Transcript

Good morning everyone. I'd like to declare this meeting is starting. I would like to extend a warm welcome to all members of the Cabinet, our members of the Council and Officers, in attendance at today's Cabinet meeting of 1 May 2024. Welcome to members of the public and press who may be watching the meeting live on YouTube. I am Councillor Joel Cleary leaving the Cabinet. I will now hand over to Democratic Services to read the housekeeping note. Thank you. Please note that this meeting is being broadcast live on the Council's website and on YouTube. It will remain available for a minimum of 12 months. I would remind those in attendance to use your microphones when speaking and to switch it off once you have finished. Please also switch any mobile phones and other devices to a silent setting to the duration of the meeting. If the fire alarm rings, please can everyone leave the room immediately using the nearest available fire exit but do not use the lift. Upon leaving the building, go to the fire assembly point located at the bottom of the car park alongside the garages. Thank you. The benefit of those watching the meeting online, please could members introduce themselves during the meeting if not already introduced by name. And I would especially like to welcome Gareth DeBouze, Councillor Philip Day, Ray Frederick and its wonderful to see Christopher Levin back in this Council Chamber. Welcome, Chris. Apologies. None received. Leader announcements. Last week, the Council received notification that it has been awarded £131,000 from the UK Government's public sector decarbonisation scheme. A bid was submitted into the competitive funds by officers in the autumn and the confirmed award is a significant contribution towards a scheme to replace two end-of-life gas boilers at Apple Tree Court, with far more efficient and environmentally friendly air source heat pumps. The project will save approximately 15 tonnes of CO2 annually, once fully commissioned later this year, which is a 60 per cent reduction on our current east wing emissions. This and the £112,000 we successfully bid for from Sport England toward additional solar PV at our leisure centres, both further affirm the Council's commitment to tackle Council climate change, in line with our adopted strategy and action plan. I'd like to specifically thank Sam Wills and Pavel Duchnowski for their efforts in applying for these funds. In addition, as a member of the warmer homes consortium of Southern local authorities, we have secured £41 million for our region, providing access to funding to improve the energy efficiency of new forest homes. Our residents can apply for the grants to install energy-saving measures depending on their income and current EPC rating of their home, with funding of up to £25,000 available. Again, I would like to thank Kirsty Farmer and her private sector housing team for helping secure the funding and working with our residents to apply for grants. Thank you. Item 1, minutes. Do Cabinet agree the minutes of the meeting held on 3 April 2024 as a correct record? Agree. Agree. Thank you. Item 2, declarations of interest. The Cabinet members have any declarations of pecuniary or any other interests in respect of the business for this meeting. Cabinet. No, Mark. Thank you. Item 3, public participation. We have, as you will realise, some members of Ringwood Town Council here today in relation to Agenda Item 6, the Ringwood neighbourhood plan. I will ask them to address the meeting under Agenda Item 6. Item 4, housing delivery action plan. Can I go to the portfolio holder, Derek Tipp, to introduce the report, please? Thank you, Leader. Yes, we do take this very seriously indeed. On Friday last week, actually, I was at Fording Bridge and we actually opened, in fact, magnificent. I think it's called a 3G surface pitch for sport. And a lot of the funding from that came from community infrastructure levy, which of course comes from house building. And so it's not only the houses, but the infrastructure that you can also get. It's so important for the district. And the problem of under delivery is something that we're looking at very much so. And as you see in the report, it's very complex and a very widespread problem. It's not just this district, but all over the country there are housing delays and so on. And many factors are beyond the control of individual council. We are being very proactive and we are bringing forward, as you all know, our review of the local plan. And that will help to address a lot of these issues. And we are putting this comprehensive action plan in place. And I know that Steve Davis has got a few words to say on this, from the affordable housing point of view. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Tipp. Yeah, I think it's worth just reminding everyone that in the in the attachment in table two, the on the aged out, it references made to the 600 affordable housing target. What I would like to comment on is that, what I'm people is that in the housing and communities panel back in March, we did have a very detailed briefing on this on the numbers. They haven't changed very much since we're, it is expected we'll achieve close to 500 and on current plans by 2026. If you bear in mind that since this target was set in 2018, there will be a number of changes in the world. And not least the supply chain owned to Ukraine and various price increases across the board, particularly in housing. So the fact that we've achieved, we have achieved on current plans close to 500, I think is a remarkable achievement, not least since, as we all know, other affordable housing schemes have already been commissioned in that time. So the numbers throughout the district will be higher than what we were proposing, but not necessarily built by NFDC. I am told though, in addition to the 470-ish plan, 474 planned finishes, that there might be, there are future opportunities in the pipeline. I can't give