Transcript

Good evening. I'm Councillor Mark Munday, Chair of the Communities, Housing and Environment Cabinet Advisory Board. Welcome to this evening's meeting on Tuesday, the 4th of June, 2024. Before we start the meeting, there are a number of procedural issues we will go through for which I'm very grateful for your attention. I will now pass over to the Clerk, Emma Moran. Thank you, Chair. Good evening, everybody. In the event of the fire alarm ringing continuously, you must immediately evacuate the building at walking pace. Officers will direct you via the most direct available route and no one is to use the lift. We will make our way to the fire assembly point by the entrance to the Town Hall Yard car park on Monson Way and once outside, a check will be made to ensure everyone has safely left and no one is to re-enter the building until advised that it is safe to do so. This is a public meeting and proceedings are being webcast live online. A recording will also be available for playback on the Council's website shortly afterwards. Can I remind everyone to use the microphones when speaking? The red light indicates the microphone is on and any comments that are not recorded for the webcast will not be included in the minutes of the meeting. It is very important that the outcomes of the meeting are clear. At the end of each substantive item, the Chair will ask whether the matter is agreed. In the absence of a clear majority or if the Chair decides a full vote is desirable, a vote will be taken by a show of hands. Members should raise their hands to indicate their vote and keep their hands up until the count has been announced. Members requesting a recorded vote must do so before the vote is taken. Thank you, Chair. For the benefit of the recording, we are going to take a roll call. The Clerk will call your name and if present, please introduce yourself. Thank you, Chair. Expected Members here this evening. Expected Officers here this evening. Lee Collier. Present. Ellen Gilbert. Present. David Sculley. Present. And for the benefit of the recording, we have Councillor Matlow, Cabinet Member for Planning, here with us this evening. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. The members of the Committee, even maybe some of the new ones, all should be familiar with the process, but for the benefit of any members of the public who may be watching, I would like to explain a couple of things. The Committee members have had their agendas for over a week and have had the opportunity to ask any factual questions to the Officers ahead of the meeting. When we come to the substantive items on the agenda this evening, members or members of the public who have registered to speak will be asked to read their statements. They will be given a maximum of three minutes each. The relevant Officer will then set out their report. We will then move to member discussion. At the end of the discussion, I will remind members without prejudice to any other comments that may have been raised. The Committee is asked to come to one of the three positions. A, the recommendations to Cabinet are supported by the Committee. B, that the recommendations to Cabinet would be supported, subject to a particular issue being addressed. Or C, that the recommendations to Cabinet are not supported, and if this is the case, the reasons should be stated. Mrs Moran, do we have any apologies for our absence? Yes, Chair, we have had apologies from Councillors Ellis and the Pitts this evening. Thank you. Members, declarations of interest, Point 2. Members of the Committee should state at this point if they have any declarations of interest that relate to any item on this evening's agenda. Do we have any members to make any such declarations? I see none. Okay, Point 3. Note of vacation or visiting persons wishing to speak. At this time, we note whether any members of the public or visiting members of the Council have registered to speak. Do we have any such persons? We have no registered speakers this evening, Chair. Item 4, minutes of the meeting dated 22 January, the planning and transportation CAB. We now move to agenda item to approve the minutes of the previous CAB. Are there any amendments to these minutes? No. I see none. Are we agreed? We are agreed. Motion carried. Thank you. Item 5, the minutes of the CAB for the Economic Communities or Communities and Economic Development on 7 March. Do we have any amendments for these minutes? Are we agreed? We are agreed. Thank you. Moving swiftly on to item 6, the forward plan as at 22 May 2024. This is to consider the plan. Do members have any comments to make at this time? No. Are we agreed to note the forward plan? Agreed. Thank you. Item 7 is the high-wheeled AONB management plan for 2024 to 2029. Councillor would like to give a brief introduction and then followed by the officer David Sculley who will present his report. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. The high-wheeled AONB management plan is required to be reviewed and updated every five years. The AONB management plan you have before you this evening is a result of over a year's work by officers from this and 14 other authorities, plus other stakeholders. It has been written and reviewed and consulted upon by groups at Cambridge Wells and others, and it was approved by the Joint Advisory Committee of the high-wheeled. The approval that it has been approved by other authorities involved and the Joint Advisory Committee recommends that you approve it this evening. David is going to give you some detail. Good evening, Councillors, and thank you for that introduction. Firstly, just a correction to the agenda. You'll see that item 7, high-wheeled AONB management plan, has an asterisk next to it. This normally means it's going to full Council. As you'll see from the actual report itself, it's not going to full Council. It's a cabinet decision. And as Councillor Lowe has mentioned, the AONB management plan comes before the Council every five years, and this is the fifth edition of this plan and has been subject to various consultations. You'll see that there are five recommendations in the report covering three issues, the management plan itself, secondly the service level agreement and future funding, and finally the high-wheeled national landscapes dark skies planning advice notice. The first thing to draw to your attention is the change in name. So AONBs, and you'll see in paragraph 1.3 of the report, the high-wheeled AONB is now referred to as the high-wheeled national landscape, and that's a national