Transcript

Transcript

• Good evening everybody and welcome to the first meeting of the executive in this municipal year 2024-25 in the town hall new council chamber. I'm Councillor Richard Biggs, I'm the leader of the council and portfolio holder for community development and prosperity. I welcome Councillor Terry, who is a new member of the executive and he's taking the portfolio holder for housing and support. Also attending this evening is Councillor Walsh, vice chair of overview and scrutiny committee. And joining us this evening in the chamber is Lucy Mould, a director. Joyce Hamilton, strategic head of legal and governance and monitoring officer is joining us as virtually as well as other council officers. This meeting is being broadcast live on our website. All those attending the meeting accept that they will be filmed and recorded. Please remember to turn off your microphones after you have spoken. This will help ensure the meeting runs smoothly. Members are reminded to silence their mobile phones for the duration of the meeting and avoid using their mobile phones or social media whilst the meeting is in progress. As you are aware, we are now in the pre-election period for the general election taking place on Thursday the 4th of July. Guidance has been issued by the monitoring officer to members and officers. Please be mindful of this when taking part in council meetings during this period of heightened sensitivity. It will be important to ensure that councilor conduct during council meetings is not perceived by the public as election campaigning and that the political impartiality of officers is maintained. I would like to remind members when presenting reports or asking questions to please refrain from endorsing or referencing any candidates or political parties standing in the elections and any controversial political campaigns or policies related to the election. Also please note that the date of the next executive meeting has been moved to Thursday the 18th of July 2024 due to the election. We also have visiting members who are joining us in the chamber and remotely. For any members of the public watching, I would like to clarify that visiting members are also councillors, but they're not members of the executive. Visiting members are here because they have an interest in our agenda. If and when there is time, I will invite visiting members to ask questions at our meeting. However, if there's not enough time at tonight's meeting to explore all the matters on which they have an interest, that they contact me, the relevant executive member, or Mary Roberts Wood, the managing director by email so that we can provide them with a response. I'll move on to item one on the agenda and ask if there are any apologies for absence.
• We've received no apologies for absence this evening and members of the executive are all attending the meeting in the town hall, new council chamber.
• I think we've had apologies from Councillor Harrison.
• Apologies from Councillor Harrison, chair of overview and scrutiny.
• Thank you. The minutes of the last meeting. Can we confirm the, approve the minutes of the last meeting? Which was held on the 21st of March. Thank you very much. Declarations of interest, item three. Are there any declarations of interest? No. Item four, community infrastructure levy, strategic infrastructure programme, 2023 to 2027 annual review. Councillor Michalowski, the portfolio holder for place, planning and regulatory services to introduce this item. Thank you.
• Thank you, leader. The executive is asked to note the progress in delivering the projects in the council's second community infrastructure levy, strategic infrastructure programme, 2023 to 27, set out in annex one and the annual update to the SIP set out in annex two. Alongside the executive's agreement of the council's second SIP in March, 2023, the executive delegated the release of the allocated strategic sill funding to the relevant head of service in consultation with the relevant portfolio holder. The executive also agreed to receive an annual review of the SIP, noting the reported delivery progress of projects in the SIP and updating the SIP as appropriate. Ryger and Banstead borough's council's five-year SIP with its annual reviews is proving an effective mechanism, system for spending the council's strategic sill funding. The five-year SIPs provide a suitable degree of certainty to infrastructure providers, developers and local communities whilst providing flexibility through annual reviews to respond to changes in project programmes. The progress over the past year of each SIP project is provided in the 2024 annual SIP review in annex one. The delivery of projects making up the council's second SIP is progressing well. 17 projects or parts of projects have had their funding transferred since the start of SIP two to help them with delivering the projects. To date, one SIP two project has been fully completed. Sill officers continue to work closely with delivery organisations in monitoring the progress of each project through to their completion. Some projects, including the council's second SIP, are not progressing as anticipated when the bids had been assessed and the second SIP was drawn up. Some projects therefore need more funding than anticipated when they submitted their bids and/or the year of the funding is needed has changed. Annex two is the council's second SIP, updated as of June 2024. Some projects have their funding allocations moved to later years and index linked and/or the allocated amounts increased. By noting the progress in delivering SIP two projects and the annual update to the council's second SIP, the council is using its developer contributions to support new sustainable development in the borough. I therefore commend the recommendation for approval. Thank you.