details on those yet because obviously some of them are commercially sensitive, but the future opportunities could deliver 2026, maybe one or two years later, but that will bring the total, could bring the total up to 650. So again, I think that's a commendable achievement to have got to close to 500 in my view, and I'd like to commend the housing team once again for the phenomenal ability to actually deliver against the odds. Thank you. Right, we'll go to Peter McGowan, Planning Policy Officer. Do you have anything to add, Peter? Yes, thank you. Good morning, everybody. I'd just like to echo the words, but said by the respect to Portfolio Holders, this report is an action plan in response to the target to the housing delivery having fallen below target as set up and the most recently published housing delivery test. It is the requirement of a national policy that we produce such an action plan and the action plan sets out and summarise some of the key reasons for why the delivery has fallen below target in recent years, and they are reflective of challenging macroeconomic conditions, and they're also reflective of the significant environmental challenges the district has faced and continues to face when it comes to successfully delivering housing. As said mentioned by the Portfolio Holders, we are not alone in facing these challenges and numerous authorities in the Hampshire region, in particular, have faced drops in housing delivery in recent years, so we are far from alone in facing how the challenges when it comes to delivering housing. As summarised in the report, the action plan sets out a range of measures that we will seek to undertake in the coming years to seek to promote and encourage increased housing delivery. We will seek to engage with and work with key stakeholders to successfully implement these actions in the action plan and the action plan will be reviewed annually in order to monitor its effectiveness and ensure its continued effectiveness going forward. Thank you. Cabinet, do you have any comments? I will open it to the floor and first off is Councillor Malcolm Wade. Thank you, Leader. Yes, it's unfortunate we haven't in our target. If you look over the history of house building in the new forest, you will see this is not the first time we get in this situation, but let's just talk about the current situation. An impact of this is that when we, if we wanted to object to a plan in development for very genuine reason and they went to appeal, the developer, and I asked officers about how to respond to this, have a really good defence while you haven't built enough houses. And I know that a development in my own ward, which this council rejected, it went to public inquiry, it went through it passed because we hadn't built enough houses. Now, we need to understand the impact of this. It's not just about a few figures in the report, it's the impact on how we can manage our plan and going forward and how it impacts our new forest residents. I'm sure Tim will give us a good comment now to try and reassure us, but that is a fact because we know it is. And this there gives developers an in-bait defence if we want to object an application for very genuine reasons. Of course, some of the reasons are challengeable, it gives offence. If it's drive, I'll take your point, it wouldn't work, but for the challengeable as it does. So we as an authority need to know the impact of when we don't do what we should be doing. Tim, can I go to you on that, please? Thank you, Chair. Tim Geimer, currently the Acting Assistant Director for Place. Councillor Wade makes a valid point about the housing delivery challenges of the new forest district in over the coming years. We recognise that housing growth challenges are significant, and it is something which is of weight in determining planning applications as a matter of course. However, this item in front of you is not directly triggering any change in the weight which is attributed to housing delivery. The report in front of you is about delivering an action plan, recognising that currently the Council dips below the 95% threshold of set by the government. It's an opportunity for this Council to set out the key actions which it wants to do now to ensure that the priority which we have been giving for a number of years now on housing delivery continues in the future. But just to be clear again as I end this, there is no material change in the weight which the planning committee or other decision-takers should give as a result of this action plan. Thank you, Tim. Councillor ALLAN Glaas. Thank you, Madam Chairman. My thought is for the future because we obviously want to put a lot more houses in. But at the moment, we are mitigated on phosphates and hydrates in the sewage by a farm that we've bought as mitigation or the area has bought as mitigation on the Isle of Wight. I understand this will only run for about another four years. What plans have we got for the future after that? Because it could cause us a real delay. Thank you. The answer is, I don't know. Can I ask an officer to get back to you on that, Alan? Thank you. Councillor David Hawkins. Yes, this building of houses, we need houses for our grandchildren and their children, because we have not been kept keeping up with people's needs. But the biggest problem around in the new forest is we are made up of loads of villages. We need to be very mindful of how much or how many houses we've put in these various sites, because the developers want to double their mountain and cause total mayhem within the villages, the local roads, which are not roads, they're names. So we really need to be more mindful of these problems. We just can't go around and build houses because we need them. We have to be very mindful of where we build them so that we don't cause problems in the future. And of course, it's always the doctors, the dentists, which we can't find on national health dentists these days. There's