change. All AONBs are now national landscapes. And what used to be called the high-wheeled AONB unit, i.e. the officers who work on this plan and other work on behalf of the 15 local authorities which the high-wheeled covers used to be called the high-wheeled AONB unit are now called the high-wheeled national landscape partnership. So you say that the first two recommendations are in relation to the management plan, the second two recommendations are in relation to the service level agreement and funding, and the fifth recommendation is in relation to the dark skies guidance. We did make, so we have an officer steering group which inputs into development management plan and an officer input as well, and also there was a formal consultation on behalf of this council which was submitted by the portfolio holder on the 31st of October 2023. And the JAC, which is the elected members, representatives of the 15 local authorities, have considered the various iterations of the plan and made a recommendation that this council adopt the new management plan so that it may guide development and other activities within the high-wheeled national landscape for the next five years, being a material planning consideration in planning decisions. So that's the first item on the agenda and you'll see the management plan is a slightly new format compared to the old management plan if you're familiar with it, and it contains some new sections and additions to reflect updated guidance emerging from natural England at the moment and also aligned with our aspirations in our local plan, particularly about climate change and so on. The second item on the agenda is the service level agreement and future funding. The service level agreement sets out the roles and responsibilities of each of the partners to the partnership, so that's the 15 different local authorities in natural England, and it also includes funding. Funding for the ANOB was last agreed by cabinet alongside the adoption of the management plan in February 2014, that's 10 years ago, and has stood still ever since. The high-wheeled national landscape partnership and JAC requested additional funding and annual index linking of any agreed amount in June 2022, and that's been a period of pressure building up on the finances of the unit, which deliver an extraordinary amount of work across our area in relation to landscape restoration and working with farmers, as well as producing our management plan on our behalf. So following that sort of increase in pressure and the opportunity to revisit the SLA, which is done every five years in line with the management plan, seriously discussions were held between the different authorities about future funding, and virtually all authorities agreed to the increase. There's some slight nuances between some of the authorities, particularly those which have a very small amount of the ANOB. We have a very large amount, but those authorities have very small amounts, and so the proposal before you includes an increase in funding for the period of the SLA, as always subject to budget settlement, but it's an in-principle agreement that we will increase the funding, and for the period the SLA will be index linked, and that's set out in the report. Importantly, the SLA also now includes a new clause about dispute resolution, and this is because of an incident that occurred over the last few years in relation to both ourselves and other authorities, where the unit made complaints without discussing it with the officers and lead members of the council. We wanted to avoid that because we don't mind objections and interest and very strong opinions, but it's important we work together. It is a partnership, and so that dispute resolution will mean that there's a proper discussion about any issues or differences of opinion between the authority and the officers of the unit, so we're pleased to see that, and so again that's recommended to the members for approval. The third item is the High World National Landscape Dark Skies Planning Advice Note, and this is a technical piece of work. There are other technical guidance produced by the High World Unit or National Landscape Partnership. For instance, one we use quite a lot is the High World Housing Design Guide, and that gets used a lot, and this new guidance is about artificial lighting. Now, we have an existing policy on outdoor lighting and dark skies, but our new plan has a much stronger, more detailed policy, and this technical guidance is something we may have embarked on ourselves as part of what's called a supplementary planning document, but luckily the High World has been developing this issue of dark skies. It's in the new management plan, and it produces technical guidance which underpins our new policy so that it's easier to have discussions about exactly what's required. So again, the recommendation there is that we formally take that on board and any subsequent amendments to it for the purpose of development management, and just by bringing it forward before you and seeking your endorsement, it just gives it that little extra weight in our decision-making and discussions with developers. I appreciate to some of you this is a new area of work, but this management plan, say, comes forward every five years. It goes through a very strong consultation process. Elected members of the authorities have that role in that decision-making as well as officers, and so it's been refined and honed, and that's why it's come to you as a recommendation. And subject to it being approved by cabinet, it then gets submitted on behalf of this local authority and all 15 local authorities to the Secretary of State, which is a statutory requirement. So as I appreciate, some of you is quite new, so if you do have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them either here now or if you wanted to find out more about the NAB unit and the work it does and some of these technical issues, you can do so at another time that's convenient to you. Many thanks for your report. Do we have any questions? Councillor Warren. Thank you, Chairman. David, as you know, I'm the Council's representative on the JAC, so for the past couple of years I've been going to their meetings and seen the, you know, been part of those discussions about all these areas, the management plan and the service level agreement. And at the last meeting in, at the end of March, I think there were a couple of things, sort of big, well there were several sort of big takeaways that I got. First of all, that the management plan is produced for