• Thank you very much, Councillor Michalowski. I know that Andrew Benson, head of planning, and Tanya Mancou-Flatt, principal planning policy officer, are available online to answer any questions. I would just clarify that this is about the progress of the projects rather than the projects themselves which have been discussed at numerous lengths prior. So it's important that any questions are related to this particular report. So I'd just like to flag that up. Are there any questions from executive members on this item? No, Councillor Lewanski.
• Thank you, leader. Just one query on SIP two 26, which is the Rygate Valley College site. I'm sure some of you are aware that the Surrey County Council's proposal is to move everything onto Brokes Road site. So I don't know where we are on this 300,000 that's being proposed.
• Councillor Michalowski.
• Thank you, Councillor Lewanski. Perhaps Tanya might give some insight on that for the very latest.
• Hello, thank you. It's Tanya Mancou-Flatt here. We're revised at least twice a year by each infrastructure provider on project progress. I haven't been aware of that. I haven't been made aware of that in relation to this project. I can certainly speak to the Surrey County Council officer about that and see whether it's relevant still to have that funding in the year allocated. But I wasn't aware of that, wasn't made aware of that. Apologies.
• Thank you very much. We'll come back to you, Councillor Lewanski, on that with a written answer, I think, once we know. Thank you very much. Any other questions from exact members? Any other questions from visiting members? Councillor Walsh.
• Thank you, thank you, leader. I pick up on, I can't see which page it is, but it's CIP22, which is the Hawley Community Centre. The progress actually says that September 23 updates provided and it cites the business case to spend is currently being developed, and it will be presented as a standalone. Do we have a timescale of when that will be presented? 'Cause that's obviously quite a chunk of money at 1.4 million.
• Thank you very much. Councillor Michalowski.
• Thank you, Councillor Walsh. I don't have that timescale, perhaps officers do.
• Lucy Mould.
• It will be autumn of this year, it's currently anticipated.
• The business case?
• Yes.
• There will be a full executive report forthcoming alongside that business case to confirm, thank you.
• Thank you very much. Councillor Blacker.
• Thank you, leader. When the written reply goes to Councillor Lewinsky for the Rygate Valley School, be most grateful if I could have a copy as a fellow ward member, please. Thank you.
• We better include Kate Fairhurst as well, please. Thank you.
• Absolutely. Thank you. Anything else from visiting members? There been no further comment on that. There's one recommendation for the executive tonight set out on page 19. Is that recommendation agreed? Great, thank you very much indeed. Item five on tonight's agenda. The A23 Great Street Design Code supplementary planning document. Andrew Benson is also here to answer any questions on this. And Thomas Puke Cook, senior planning policy officer is also online to answer any questions. Councillor Michalowski, portfolio holder for place planning and regulatory services will introduce this item. Councillor Michalowski.
• Thank you, leader. The national planning policy framework requires local planning authorities to prepare design guides or codes that are consistent with the principle set out in the national design guide and national model design code. It states they should reflect the local character and design preferences for their area. The recent leveling up and regeneration act has strengthened this, requiring every local authority to produce a design code for its area. The government wants a move away from design guides to design codes, which are more specific criteria based documents. Like most local authorities, we have not historically had a design code, but we're able to benefit from government support and funding for the preparation of this A23 Great Street Design Code as part of the department of leveling up housing and communities Pathfinder program. The code sets a high level vision covering the area between Redhill and Hawley with a focus on the A23 corridor. It contains a set of rules and guidance that development must adhere to, which will provide certainty for developers and landowners when they look to promote their site in the area. It will provide an essential tool for the council decision maker to be able to assess the aspirational design quality of emerging proposals and to dictate design standard that we expect. It does not intend to deliver immediate change and any detailed proposals would be subject to their own planning or highways applications or consultations before being realized. This will offer further opportunity for stakeholders to assess and comment on matters of detail. Throughout the Pathfinder program, three main events have taken place to facilitate public engagement to help inform the ambitions of the design code. They aim to deliver around four principle themes, which are to make the area work better for pedestrians and cyclists, to improve access to open spaces and parks, to identify opportunities for development, and to raise the quality of design. Should the SPD be adopted, it is hoped that it would help leverage developer or partner funding to help realize these objectives over the coming years. Stakeholders have been engaged with borough and county officers and our consultants throughout the process, and this has helped inform the content of the SPD. Any comments received from LPAC leaders and executive meetings have also been incorporated. The formal public consultation was held from the 7th of December, 2023, to the 18th of January, 2024, for a period of six weeks. The comments received from the public consultation have been summarized in the consultation statement and have helped inform the amended draft design code SPD. I therefore commend the executive to adopt the A23 Great Street Design Code as a supplementary planning document. Thank you.