lots of things that go along with these things. And the biggest problem I can see is two things, is sewerage. They can't keep up with what we've got now with leaking everywhere. I think the country needs to look at it in a proper way and not just dismiss it, Oh, we're catch up. That's not good enough. And the other one is if we're building new houses and a number of new houses, we need to put green energy at the start, not afterwards. When people who buy them have to fork out another 20 grand for green energy, that should be done straight away. And this is not there. Developers just laugh and smile at you. So we'll think about it. It's not happening and I think this is a need, we really need to have. Thank you. Tim, can I come back to you to answer some of those varied comments? Thank you, Chair. Just very briefly, that's all Kim's made. It's very valid points about the constraints which we're working in, the planning system in delivering growth. They are matters which we are aware of when we will be addressing through the new local plan. But in terms of the housing delivery action plan in front of you, the issues about constraints and so on are matters which we're going to pick up with the different providers and make sure that, for instance, in terms of connection to utilities, that we are working proactively with utility providers to try and find answers to issues which may be preventing development coming forward. So just to reassure Cabernet and the fellow members that that's a matter which has been picked up in the shorter term in terms of individual sites. But as part of the new local plan, we will be looking to address the infrastructure capacity of this planning area as we go forward. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor STEVE CLARK. Thank you, Tiana. Two point or two questions to make. Just to lead in, Councillor DAVIS pointed out that the numbers of affordable housing that we're achieving as a district council, and I agree that that is commendable in the current economic site, the circumstances that we found ourselves in immigration is. So we are doing very well. But leading onto the points I would like to make as far as this important is concerned. One of the issues we have is that we have allocations on affordable housing within the strategic sites. And that has actually led to us, although we haven't produced the affordable housing or taken on the affordable housing, other registered providers of the affordable housing have been able to obtain additional affordable housing for the district. And that's been a positive action of our current local plan, I think. So Bivid is one of the organisations which comes to mind in achieving additional affordable housing, which is a very good thing. So the first question is, with this pressure for us to deliver additional housing across the district and the figures are in the report, are our viability tests where we say we will deliver on some sites of up to 50% of affordable housing, are our viability tests likely to come under pressure? And is that likely to lead to additional reduction in affordable housing? And the second point is that with the increase in the annual numbers that are suggested in the main report, is that likely under our current local plan? And I know we're working hard to produce the new local plan, is that likely to lead to pressure or even challenges from developers to produce housing on sites which we currently have not got under offer. I think there's two serious concerns that we need to be aware of. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Tim. Again, would you like to just answer some of those concerns? I'll try chair. I think the council clerk makes some points, it might be helpful to have a discussion in more detail in due course, but in terms of viability considerations, we always have to be mindful that we are ensuring that sites are deliverable and developable and sometimes decisions need to be made on what the priorities are in enabling sites to come forward, which see the targets, which the local plan affordable housing figures are targets to achieve. In certain circumstances, that target may or may not be able to achieve on an individual site because of the particular circumstances which the developer faces. Just in that context, it's important to know that a big issue, which has arisen since the adoption of the local plan, is the issue of nutrient neutrality and the costs therein to a developer in delivering those sites. So it's a balance. As the planning committee will know, you have to weigh up the different material considerations in front of them in looking at how a scheme works and whether it's compliant with the policies of this council. And that's a challenge that sometimes affects even those who are working in this day and day out. In terms of the second point, forgive me, I just haven't quite, could council clerk just repeat the second question? Could developers bring forward sites we haven't currently considered because they see we're under pressure to deliver? Just very quickly on that one, this action plan has no bearing on the weights which this council would weigh up that planning application. A developer is perfectly entitled to put forward any planning application it chooses. The planning system, which is in place at the moment, puts a priority on the adopted local plan starting point. And as I've come before, ask that the local plan is given priority unless there are material considerations otherwise. We do have an issue of housing land supply, which in the future, the government are quite clear that if we don't deliver sufficient housing over a prolonged period of time, then there's what's called a presumption in favour of sustainable developments. And in certain circumstances, as members will be aware of a recent appeal, planning it flexes and decision-takers more generally give significant weights to addressing that housing challenge through those sites which