our benefit, so I think it might be helpful to understand the kind of purpose of the management plan, you know, whether it's just there as a guide for planning or whether it's actually an informative document that we should be considering as a public body in other areas of our work. The other thing that I took away was the new landscapes duty under the levelling up and regeneration act that went through at the end of last year, in respect of a kind of strengthened duty towards the national landscapes. And the wording, I think, is to seek to further the purposes of, rather than as before it was have regard to, and we were kind of encouraged to go, well this is an active duty rather than a passive one, so that's a kind of significant change about how we as public bodies, what our duty is towards the national landscapes in the undertaking of our, you know, our statutory duties. So whether that's planning, whether that's, you know, addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency or promotion of the national landscapes through our website, things like that. So I'm just wondering if some of those things could be a little bit more front and centre in the report that goes to cabinet and whether we could consider an additional recommendation that actually says, actually we as a council need to be taking action in these areas. I don't know if you could, sorry that's quite a long question, but yeah. Firstly the first point, the management plan has to be produced by the local planning authority, but it is for all, and most public bodies will have the same statutory duty in terms of the considerations towards Annaby and their decision making. And in terms of its application to the council, it is for the whole council, this is not just a planning document to sit on the shelf, it is something that we should be actively looking at. But a lot of it aligns with our actions in any case and so on. So the new SLA specifically refers to the new act in terms of the role of the A&B unit or the national landscape partnerships team, is to advise local authorities and other public bodies, because the plan is written for other public bodies as well as for residents as well, on the statutory duty. The statutory duty is set out in the management plan on page 14, and there it specifically references the amendment in the Leavening, Up and Regeneration Act and sets out what that duty is. In exercising or forming any functions in relation to or so as to affect land in an area of outstanding natural beauty in England, a relevant authority other than the Welsh authority must seek to further the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the areas of outstanding natural beauty. So there is a slight shift in that, because previously the statutory duty was to have regard to the purposes and now it says it is more of an active duty. I think Thomas Wellsborough Council is an active authority in this area, so we undertake a lot of work jointly with the National Landscapes Partnership. We have done a lot of projects with them jointly and we've just been working with them on access funding, particularly around we've got some access funding from them with Sherwood, and doing quite a lot of work there. And we also do a significant amount of work with the Kent High Wall Partnership, who are specifically tasked with delivering conservation work that aligns with the management plan. And you'll have seen in planning reports as well how developers are pushed to consider how their development aligns with the objectives of the management plan as well. There is some guidance due from, I think it's going to come from Defra probably, on that new duty. We haven't seen it yet, so I'm not expecting it to be anything greatly different. I think it's just about setting out and being a bit more proactive and demonstrating that in your actions. So we will also, with the local plan, have to propose some modifications to that, should it go forward, to recognise firstly the change in names, but more importantly we'll have to reflect the new duty in the plan as well. So the duty will appear in the plan as how it's set out. We can't change the management plan, because that's been approved by all 15 local authorities in the JAC to make it any more front and centre. I think it's in terms of making sure the authority as a whole takes note of it. That might be a post-meeting thing that we need to circulate or do a presentation, and the unit have offered some training for members, and we said we've postponed that training until the post-elections, and it would be a good opportunity to include all members in that kind of presentation, and to explain to them what actions the council should be taking, as well as potentially senior officers as well. I think that's probably the best way to get across the new duty, and I would hope that we might even have the new guidance by then. We carry out a training exercise because some members are not familiar with the plan, but also to highlight it's a new plan, the new sections and the new duty. Would that be appropriate? Well I think that would be great. I don't know whether that's something we can put as an extra recommendation. That would be lovely. That training takes place for all councillors? Sorry, and that training takes place in terms of the new plan and the new duty? Yes. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Yes, I've been really impressed by the report. Thank you. I think it was really interesting reading, and I can tell a huge amount of work's gone into it, and obviously really important vital topics, because it's not just aesthetically that we need to protect nature and the environment, but it's vital to taking action on climate change and biodiversity protection. I suppose my questions, following on from what Nancy was saying, there's lots of really important recommendations and work in there to be done. How it actually happens is one thing I'm wondering about, who actually manages say the woodland and that sort of thing, but also I was just thinking, although this falls under the planning portfolio, it's also really relevant to the sustainability team, and they have a communications plan as well, which can really help spread the word about and educate people, like residents and councillors, I should imagine. So would you be sharing this report with the sustainability manager, their team? Thank you. Yes, over the last few weeks I've been talking to Henry Saunders about the natural environment section of the climate strategy, and the ANAB management plan is specifically mentioned