Meeting Title: Cornwall Planning Partnership (cpp)

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Apologies:

1

Work programme for the Planning Partnership:

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  Planning PAC work programme – Relevant Committee to be Economic Growth & Development Overview & Scrutiny (EGD OSC); PAC ceased with last administration. Bert Biscoe CC elected Chair of EGD OSC. NP to circulate the Forward Plan when available.
  
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  Enforcement/compliance – an update on the actions identified at the Enforcement workshop was circulated with the agenda. Agreed to communicate these by newsletters to Local Councils and webpages. Important points to note included: ‘What is planning harm’ guide produced to assist Local Councils, Enforcement weekly lists to start going to Local Councils free of charge from end of June*, request to Local Councils to familiarise themselves with updated enforcement webpages and to advise members of the public to do same before submitting a complaint. *Enforcement weekly lists for Local Councils contain information that is not a public document and therefore should not be published as such by a Local Council. Discussion followed; main points to note:
  
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    Enforcement team appreciate Local Councils being the ‘eyes and ears’ locally if planning conditions are not be complied with, having the best local knowledge of their areas. Noted that Building Control do some compliance checks.
    
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    Officers are aiming to reduce the number of planning conditions attached to permissions
    
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    Enforcement complaints should be submitted if there is ‘deliberate concealment’ of a breach; noted that new legislation is coming in regarding this.
    
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  Training – Local Council induction training was run on 6 and 14 June which was oversubscribed. Noted that some Local Councils have introduced a ‘requirement’ to be properly trained before sitting on a parish planning committee. Further induction sessions to be arranged according to demand. 2 or 3 Local Council conferences will also be arranged later in the year. DE asked if Partnership members will assist with the running of these sessions. Discussion followed; main points to note:
  
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    St Stephens are keen to determine competency of their planning committee and have been analysing % of parish decisions that are in accordance with CC officer decisions to that end. Noted that St Agnes are also very keen on getting trained.
    
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    Possible need for some reflection on the professionalism of parish councillors who speak at Planning Committees (SM)
    
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  Environmental Growth Strategy – RB gave a presentation and circulated Summary documents for cascading to Local Councils. Discussion followed; main points to note:
  
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    Lanner are working on their Neighbourhood Plan (NDP), based on the Environment rather than on Housing. RB to speak with Localism portfolio holder to see what resource may be available to assist with NDPs.
    
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    Concern was noted at the loss of mature trees; mitigation could be both on and off-site. RB confirmed a piece of work is being done on this.
    
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    Noted that partnership working with Imerys is needed in the clay areas regarding the impact of tree loss; this can also be addressed as part of the planning process.
    
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    ‘What is environmental growth?’ to be included in ‘Day in the Life’
    
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    Noted that there are other options, aside from planning applications, which are available to turn land into environmental sites
    
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    RL to be invited to a future meeting to present on the PERFECT project
    

Planning Peer Review: Delivering the Cornwall Local Plan and Cornwall Council update (PM) – Main points below:

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  PM updated on new structures and postholders. Recent appeal decisions reflect the fact that the Local Plan is now in place.
  
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  PM’s management team recently visited Wolverhampton: lessons can be taken away regarding their philosophy of focussing on customers (applicants, residents and local councils) and emphasis on resolving issues.
  
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  PM circulated and introduced ‘Delivering the Cornwall Local Plan – Doing things differently’. Main points of discussion to note:
  
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    One size does not fit all – diversity of Cornwall; noted the Cornish Distinctiveness project that is ongoing, and need for non-standardised development.
    
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    Issues with current system building mistrust when developers submit new applications to reduce S106 contributions on the grounds of viability; suspicion that this is a deliberate approach?
    
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    Want to see infrastructure built first; officers use Grampian conditions to secure infrastructure in advance of development. Suggestion noted to consider bank bonds/guarantees?
    

4

Workshop proposal: Agreed to hold a workshop before the next meeting to consider the new enhanced pre-application community engagement process and a review of the Cornwall pre-app protocol for Local Councils. NP to arrange for August to enable report back in September.

Minutes/actions from last meeting – minutes were circulated with the agenda and taken as read. Outstanding actions are below:

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  Feedback from CIL sub-group and discussion: AW talked through the main recommendations in the paper produced by the group. Main points to note:
  

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  Agreed this is an opportunity to influence how CIL is applied.
  
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  Point raised regarding individual parishes joining with others to bid for monies would need forward planning.
  
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  Insufficient consideration given to funding for maintaining infrastructure at present.
  
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  The key point to take away is that all Local Councils should have the opportunity to bid into the fund.
  
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  ‘Community’ means different things to different people, ie is much more local from a parish perception
  
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  Should be geared towards communities within Cornwall, small projects outside of S106 funding
  
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  Concern that zero-rated areas will attract development but may lose out; noted that this should not happen if decent bids are made.
  
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  Agreed SM to meet with CIL sub-group to focus recommendations and circulate to the Partnership members.
  
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  Debate to be had in the new Council; BE to find out timeline for this.
  
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  DE/BE to have a discussion with BB re where the Partnership fits into EGD OSC.
  

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  Membership of the Partnership post-May elections – It was agreed that the current members (pending re-election) would run until September, and that SM would start a call for new members in June in time for the September meeting.
  
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  The group is to consider a focus on the economy and commercial/business development as well as housing, and possibly to invite a member of the Local Enterprise Partnership to attend a future meeting.
  
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  SM has asked DE to look into whether a list of all S106s in a parish could be produced so this is included in the registration/profile form.
  

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  Sites with drainage issues – JR raised an item where there were sites where the planning permission could not be issued due to drainage constraints, eg arrangements on land which the applicant has no control over, inadequate separation distances compromise new or existing dwelling. Planning need to have early liaison with Building Control on such sites. The local knowledge of parishes could also be useful in flagging up such sites. Noted that new liaison meeting has commenced with South West Water regarding their consultation responses. Points to action/note:
  

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  Items to be included on upcoming Small-Scale Agents Forums to make agents aware of issues on tight sites
  
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  ‘Day in the Life’ to include a section on this issue
  
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  Learning points to be cascaded to officers and Local Councils
  
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  Noted that Building Regulations do not look outside of a site; it would then become a civil issue.
  

7

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  SM to nominate the Cornwall Planning Partnership and ‘Day in the Life’ for National Association of Local Councils national awards
  
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  Agreed to move future meetings to every two months to enable to group to consider business in sufficient detail. Workshop to be held in August, next meeting to be in September with new meeting intervals starting thereafter.
  

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  Date - 5 September 2017