are readily available and being promoted. Thank you. Chairman, just to thank Tim Gaima there because I know that's a fairly sensitive and difficult area to deal with. I think I gave that a very good answer. Thank you. Councillor ALLAN Alvey, please. Thank you. One point that is addressed in the report that I would like some clarification on is the question of the stalled sites. There are a number of sites where planning permission has been granted, but work has not proceeded. And I think, I don't know for a fact, but it appears to me that if that was done, then we would in fact have met our target housing delivery. I'd like to ask the officers what action they're actually taking to bring forward these stalled sites. I would just like to say that both of the previous questions could have been asked at planning committee or could have been emailed to relevant officers, but I will ask Tim, would you like to answer that? Yes. Thank you, Councillor ALLAN for your question. The action plan sets a range of measures that will be taken. One of those sets up actions in relation to the stalled sites and investigating the land ownership situation and investigating reasons why those sites haven't come forward. One of the first actions of this action plan would be to work through those stalled sites, establish what the land ownership situation is. It may be more complex than it might currently appear, and understand what the reasons are for why those sites have not yet come forward. Following on from that, we can explore what options could be available in terms of trying to encourage those sites to come forward, working, of course, with the owners of the sites and other key stakeholders. Thank you. So, with that in mind, I'd like to take the cabinet to the recommendations on page three. Do you agree the recommendations? I agree to agree. Thank you. Item five, Bournemouth Christchurch and Paul Regulation 19 draft local plan consultation. Derek, would you like to introduce a report, please? Certainly, Leader. I recommend supporting this response. It identifies the impact of the Bournemouth Christchurch and Paul plan on the NFDC district. We recognise and sympathise with the constraints affecting Bournemouth Christchurch and Paul, as many of them are the same as our own. We're asking them to include a new policy in their plan that requires consideration of an early review of their local plan should unmet housing needs be identified in a neighbouring authorities' local plan, including any that may be identified from our own district as we progress our own local plan review. So, you see, again, we're not alone, and that is clear from the Bournemouth Christchurch and Paul plan. So, I fully recommend this. Thank you, Councillor TIFF. I will go to the Officer Tim Geimer. If you'd like to add anything? Very briefly, Chair. Thank you. Just to draw members' attention to the fact that this is the final stage of the plan preparation for Bournemouth Christchurch and Paul before it goes to examination, and therefore, it's the last opportunity for us to make representations. Members will also note from the report that it's taken five years to prepare their local plan, which is not an inconsiderable period of time to take. There are significant challenges which the plan makers at Bournemouth Christchurch and Paul have had to grapple with in addressing how to grow over the next 15 to 20 years. And, of course, you'll be familiar with the geography, a similar geography to ourselves in many ways with a coastal, southern boundary which they have to take account of, but they also have significant environmental constraints and indeed the green belt which wraps around the urban area. At the same time, they have a significant housing need which the report draws your attention to, and particularly in regard to the housing need. We recognise that that is a challenge for Bournemouth Christchurch and Paul, in the first instance, to reconcile and to demonstrate to the planning instructor that their local plan is sounds. And so we as a fellow or the joining local authority at this stage just notes that they're rationale and their position. Elsewhere within the local plan, there are a number of areas which officers would recommend support for in terms of their approach to mitigating their impacts, particularly on areas within the New Forest, and also in recognising that there are significant highway and footpath and cycle routes which interrelate between the two areas. There is one matter which Councillor TIP has already highlighted that we would be seeking a modification to the local plan to require an early review of Bournemouth Christchurch and Paul's local plan if there's a wider on-met housing need which arises over the next few years. So that's one key area which we are highlighting to you as something which we are seeking at this stage. Other than that, officers would commend the report to you, thank you. Thank you Tim. Cabinet, do you have any other comments you wish to make? Chairman, just to recognise the challenges that Bournemouth facing so much like us in delivering ever-increasing needs for housing, and obviously then their delivery is important because any reduction in that does automatically come an impact on neighbouring authorities. So I'm pleased to see our comments going forward and support them, thank you. Thank you. Councillor MELPEN-Wade. Councillor MELPEN-Wade. Yeah, it's more of a suppression of that because the key issue if BCP are successful in their challenge to reduce the number of houses that they can put in their future local plan is they are potentially going to challenge it if they are successful in that. The item product of that is there's more pressure on the west of Forest for us. What can we do as an authority to try and mitigate? If that scenario takes place because we need those houses for new Forest people, by their location the people that can't, logically, that can't live in the East of the BCP