Poole Revised Statement of Community Involvement
Representations to Revised SCI Consultation
Comment ID / Comment by: / Question/Para No. / Representation Text1 / Miss Marion Pope / Question 7 / I have lived in Bearwood for 16 years and have been consulted only once on a planning application. Yet in that time permission has been granted for The Canford Arena; Canford Recycling's Waste recycling Centre (on the Green Belt), a garden centre, a dog sanctuary, golf courses and a small trading estate on a former chicken farm. In 2011 permission was given for a football stadium and training pitches on land to the rear of my house. I was not consulted but now suffer the effects of light pollution from floodlights. It remains to be seen whether these worthy undertakings above will make any material difference to how the community is consulted. / Comment noted.
Planning and Regeneration Services incl. Building Consultancy publishes a Planning Charter (2012), a detailed guide to the services provided by the unit which sets out a series of commitments in respect of the planning application process,including the methods used to publicise and consult on planning applications.
The Council advertises and consults on planning applications in line with legal requirements, which in some instances are exceeded.
2 / Miss Marion Pope / Question 1 / I am in agreement with these general engagement and consultation principles / Comment noted.
3 / Miss Marion Pope / Question 2 / These commitments are impressive if they are carried out in fact. The 2006 Statement of Community Involvement has not been observed particularly with regard to public consultation about Core Strategy land usage but also waste planning. The proposals to include land in North Poole as development land in the Core Strategy were lodged in public libraries during the summer of 2008. Although comments were invited there were none either for or against the proposals. Someone should have realised that this is NOT community involvement. We have a waste recycling plant on Green Belt land off the Magna Road over which the community has NEVER been consulted. I would not like to think that the Council is cynically paying lip service to community involvement merely to meet its obligations under the Localism Act 2011. / Comment noted.
Failure to undertake public consultation in accordance with the adopted Statement of Community Involvement would have resulted in Poole’s Development Plan Documents being found ‘unsound’. All of Poole’s DPD’s adopted to date have satisfied the soundness test in respect of conformity with the SCI.
The adopted Core Strategy did not promote the development of land at North Poole. It sought to include the site within the Green Belt, with the Inspector recommending that it’s‘safeguarded’ status be retained for employment uses because of his concerns of the potential shortfall in employment land if sites allocated in the CS failed to come forward.
The Council is committed to consulting and engaging with the widest range of stakeholders as the review of the Core Strategy progresses.
4 / Miss Marion Pope / Question 4 / Please see my answer to Question 2. The Duty to Cooperate will only be met if the council meets its obligations listed above. / Comment noted.
Ensuring that the ‘Duty to Co-operate’ has been fulfilled in respect of cross-boundary issues, will be a key consideration for the Inspector when the revised Core Strategy is submitted for its Examination in Public.
5 / Miss Marion Pope / Question 5 / It is a measure of how poor communications are in respect of community involvement that this is the first time I have encountered Neighbourhood Planning. Broadstone has had a Neighbourhood Forum since January of this year so one or two wards got to be informed. I hope to get Bearwood residents involved in applying for designated Forum status during 2014. I cannot understand why local councillors have been seemingly reluctant to disseminate information about neighbourhood planning. / Neighbourhood planning is a process initiated by a local community, which can be taken forward by either a town/parish council or a neighbourhood forum. At the outset of the process, the role of the Local Authority is to agree the area to be covered by a town/parish council or neighbourhood forum.
The key duties of the local authority in the neighbourhood planning process are to provide advice and assistance; to hold an examination of a submitted neighbourhood plan and to make arrangements for a referendum following the examination of a neighbourhood plan.
6 / Miss Marion Pope / Paragraph 3.1 / I realise that the requirements for advertising and consulting on planning applications are set out in legislation. They are not, in my view, adequate where major or contentious applications are concerned. Canford Renewable Energy's statement of community involvement for the Magna Business Park application quoted a planning officer as saying "There will of course always be those who are beyond the boundary of notification who believe that they should have been advised of the application. That will always be the case regardless of how widely the Council throw the notification net...". The Council do not cast their advertising net very widely because they are not required by law to do so. / Comment noted.
7 / Mr Brian Galpin / General comment / Am now 76 and totally ignored. See the monstrosity outside my home and no children expected to use it until Sept 2014. What a waste of money. / Comment noted.
8 / Mr Ian Jones / Paragraph 1.7 / During discussions in the community it would seem that many members of the public have heard of the localism act but many do not understand what it actually means. / Comment noted.
9 / Mr Ian Jones / Paragraph 2.5 / It is important that the recommendations made from The Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople strategy are accepted by the community as it has been a source of tension for several summers. / Comment noted.
10 / Mr Ian Jones / Paragraph 2.15 / It is very encouraging to see so many different methods of communicating to the community. / Comment noted.
11 / Mr Ian Jones / Paragraph 2.23 / The commitments that Poole Council are making are appropriate, given that you will be consulting on a revised scoping document and framework in due course. It is hoped the scoping exercise will identify some strengthened sustainability objectives to measure development plans against in order to help drive sustainable development. / Comment noted.
