right to speak only applies to agenda item 10.

The right of the public to speak does not apply to the following agenda items: Apologies, Appointment of Substitute Members, Declarations of Interest, Minutes, the Forward Plan, the Scrutiny Work Programme, any agenda item that is not accompanied by a written report and items that are exempt business.

Members of the public wishing to speak must register to do so by no later than 2.00 pm on the second working day before the meeting.

There were no decisions taken by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 8 May 2017 in respect of recommendations from the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee.

Members received the decisions of the Cabinet relating to recommendations made by the Committee.

RESOLVED:       That the decisions be noted.

There were no items of business for consideration.

(a)    Items placed on the agenda by a Member of the Committee or any individual Non-Executive Member

       Any individual Councillor may request that a matter is placed on the agenda of one of the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

       There are no items for consideration.

(b)    Call-In

       Executive Decisions may be called-in by the Chairman or Spokesperson of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee or any three non-executive members. Call-Ins are heard by the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee unless it decides to refer the matter to the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee.

       There are no items for consideration.

(c)    Public Petitions

       There are no items for consideration.     

There were no items of business for consideration.

The Team Leader – Democratic Support presented the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions to the Committee for its consideration.

RESOLVED:       That the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions be noted.

The Team Leader – Democratic Support presented the Scrutiny Work Programme to the Committee for its consideration.

Members agreed that the following items be included within the work programme:

·         Private sector landlords

·         Dover District Council’s Communication and Engagement

·         Dover regeneration – the ‘Banksy’ building and the connectivity to/from the town to the waterfront / Bench Street (including the crypt) / Dover museum.

RESOLVED:       (a)     That the Work Programme be noted subject to the inclusion of an item on Private sector landlords and Dover regeneration connecting the town and waterfront.

(b)     That it be recommended to the Cabinet that it explore the options available to protect the Banksy on the former Shakespeare Hotel in Dover as a matter of urgency.

To consider the attached report of the Chief Executive.

The Policy and Projects Manager presented the report on the Local Plan Engagement Strategy.

The Committee was advised that the Cabinet had agreed at its meeting held on 1 March 2017 to proceed with a review of the Local Plan. The Local Plan Engagement Strategy set out the Council’s approach to consulting and engaging the community as part of the review.

The Council would be undertaking statutory public consultation for 8 weeks in autumn 2017 on the key issues for the Local Plan to consider. The Council would also hold topic specific workshops with key stakeholders, infrastructure and service providers, land owners, developers, Parish and Town Councils, the Project Advisory Group and other groups as appropriate between autumn 2017 and autumn 2018.

It was intended that following this a Local Plan would be produced in autumn 2018 for public consultation and after the responses had been analysed and reported to Cabinet/Council the Plan would then submitted to the Secretary of State for examination in winter 2018.

Q1.        Why do we need to review the Local Plan and call for more sites when we can demonstrate a five year supply of deliverable sites? Instead of taking up officer time in this ‘engagement’ surely we should be putting pressure on those sites/owners/developers not currently being built out to get on with delivering?

The Policy and Projects Manager advised that the Government had advised that Councils should review their Plans regularly and they were required to be updated in whole or in part at least every 5 years. If the Council did not have an up-to-date Local Plan it could have one imposed upon it.

In respect of the five year housing land supply, the Council had to undertake a review of this calculation annually as part of the Authority Monitoring Report. As part of this sites that have been granted planning permission were monitored to establish if they had started, were under construction or completed.  

The Council couldn’t make a developer build out a site only encourage them, with the exception of sites in the Council’s ownership which it could develop itself.

The evidence base for the Plan included an assessment of the Objective Assessed Need for housing, an assessment of leisure and retail floor space which would include a review of the (primary and secondary) shopping frontages, a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment and a review of the Coastal Change Management Areas, a Sustainability Appraisal Habitat Regulations Assessment.

In response to questions from Members it was stated that the Government provided a definition of what constituted affordable housing and this would be circulated separately to the Committee after the meeting.

Concerns were expressed about the impact of Right-to-Buy on any new affordable housing stock built by the Council and examples were cited of where other local authorities such as Gravesham and Southampton had managed to build housing in such a way that the Right-to-Buy requirement did not apply.

Q2.        What are the staffing and other resources required to implement all this, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.