• Thank you, Councillor Michalowski. I think the importance, we will be moving more and more towards design codes across planning. I think they're a useful addition. It's good to understand how they work, especially when they're funded nationally, which this one was. And I personally would like to pass on my thanks to all the team that worked on this, because it's a useful starting point in design codes and the use of design codes by this authority, plan led authority, and having design codes will be another part, another factor of planning. And the fact that it's SPD also gives it some weight as well. So I think it's a useful document and I thank the team for the work that they've done on it. Are there any questions from executive members? Observations from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting last week were published as a draft minute in addendum to the executive agenda this week. Councillor Harrison, the chair of Overview and Scrutiny, unfortunately is not able to join us, but the vice chairman of Overview and Scrutiny, Councillor Walsh, has joined us to comment on any of the items that came out of the Overview and Scrutiny meeting last week. Councillor Walsh.
• Thank you, thank you, thank you, leader. And also thank Councillor Miavsky for his presentation last week and also his update today. The draft minute issued for this is actually relatively innocuous because obviously there's very little comments made that would amend the report. There was a number of questions raised by members raising concerns as to the numbers of the members of public in the consultation process and that was actually raised as a point of a point of learning and a point of improvement. Concern was also raised with regard to access and crossing for, I'll call it bicycles and pedestrians rather than active travel because actually our residents will understand that. It's actually a crossing from the zone of one, the east and west of the A23 as it is a major trunk road and it actually is the responsibility of the highways authority, Surrey County Council in this instance, who would be responsible for the highway work as Councillor Miavsky has said that it would be all subject to design approvals 'cause actually Surrey County Council are responsible for design alterations and maintenance of the A23 and it's interesting to point out to members and members of the public that this is the first as you've identified, it's the first design code and it will be taking something new towards the developers and also the residents. But one thing that needs to be picked up and it's really is how is it going to be used and how it fits into the local plan perhaps of actually developing what is being presented. But in the truest sense, there is very little comment that we could make on that to change the document. There were obviously, if there could be greater consultation that was the major issue that came out of the members on the ONS. They had major concerns with the very limited public consultation, there was obviously stakeholder consultation which were fairly normal as we would expect. But I think that was the pick up from offices who are going to do something about that to improve that. But the draft minute is as is and that's it, thank you.
• Thank you very much, Councillor Walsh. And I think as more and more of these design codes are developed in different areas, we can learn and improve the process. I know that members were involved through the LPAG, the local plan advisory group on this as well. And so, and it also came to this executive for before it went out to consultation. So there have been some opportunities if we can add more going forward so we can pick up more points. I think that will be good and benefit everyone. And I know that Andrew and his team will take those comments away and use them going forward. Councillor Michalowski.
• Thank you, leader. I just wanted to respond to Councillor Walsh on behalf of the scrutiny committee. I think it was a very valuable session last week. I think it was fair to say we looked pretty thoroughly through the whole document with members. And one of the learnings, I think, it is absolute frustration for everyone involved when we can't actually get as many of our residents involved with a document or a piece of work like that. We must try harder, there's no doubt about that. It does skew the data in terms of the results. And we just have to sell it better to our residents. There is definitely an interest there if it's shown that there is a positive end game, as it were. And, but I'd just want to show my appreciation to the committee for the time they spent looking through it. Thank you.