12 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 2 / The commitments to producing the development plan and supplementary planning documents are appropriate. It is important though that the public are consulted through various different methods of communication. / Comment noted.
Various methods of communication are used when undertaking public consultation. These are usually tailored to suit the nature and issues of the topic which is the subject of consultation.
13 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 3 / The commitments to the requirements of SA and SEA are appropriate. / Comment noted.
14 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 4 / Poole Councils commitments in relation to compliance with the Duty to Cooperate are appropriate. / Comment noted.
15 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 5 / It is important that appropriate checks to ensure that a submitted neighbourhood plan meets basic conditions and legal requirements. Planning changes can cause confusion on what is legal and what requires permission and this can cause community tension. / Comment noted.
It is a duty of the local authority to undertake checks to ensure that a submitted neighbourhood plan has met the necessary basic conditions and legal requirements.
16 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 7 / Poole have recently guided the University through a major application process and we have found the Members Engagement Forum opportunity particularly helpful in our last two applications. / Comment noted.
Member and local engagement forums are identified in the SCI as methods of pre-application consultation, particularly aimed at major or significant/contentious development proposals, that are used in Poole to engage communities in the shaping and development of the places where people live and work.
17 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 2 / The commitments to producing development plan and supplementary planning documents are appropriate. / Comment noted.
18 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 3 / The commitments to the requirements of SA and SEA are appropriate. / Duplicate of Comment ID 13.
19 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 5 / The commitments relating to neighbourhood planning are competent but the council needs to ensure that they actively engage the community in all decisions. / Comment noted.
Neighbourhood planning is a community driven process. Community consultation is the responsibility of the designated neighbourhood forum, with the role of the local planning authority being to provide advice and assistance in support of the process where requested. This can include providing help with consultation events.
20 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 6 / The commitments in relation to CIL are appropriate. / Comment noted.
21 / Mr Ian Jones / Question 1 / We agree with the general engagement and consultation principles. / Comment noted.
22 / Poole Harbour Watch (Rev David Butcher) / Appendix 3: List of General Consultees / Just been looking through this massive document and in the section, Appendix 3: List of General Consultees commencing on P26 I can find no mention of either North Haven Yacht Club, nor Poole Harbour Watch. Both I believe responded to an earlier planning consultation. / Comment noted.
Action:
North Haven Yacht Club and Poole Harbour Watch added to consultation database.
23 / Mrs Nicola Hoar / Paragraph 3.6 / Dorset Wildlife Trust recommends that the authority should adopt the Dorset Biodiversity Protocol in relation to planning applications, operated by Dorset County Council. This would ensure compliance with environmental obligations. Currently there is no process to ensure that Poole delivers these responsibilities, in particular in relation to protected species such as bats. / This issue has been discussed with Natural England. With 1APP, developers are required to identify whether protected species are present on-site and provide appropriate mitigation measures where necessary.
24 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Question 1 / We agree with the principles and would suggest that details of ‘how’ and ‘when’ (probably involving the use of timetables) would assist matters.
It is noted that the phrase “subject to the availability of resources and other relevant considerations” does emphasise the need for clarity on the methods to be adopted for actual implementation of the principles.
It would be helpful to know whether the processes of engaging with local people is to be conducted by elected Councillors, Borough employees or both. In this connection the development of Area Committees springs to mind (later comments also refer) – perhaps they could be re-invigorated by ensuring that such meetings are ‘chaired’ by a local person (not a Councillor or a Borough employee) to ensure that issues are progressed satisfactorily ‘under the radar of public perception’. It is expected that general understandings/support/involvement would be improved if the Area Committees became Ward Committees. / Agreement with the identified general engagement and consultation principles noted.
The purpose of the commitments set out under the heading of general engagement and consultation principles is to establish how Planning and Regeneration Services will seek to provide opportunities for inclusive engagement and consultation, using methods that are appropriate and proportionate to the nature of the document and stage of its preparation being consulted on.
Poole’s Local Development Scheme (LDS) sets out the timetable for the production of documents forming the Local Plan for Poole and provides an indication of the key stages where public consultation will be undertaken.
Normally, public consultation is undertaken by officers, but there may be occasions where Councillor involvement would be appropriate, i.e. area committee meetings.
It should be noted that the role and function of area committees are not within the scope of the SCI to change.
25 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Question 2 / We trust the commitments are appropriate but wonder what is implied by the use of the word ‘may’ in the ‘2.15’ entries about meetings, attending group meetings and area committee meetings.
It is considered that every effort should be made to ensure that Borough employees are fully aware of (and understand) the knowledge held by local people. It would improve trust and confidence levels generally. / Comment noted.
Action:
For clarification, the word ‘may’ will be substituted by the word ‘will’ in the communication table section entitled Meetings.
This is in recognition that there will be occasions when local people/groups have specific local knowledge that would be of value to the plan making process.
26 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Question 3 / The commitments to SA and SEA are appropriate. / Comment noted.
27 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Question 4 / It is hard to agree with the suggested commitments in relation to compliance with the Duty to Co-operate, since City Deal, Growth Deal and ‘Uniting the Conurbation’ issues are not mentioned.
