Agenda item

(Director of Neighbourhoods) to consider the attached report.

The Forward Planning Projects Officer, Ian White, introduced the report on the Basildon Borough Council local plan consultation. The current Development Plan for Basildon Borough consists of the Saved Policies from the Basildon District Plan (1998) and the Essex and Southend-on-Sea Waste Local Plan (2001), and the recently adopted Essex Minerals Local Plan (2014). The new Local Plan will replace the 1998 policies, setting out an overall development framework for the period up to 2034.

The Committee noted that the key issue in the consultation for Epping Forest District Council was provision of new accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers. Basildon’s 2013 Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (GTAA) identified a need for an additional 104 pitches to meet the needs of the authorised, temporary and tolerated sites, and a further 136 pitches to meet the needs of those members of the travelling community who were established on the unauthorised Dale Farm site.

The Borough Council was of the view that suitable and deliverable sites with the capacity for between 98 and 109 pitches could be identified, meeting the needs of the authorised, temporary and tolerated sites. The consultation document concluded that the Borough could not make provision for the need arising from the former Dale Farm community, and that this need will therefore need to be met through the Duty to Co-operate.

In response to an earlier consultation (Basildon Borough Local Plan Core Strategy Revised Preferred Options Report) this Council sent an officer level response in March 2014 (agreed with the Planning Policy Portfolio Holder) which included the following comments: “I am sure that every other Essex authority would accept that Basildon has a particularly tricky and difficult problem with making adequate provision for future traveller needs. However …. a joint GTAA is currently being prepared for the rest of Essex and, while it is far from complete, the message that is coming through is that this district is likely to need to more than double the already quite high provision in the period up to 2033 – and this is a district which is currently 92% Green Belt. …… There are also hints that revised guidance is to be published shortly for consultation, and that this is likely to tighten Green Belt constraints as far as traveller pitch provision is concerned. ….. From this perspective it would appear to be virtually impossible for this Council to make any meaningful contribution to the predicted shortfall in Basildon provision.”

The Essex GTAA was published in July 2014 and adopted as part of the Local Plan Evidence Base at the Cabinet meeting on 8^th September 2014. This concluded that Epping Forest District needed to provide 112 new pitches by 2033. As of December 2015 there were 123 authorised permanent pitches in the district.

The new government guidance, Planning Policy for Traveller Sites (August 2015) also changed the definition, for planning purposes, of travellers, excluding those who no longer follow a nomadic way of life. This will necessitate an update to the GTAA, and was likely to lead to a small reduction in the new pitch target. So while the figure was not quite as high as was anticipated in the March 2014 response to Basildon, there can be no doubt that this district still has a very challenging target to meet its own needs.

RESOLVED:

That the following comments be made to Basildon Borough Council in response to the current consultation on its emerging Local Plan:

(a)       that the commitment to on-going co-operation with other Essex local authorities on cross-border and other strategic planning issues, including provision for the travelling community, be noted;

(b)       that the approach proposed for future provision for the former Dale Farm travelling community, in the light of the revised guidance “Planning Policy for Traveller Sites” issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government in August 2015, be noted; and

(c)       that, whilst being sympathetic to the position of Basildon Borough Council, it was extremely unlikely that Epping Forest District Council would be able to make any provision for the former Dale Farm community as it is probable that the Council will be asking other local authorities to make provision for some of its identified need for the travelling community (112 additional pitches for the period up to 2033) as a result of the 92% Green Belt coverage of the district.