• Thank you, Councillor Michalowski. Are there any observations from visiting members? Councillor Blacker.
• Thank you, chairman, leader. Design codes and the production number were fine, but I think this proposal for the great street is madness. It's not a great street, it's a major trunk road. There's industrial sites all the way up on both sides of the road, including our own depot with our dust carts going in and out regularly every day. And the thought of narrowing it and putting trees in is lovely, but it's totally impractical. That road is heavily used all day, every day, day and night. And it's not, that's all been ignored and they're gonna put cycle lanes in, which are not needed. 20 mile an hour speed limits through Red Hill where it's pedestrianized, absolutely, totally support that. But elsewhere, the speed limits as they are are fine. And if you put 20 mile an hour speed limits, they mainly get ignored. So whereas I accept the principle of design codes, that's good, to accept this proposal as it is, relating to the A23, not great street, but a trunk, major trunk road, is in my view, incorrect. And I would like to see members of the executive go for option two, thank you.
• Thank you, Councillor Blacker. I think it's important to realize that any works on the A23, from Hawley to Red Hill, on the highways or anything else, will go through further consultation, further design work. And this will be one of the documents that design team will take into account. But most highways work, don't forget, is designed by Surrey County Council. And therefore, they will be looking at the roads, they will be looking at cycleways, they will be looking at speed limits. And all this can do is aspire and guide. But it can't actually, this is not a design and it's also, and I think it's very important to stress, this is not a design for the A23 as it stands at the moment to completely rework this road. This is an aspiration on what could be done to make it a better route through for all our residents and the services and the businesses, but obviously every bit. And we know how long some of the junctions take to go through the number of consulting stages that they have to. So I think it's important that we have the code, but obviously it's also important that individual areas are scrutinized in much detail as you talk at depot. And Surrey highways look at every planning application on a highways basis, as we know, and make recommendations or otherwise accordingly. So I think it's important that that will continue and this doesn't override any of that work that will go on in the future. But I thank you for your comments. Thank you, Councillor Baca. You want to come back?
• Just briefly, I mean, it fills me with horror saying Surrey County Council are gonna design it. I mean, look at the wonderful effort they did in Rygate High Street. And at the comments they make on planning, which they seem to totally ignore the facts and probably don't even look at the roads. So yeah, okay, thank you, Leda.
• Thank you very much. Any other comments? Councillor Michalowski.
• Thank you, Leda. And thank you to Councillor Black for his comments. And obviously those are the same comments we heard last week at the ONS, which were valued. Last week at the ONS, myself and officers were very clear in setting out how the design code fits in with Surrey's Safer Streets design code. And ultimately the government dictate was towards having journeys which were much more by active travel and building that into our design codes. And so that's where the cues were there for, that's where the hooks were, and it shows an alignment. But I do take on board your comments. Thank you for those.
• Thank you very much. Are there any further comments? There are two recommendations. And I would say the second one is that the head of planning in consultation with the executive member for planning policy be authorised to make any necessary minor amendments based on the reports that we've had done. So that is part of what we're actually proposing that we approve tonight is both the draft and we give the head of planning the permission with the portfolio holder. Are those recommendations agreed? Thank you very much indeed. Item six, statements. Are there any statements from members of the executive? Any statements? No, thank you. Item seven is exempt business. There's no exempt business to consider at this executive meeting. There's no urgent business, but I would like to note the change of date of the next executive meeting to Thursday, the 18th of July, 2024 due to the general election being called on the 4th of July, 2024. There is no other urgent business. Councillor Walsh. Thank you, leader. Just sorry to interrupt, but that obviously impacts upon the date for overview and scrutiny also. But at the moment, online, it wasn't actually updated last time I looked. But it just tallies with the date that you've just given, as my understanding. Thank you, Councillor Walsh. The overview and scrutiny is the 11th and the full council will be the 23rd, the following. It has been updated online now. Okay. There being no other urgent business, I thank you all for attending this evening and I declare the meeting closed at 19.58. Thank you very much. (faintly speaking) .