To receive a report from Planning Services on the final approved East of England Plan.
Minutes:
The Assistant Director of Planning, Paul Sutton, brought the meeting up to date with the final version of the East of England Plan. This was a long time in the making and it set the regional strategy for several counties. All documents produced by local councils will now have to conform to this document. The intention is to roll the plan forward to 2021. The whole document is available on www.communities.gov.uk
The Key issues on housing were the urban extension of Harlow, a greenbelt review and a homelessness policy.
There is a provision for up to 16000 additional dwellings by 2021. We have not been given any figures on how the units would be spread as yet. Figures are usually minimum figures and it may mean about 4.5 thousand house expansion into the district from Harlow. There will be a need for joint working with neighbouring councils, or the government will impose a structure on us. There maybe a need for a joint planning committee. For the rest of the District the policy states the need for an extra 3.5 thousand houses from 2001 to 2021, some of which have already been built.
The greenbelt review will look at Harlow and other settlements in the district, there are also BVPI targets for Brownfield sites. The report also puts up the affordable housing target from 35% to 40%.
The East of England plan goes up to 2031, and a review will be starting soon, looking at Housing up to 2031. The plan also calls for Essex to provide 56,000 jobs and provision for extra infrastructure, such as plans for a by-pass for the M11, details of which were not forthcoming at present.
Councillor Mrs Collins asked about a meeting she attended recently on the ‘Harlow Renaissance’, when she met with Harlow Councillors. One of the suggestions was about a joint Planning Committee, which was not well received, as Harlow wanted all the S106 money. It is likely that Harlow’s first build will be in Epping Forest, any new infrastructure (such as the M11 by-pass) would be built after the new homes were built.
Councillor Mrs Sartin asked if the greenbelt review would be complete before current planning applications come into force. Mr Sutton was not sure, consultations with developers will be started before the greenbelt review is carried out. Each step has to be consulted on. The first step would be to ask town and parish councils.
The representative from Epping Upland asked about creating more jobs and the inevitable crowded roads. Would the infrastructure be in place for the rail and tube. It is increasingly more difficult to use without the additional pressure of more jobs. Mr Sutton replied that the plan was light on infrastructure but heavy on sustainability. The roads can’t take the traffic as it is, the plan will be looking at bus routes etc. and may even put them in before the houses are built.
Councillor Mrs Collins was aware of these problems. She believed that people would live here but work in London. This will increase our dependency on transport links. There is a need to put this in the local delivery framework as quickly as possible.