area will go and live in the new Forest because it's just down the road. What can we do to mitigate that situation should that come through? Councillor interjecting. Tim, would you like to give an answer? I think it's an issue which, if you look across southern coastal areas of England pretty much the most local authorities have difficulty in meeting their housing needs when you're close to the authority. All I can reassure Councillor Waze at this stage is as we prepare our local plan that we will be looking continue to review where BCP are in their local plan and ensuring that as much as possible we are able to address housing needs in our area which we have control for while also reconciling the environmental and economic considerations which as plan makers we always have to do. I appreciate us putting up the answer which you're looking for in detail at this point. It's something which I look forward to discussing with you over the coming months as we prepare our plan. Thank you. Thank you. Can I then take cabinet to the recommendations on page 25? Do you agree? Right. Item 6, Ringwood Neighbourhood Development Plan Examiners Report. I would like to invite Councillor Gareth to speak. Thank you, Leader. Before I start talking about this, I'll just want to take a few seconds to congratulate Councillor Penhman on the civic event on Sunday. I thought that was an excellent event. I'm Gareth Dubuza, Ringwood Mayor. I've got the Chair of Planning next to me here. I've got the deputy mayor behind me and also an ex-counseler that you will recognise. I'll start by thanking NFDC for the support that their officers in particular Mark Williams and Andrew Herring have given to us to get the neighbourhood plan to the point that it is now at and to acknowledge the hard work that has been done by volunteers and Chris was one of them. The consultants, O'Neil Homer, the examiner, David Hager and the other LPA involved in the National Parks Authority. To quote David Ealesley from the National Park, he said something like he would give his right arm to get a report as supportive as this from the examiner. David also commented that the reason he believes we had such a positive response was due to the Ringwood Neighbourhood Plan's team, its ability to rapidly respond to the questions raised with clear evidence, thus indicating the robustness of the thinking that has gone into the plan. I, we would again like to thank the LPA's for their help in this regard. We hope that Cabinet will support the plan. Thank you. Can I miss anything? Thank you, Councillor interjecting. So, can I go to Andrew Herring, our Planning Policy Officer. If you'd like to make any comment first? Apologies. I'll just give a short introduction, Chair. My name is James Smith, the Acting Team Leader for the Policy Team. But Andrew is very much here for any detailed questions if we need them. So, yeah, happy to give a quick introduction, which is really as the report presents the final stages of the Ringwood Neighbourhood Plan and the process of its agreement and ultimately take it to referendum with the community of Ringwood. Neighbourhood Plans have very much community-led planning documents, which once adopted will become part of our statutory development plan for the termination of planning applications alongside our own local plan. Work on the Ringwood Neighbourhood Development Plan has been overseen, as we've heard, by a steering group of town counsellors and community representatives. They're also supported by specialist planning consultants together with Regulae Azon and further support of colleagues that we've heard Andrew and Mark and from our Council and also enough from Park Authority as well. Process began back in February 2021. There'd been a number of consultations and surveys that have taken place since then by the town council, which culminated in a formal consultation between August and September last year. Following this was an independent examination, which concluded that ultimately the modifications that again have been referred to met the basic conditions to proceed to referendum. So section 5 of the report sets out the next steps of how that we look to publicise and take this to referendum, which is something that is will be led by our Council's electoral team, which will take account of national legislation and the time scales and processes that are required to follow in order to make the requirements there. So yeah, I commend the report as recommended to Cabinet. Thank you. I'm sorry Derek, I missed you out there. Don't worry. Yes, well I'd like to add my congratulations to the members of Ringwood Town Council. All the hard work they've done, I mean this is a very comprehensive plan and they've done an excellent job to get to this stage. The people of Ringwood will now hopefully be able to vote to obtain the benefits of greater control over the way the area develops. As well, of course, as being able to keep an extra 10% of the community infrastructure, there'll be money from future developments. An excellent reason, I think, for the voters of Ringwood to support this excellent plan. And I hope that we will approve today that the plan now goes forward to a referendum. Thank you. Thank you. I cannot bypass Jeremy Helen. Thank you, Jeremy. A few years in the making, some incredibly hard work, not just by the Town Council, but a number of residents within Ringwood working to deliver a policy that hopefully will guide Ringwood into the future and give it a greater say on how its town develops. I would say that those involved in the productionist have worked incredibly hard to ensure that they've taken into consideration all eight groups when working with us, and obviously the hard to reach people. It has been quite a difficult task for them and they have performed wonderfully in delivering it. They've got to pass the examiner with some very minor changes, which are, I think, perfectly acceptable and reasonable to make to the