Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Rita Magdani, Senior Democratic and Electoral Services Officer  Tel: 07707 138582 E-mail:  rita.magdani@harrow.gov.uk

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Items
No. Item

60.

Attendance by Reserve Members

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:-

 

Ordinary Member

 

Reserve Member

 

Councillor Asif Hussain

Councillor Krishna Suresh

 

61.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from all Members present.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that there were none.

62.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 137 KB

That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2023 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Following a Member’s question as to the detail included in the minutes, the Chair advised that as the meetings were webcast the discussion could be viewed in detail and that the minutes are not verbatim of the meeting.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2023, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

63.

Public Questions

To note any public questions received.

 

Questions will be asked in the order in which they were received.  There will be a time limit of 15 minutes for the asking and answering of public questions.

 

[The deadline for receipt of public questions is 3.00 pm, 30 October 2023.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk

No person may submit more than one question].

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no questions had been received.

64.

Petitions

To receive petitions (if any) submitted by members of the public/Councillors.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions had been received.

65.

Deputations

To receive deputations (if any).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no deputations.

Resolved Item

Additional documents:

66.

New Harrow Local Plan - draft Spatial Vision and Objectives pdf icon PDF 794 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel received a presentation on the new Harrow Local Plan and officers:

 

(a)            provided an update on the preparation of the Plan.

(b)            documents the draft Borough Profile and draft Spatial Vision and Strategy and Strategic Objectives for the Plan and sought the Panel’s feedback on these; and

(c)            outlined the next steps.

 

During the presentation, Members were advised that

(i)              Evidence base work:

 

All draft Local Plans were examined by the Planning Inspectorate for ‘soundness’; plans must be found sound before they could be adopted by the Council. One of the ‘tests of soundness’ under the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was that a plan must be ‘justified’. This meant it must represent ‘an appropriate strategy, taking into account the reasonable alternatives, and based on proportionate evidence’ The evidence needed to be justified.

 

(ii)             Stakeholder engagement:

 

The Local Plan was a key land use policy mechanism for most functions of the Council (i.e. housing, heritage, economic development, transport, education, social care, parks, biodiversity) and also impacted upon Council landholdings.

 

All relevant areas of the Council had been approached with respect to the effectiveness of the current Local Plan, any emerging issues and pressures, and what they would like to see included in the new Local Plan.

 

Many of these service areas were directly involved the drafting of policies relevant to their functions and all would be requested to review relevant policies before the draft Plan was presented to the Panel.  

 

Service areas had also been involved in the preparation of any evidence base documents relevant to their area.

 

An initial discussion had been held with the Greater London Authority (GLA) as the Harrow Local Plan must be in ‘general’ conformity with the London Plan.  These discussions were general in nature, focusing on the sorts of matters that had caused issues with general conformity in other boroughs.  A further discussion would be held before the first formal round of consultation (Regulation 18 consultation) on the draft Local Plan.

 

Duty to Cooperate meetings had been held with a number of adjoining boroughs (i.e. Barnet, Ealing, Hertsmere), with another to be held shortly.  The Duty to Cooperate was a requirement of the plan making process; it was largely intended to replace the system of formal regional spatial strategies in England to address cross-borough planning issues of a strategic nature (i.e. housing and employment need, infrastructure etc).

 

(iii)           Plan drafting:

 

Significant progress had been made on the drafting of the new Local Plan.  The draft table of contents was included at Appendix 1 of the officer report. The table of contents was evolving as policies were drafted, with several policies being consolidated where possible and additional ones added where the need became evident.

 

The report sought Members comment and feedback on the overarching spatial vision and objectives for the new Local Plan as per the report.

 

Following the presentation, Members asked questions and made comments regarding the Local Plan.

A Member asked about the viability report and what kinds  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.