At 7.30Pm at the Sea Trout Inn

STEERING GROUP MEETING – TUESDAY NOV 14TH

AT 7.30PM AT THE SEA TROUT INN

Present: Bruce Thorogood (Chair), Ian Catherall, Michael Loverock, Cheryl Loverock

Peter Moran, Tony Avis, Alison Alexander, Tom Lowry, Jacqi Hodgson, Chris Timpson, Wendy Bloomer

Mandy Goddard from SHDC planning dept & Martin Parkes from Devon Communities Together

Business Survey

Only 13 responses have been received to date from a total of about 30 businesses in the parish.

It was decided to contact all the businesses that have not responded and encourage them to complete the online questionnaire. ML will divide list of businesses that haven’t responded and give a few contacts to each person in the group for them to follow up.

Once we have these responses in we will analyse the results.

Questions to Mandy Goddard

What support can SHDC offer?

Not as much as we would like! Mandy is on a temporary contract as Neighbourhood Planner only for the next 3 months, part time. Can offer arms length support and can answer general queries.

SHDC will organise and pay for the referendum. It can do Strategic Environmental Assessments – or screen opinion that it is not required. Locality Technical Support package will fund this. [Locality Technical Support can be up to £6k on top of the £9k general grant].

Should we allocate sites?

We don't have to but she recommended that we do (reinforced by Martin Parkes), especially as Staverton is named in the JLP. The group are therefore in favour of allocating sites, as this will give the Plan more force. If we don’t allocate sites, then it leaves to door open for someone else to make the allocations.

What about developments not yet built that already have planning permission?

The JLP gives an indicative number of 40 new houses for Staverton Parish (20 in Staverton and 20 at Woolston Green) during the life of the plan. This number should be considered the minimum. Our question was ‘what is the base date for calculating this number, and can applications already approved but not yet started be included?’.

The answer was woolly, but we need to interpret it as being: all applications in the pipeline should be ignored; the Plan needs plan for a minimum of 40 new houses during it’s lifetime.

Part of this will be down to our assessment of local needs. The last housing needs survey was done 6 yrs ago and is therefore out of date. We have asked questions in the survey about housing needs. We need to do a robust assessment of local needs. Get outside professional to do a housing needs survey. If we can present a strong case why we are suggesting a certain number of houses it will not be a problem. Include the number of houses built recently. Evidence is key.

Aspirational considerations. What do we want to deliver? E.g. Shop, young families living in the Parish. These will only be achieved through planned development. Ask ourselves how many of the existing planned developments will fit this? We will only get affordable housing if a development is for 11 dwellings when 30% of development must be affordable. But we could get affordable housing on a smaller development through a Community Land Trust. Local landowners might support this more.

How do we put out a call for sites?

Advertise locally. Could produce a form. Does SHDC have guide on timescale for proposal of sites? No. Suggest we allow at least 6 weeks. SHDC have guidance on site assessment. Mandy will send this to us. Devon Communities Together have a pack, which Martin will email to us. We can consult on sites. We could identify suitable ones and approach landowners. SHDC carried out a Strategic Land Assessment 5 years ago and a number of sites came up. This may still be online. We must do a public and open announcement, but we could also approach landowners directly. We need to be seen to be open and inclusive. How to contact landowners who live outside the parish? Ads in local papers - Totnes Times and Mid Devon Advertiser suggested – and Western Morning News. Need to log what we have done. SHDC has database of people who are interested in planning news that they could use. Need to prioritise sites that people have suggested in the survey. Need to formally confirm that land is available before it goes into the plan. Do we write off sites that landowner isn't currently considering selling? It would not be deliverable to consider these. If land is subsequently sold could the new owner not choose to develop it? Yes, but this is unlikely as land allocated for development is worth more.

How likely is Mandy to have her contract renewed? Mandy might be moving on anyway. They would need to put something else in place. Over 40 communities in South Hams and West Devon are drawing up NLPs and they will need support.

What else can you tell us?

Mandy says that we have good ideas and experience. It’s very important to get our vision and objectives and themes sorted and collect evidence. We must do a Housing Needs Survey and call for sites. We should consider designating our local green spaces. This is a straightforward process. Collect evidence that they meet criteria in NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework). The draft plan will need to be backed up by good evidence. Get familiar with the JLP as our plan will need to conform with the JLPs strategic elements. Do not repeat JLP policy. First see if the JLP covers what we want, and If not, write our own policy. Don't say the same thing as the JLP but in different wording. Do our visions and objectives mirror others? If we pick out themes coming from the community, look at what our evidence tells us and see if JLP covers it. If it does we don't need to add anything.

We need to identify heritage assets that are not currently identified as such but are important to us. Do the same with community facilities that we don't want to lose.

We need may want to include design policies in line with findings from the household survey.

Don't try to include anything that isn't planning related in the main body of the Plan e.g. speed limits. Include land use policies only. We can say something about other things but in terms of aspirations and parish council commitments. This should be like an action plan of what the Parish is going to do. We may need to divide our NLP into planning and aspirations. Need to keep aspirations alive and they should be reviewed more often. The aspirational part of the plan should be web based so that it is easy to update [NB: The statutory NP is, under current legislation, almost impossible to change or update once ‘made’. Even small changes require a new NP and the full process, but legislation on this may be under review].

The core tasks for the group now are:

·  Define Vision, Themes and Objectives.

·  Public consultation on these – with questionnaire findings

·  Put out a call for sites

·  Make site allocations

·  Make site assessments.

SHDC provide guidance on site assessment.

Also Locality have a pack

Are there any other sources of funding?

There is a technical support package available from Locality to fund SEAs.

There is a Facebook group as a way to contact other local planning groups.

Questions to Martin Parkes of Devon Communities Together

What can Martin offer?

DCT offer a consultancy service which can range from working on specific topics, through to project managing the whole process. They do not have qualified planners on their team, but can bring in that expertise when needed.

Some elements of support and advice will be for free.

Their aim is to turn the evidence base into planning policy within the Plan

What consultancy does DCT usually do?

Community consultation

Housing needs survey

Transition from evidence to policy.

Analyse ONS data. Martin produced ONS data for Staverton, based on 2011 data. Gave Bruce hard copy and will email it.

DCT can help apply for funding from the Lottery ‘Awards for All’ for evidence gathering and community engagement. Up to £10 available, lead time 2-3 months. One application per body per year. The Parish Council would need to apply. The funds have to be spend within 1 year.

This could fund a Housing Needs Survey.

Housing need is people on the local authority register and self build register.

Need to identify all the consultations needed and wrap them all together, eg: housing needs, green spaces.

Need to designate current green spaces so that they are enshrined in the Plan.

Need to identify the info we've got and see what's missing.

Establish vision, themes and objectives before Christmas

Need to set date for next public consultation in early/Spring 2018.

AOB

TL said that there may be pieces of work that Plymouth could do for us., for a fee.

Locality produce a good template.

Bruce will arrange meeting with Lee Bray, hopefully next week.

Your Parish… Your Plan… Your Choice…

Staverton Parish Neighbourhood Plan