plan as we go forward. They now go forward to their greatest challenge yet, and that is the people of Ringwood and anybody who lives in Ringwood knows that nobody there is shy about coming forward. I am hoping that this will go widely publicised and that we will get a good response. I know in the past the numbers of responses to the neighbourhood plans have not been in the high numbers. That usually, I think, takes it that people have broadly satisfied, but I would like to encourage, and I'll do a small advert as we are on YouTube or whatever, to say please members of people of Ringwood, when you see this come forward, do take part in it. It's your town, not ours, it's everybody's town, and the more people that response, the greater for their to see this will have. I'm delighted to see it coming forward. I thank everybody who's put in so much hard work and time into delivering it, and look forward to seeing what the public make of it. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go to another Ringwood member, Steve Rippenswein. Thank you, Chairman. After that, I think I'd probably just say ditto, but I certainly wanted to say that what we have in front of this here is the product of not just the town council who have been well led, but also the individuals who have given their time in actually providing support to the compilation of this plan, and that's really one of the reasons why I think it's going through this process fairly simply. The examiner's comments are mild, to say the least. I just congratulate those involved in getting it to this point, and as Councillor Herring has said, I hope that the community of Ringwood realise not only the hard work in this, but how much it will benefit them in the long term, and that they give it their due support in the referendum. Thank you. Thank you. Let's now go to Councillor Haywood. Thank you, Leader. I'd like to do at this point in time just to say that I have been the Chair of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group in Ringwood, and it's been my pleasure to be Chair of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group. One of the benefits of being in that kind of role is that you get to be a little bit of a public face as the plan, but also you get to stand on the shoulders of some very, very well-knowledge, hard-working people who have put a lot of effort into this plan, and there's a number of people sat in this room who have put a lot of effort into this plan. Some town Councillors, some former district Councillors, and former town Councillors, some just people who are interested in the development of our town, and I really, really want to thank all of them for their input. I think it's excellent. I think the points have already been made here that the examiners report shows, and the mildness of it, thank you, Councillor Rippenswell, for that word, the mildness of the examiner's report shows how thorough that work was, how hard it is, and how much expertise has been put in. Expertise, in some cases, has been built up through the plan because that's part of the nature of voluntary work, is you're learning on the job. So thank you to everybody for that. I think it's an excellent plan. I echo Councillor Herron's point is this is in the hand of the people of Ringwood now. This will be your choice when this goes to poll. We'd love you to support it, but ultimately it's a democratic vote. So yeah, thank you and to Cabinet, please support this plan. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Dowd. Thank you, Chair. Firstly, well done, all those people involved in it, as the first parish council to have a neighbourhood plan, we know how important they are and how useful they are once they're in place. So well done for that. I'm not going to comment on the examiner report, although there are a couple of things I wasn't particularly impressed with, including the word salad in PM2, but that's part of that time to look at that. There's one bit I would like to raise, though, which is I think going to be important for those areas that are still to get their neighbourhood plans in place. Can we look to, when we do our new local plan, a heritage list between the NPA and this authority to help those town and parish councils list their heritage assets, because clearly the lack of a combined list makes that job very difficult for them. This is at 4.36 in the examiner report and affected page 31 of the plan there. So that's my question. Thank you. Tim, can you give Councillor Dowd a reassurance? Because no doubt we will do this. Yes, thank you, Chair. The heritage list is just for those who aren't familiar with the terminology are the opportunity for a local planning authority to identify those heritage assets, which don't quite qualify as a listed building nationally, but locally recognised as a building or a feature of local importance, which this Council identifies as being of merit and worth giving some weight to in any future decision. It's certainly something which we can take forward and look at through the local plan or equivalent process, so happy to note that. Thank you. So can I take, oh, oh, Councillor Malcolm White. Thank you, Alita. Well, as Councillor Dowd said, hydrogen dividend was the first community to put a labour plan. So we know our hire that you must have worked to do that and the effort that was put into it by very many people. So I wish a lot of our congratulations and hope the people that we would embrace it, and it is a really good tool to help you map plan for your community for the future. Thank you. Well done. It's wonderful for a change to hear such good news on a local neighbourhood plan. It's wonderful. So, Cabinet, can I take you to the recommendations on page 33? Do you all agree? Agree to do. Right. People of Ringwood, it is now up to you to take possession of this plan and please respond to the consultation. Thank you, everyone. I now declare this meeting closed. Thank you. [Music]