To improve matters, perhaps it could be made clear how the natural tendencies towards unfortunate ‘tribal reactions’ are likely to be addressed: co-operation does not necessarily involve maintaining duplication and should involve ‘doing something satisfactorily for a neighbour’, irrespective of existing fences. / The duty to co-operate was introduced by the Localism Act 2011. It places a legal duty on local planning authorities, county councils and public bodies in England to engage constructively, actively and on an ongoing basis to maximise the effectiveness of Local and Marine Plan preparation relating to strategic cross boundary planning matters.The duty to cooperate is a legal testrelated to, but separate from, the Local Plan test of soundness.
In demonstrating compliance with the duty to co-operate, it is a requirement that local planning authorities produce effective and deliverable policies on strategic cross boundary planning matters as a result of co-operation.
As a public body (and therefore included in the duty to co-operate commitments set out in the draft SCI), the Local Enterprise Partnership will be a key participant in the consideration of relevant cross boundary issues i.e. the City and Growth Deals.
The ‘Uniting the Conurbation’ issue has a far wider political dimension and is therefore not relevant to the duty to co-operate.
28 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Question 5 / We agree with the commitment to neighbourhood planning and would suggest that details of ‘how’ and ‘when’ (probably involving the use of timetables) would assist matters.
It is noted that the phrase “subject to the availability of resources” does emphasise the need for clarity on the methods to be adopted for actual implementation of the commitment. No doubt it is expected that Borough employees reflect the informed wishes of residents in the neighbourhood – leaving the Councillors to take the ‘Borough perspective’ – a perspective that, if compliant with basic conditions and legal requirements, may over-rule the wishes of any given neighbourhood. / Neighbourhood planning is a process initiated and driven by neighbourhood forums (in Poole’s case). They are responsible for preparing a neighbourhood plan and set the timeframes for the delivery of this process.
Local Planning Authorities have a statutory duty to provide advice or assistance to designated Neighbourhood Forums as they consider appropriate in connection with the preparation of Neighbourhood Development Plans.
The Government has not prescribed how local planning authorities should meet this ‘duty to support’ requirement. This allows individual authorities to tailor their support to take account of local circumstances such as the number and complexity of Neighbourhood Plans being prepared in their area, and the skills and resources available to both the local authority and the designated neighbourhood forum.
It is difficult to quantify what resources will be required in supporting neighbourhood planning, as to date there has been limited take-up by local communities within the Borough. In addition, further cuts to local authority funding may impact on the resources available to support neighbourhood planning, particularly in relation to the provision of advice and support.
29 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Question 6 / We agree with the commitment in relation to CIL. However, since the Borough appears to have a ‘maintenance time bomb’ to manage (as confirmed by the reported absence of certain ‘sinking funds’ for seafront maintenance) it is suggested that the state of the town’s infrastructure is first ascertained and then kept up to date and the commitment refined to reflect the reality to be addressed over the next few years.
Reference is made to the possible amendment of the Council’s Regulation 123 List. Details of ‘how’ and ‘when’ (probably involving the use of timetables) would assist matters together with some indication of how to effect immediate release of CIL monies, whilst the maintenance ‘time bomb’ is considered to be a problem/challenge. / Agreement to CIL commitments noted.
Poole’s CIL Regulation 123 list sets out the list of priority infrastructure that will be funded in part or in whole through the CIL levy. As infrastructure projects on the list are completed, it will provide the opportunity revise the list to add new infrastructure projects.
There are no plans to undertake a review of Poole’s CIL Regulation 123 list at this present time.
30 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Question 7 / We agree with the commitments in relation to the planning application process. / Comment noted.
31 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Paragraph 2.32 / It is noted that Section 2.32 of the consultation document asks ‘How will locally elected Councillors be involved?’ With regard to the printed text offered in response to the rhetorical question, it is suggested that ‘timetabling’ of the ‘steerage’ and a clearer definition of likely normal periods for ‘consideration’, ‘scrutiny’, ‘endorsement’ (? Possible rejection) and ‘reporting’ would be of assistance in developing effective working. “Fast track” procedures appear to be neglected and it is therefore suggested that such procedures may be a useful addition to the evolution of relevant planning policy and guidance documents under the guidance of EcO&S. / The Council operates a well established formalcommittee system providing forscrutiny and decision-making. The role and function of these democratic processes are outside the scope of the SCI to address/change.
32 / G M Rigler – Society of Poole Men / Appendix 1 / Appendix 1 of the consultation document was appreciated. / Comment noted.
33 / Ms Helen Patton, Policy Officer, New Forest National Park / Paras 2.26 – 2.28 The Duty to Co-operate / The Authority is pleased to note that Poole Borough Council under the ‘duty to co-operate’ is committed to engaging with neighbouring local authorities and other public and private bodies and actively engage with them in fulfilling the requirements of the duty. The Authority is supportive of this statement and is committed to working with Poole Borough Council on relevant issues when necessary. / Comment noted.
34 / Ms Helen Patton, Policy Officer, New Forest National Park / Appendix 2 / The Authority supports Appendix 2 which identifies the New Forest National Park Authority as a Statutory Consultee for planning policy documents. / Comment noted.
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