in there, and we've also suggested that we have some further discussions, particularly with the Kent High World Partnership, and deliver on some of those objectives, and the sustainability team, and we may be doing some work together as well. So that's important, but I think also it's important to carry out this further training to disseminate that work. In regard to who monitors and who manages things, the National Landscape Partnership team don't own any land, they work with existing authorities and existing landowners, that includes local authorities like ourselves, as I say we've been working on a number of projects, but also with farmers and private landowners as well, developing for instance farm clusters to look at more landscape scale work, and sharing experience on things like regenerative agriculture, but also we've jointly carried out a number of projects with them, for instance one on nature of woodland, one on historic parks and gardens, and another one as well I can't think of at the moment, but you know every so often there'll be an initiative and funding available and we'll work with them to deliver on that across a wide area that involves our own land holding and those of private individuals. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Sorry it's me again, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the new dark skies work that's been going on, and the recommendations there, and obviously you acknowledge that to update the local plan, but I was just wondering whether there's more that we can do as a council, not just through planning, but there's certainly several flood lit sports pitches either attached to or not schools in the borough that cause quite a lot of light pollution, and I'm wondering what we can do as a council to sort of work to minimise that as much as possible? Yes, planning obviously can only go so far, and we could have quite a lot of control over installation of external lighting, but we also have to recognise the various needs either in terms of security, business, and particularly sports education, because if teams don't have flood lit pitches or schools and don't have flood lit pitches they can't compete in certain competitions, so what we do do with those schemes is work very hard to minimise the light spill and also often put on conditions about timings and switch offs so that they're not on all the time and only when being used etc etc so that spill, although it's quite dramatic when it's on, they should be off most of the time. Beyond that, this is a planning report and I can't say what other departments might do, but there is work that could be done potentially and that might be something to put into the environment strategy or the climate change strategy as well about looking at existing installations and talking to landowners about retrospective changes. It might also apply to the council's own land holdings I might say, such as car parks and things as well, so there's things that council can do as well as we can talk to landowners. Okay thank you, that's quite important because it's something that comes up quite a lot with residents, they get upset about it. Okay thank you. Any other questions? Okay so if we then move on to the recommendations, are we okay taking all three points in one go or do we do one at a time? Can you take them as one? Yep, so is everyone happy that we vote on each of these three points as one? Yep. Okay, so if I read the room correctly I think we want to make a we're going to go for option B with a make a recommendation for a modification for us to adopt the plan which is to include the training in there and also with dark skies is to sort of recommend that cabinet look to shall we say sort of speed up the improvement of our flood lights to the new standard. So I think the discussion there was about a recommendation to look at what the council can do in terms of existing light installations. Yeah it's along with the training. Yep so with those two amendments are we agree to approve the report? Thank you. Okay motion carried. So we now move on to item eight the capital neighbourhood development plan pre-referendum version. Yep so our Councillor Lowe will again will give an introduction and then Ellen Gilbert the planning policy manager will give her report. Thank you. The capital neighbourhood development plan has been written on and consulted upon locally in the community by elected representatives and residents and here in this building by officers. It has been looked at by an independent examiner now who has proposed some modifications. He has recommended the plan go to the referendum subject to those modifications being made and Ellen can fill you in with more details. Thank you Councillor Lowe and thank you chairman and good evening members. So the capital neighbourhood development plan report is item eight on the agenda and starts on page 170 of the cabinet papers. So the report sets out the progress made on the production of the capital neighbourhood plan which has been in production since 2020 when TWBC approved a designated neighbourhood area which essentially corresponds to the parish of of capel and it's it's capel parish council who have progressed the neighbourhood development plan. So the report sets out the background to the neighbourhood plan and the weight to be given to the policies within it as it progresses through its production and essentially it will culminate with it being made by the the borough council and when neighbourhood plans are made it's it's similar to how we adopt you know our local plan due course but the terminology is made and then once made it becomes part of the statutory development plan for the area to which it relates which in this instance will be capel parish. So the report sets out section two the details of the previous stages of the preparation of the plan including the previous stages of public consultation and explains that the neighbourhood plan has been examined by the independent examiner Mr Andrew Ashcroft and in this instance there were not any hearing sessions needed so that that's typical for for neighbourhood planning slightly different from a local plan and Mr Ashcroft in in his final report that is attached at appendix A of the papers sets out that having examined the plan subject to modifications he's satisfied that the the basic conditions are met and the basic conditions in in neighbour planning just to to give a bit of information on that essentially is a bit like when we prepare our local plan the inspector considers whether or not we meet the tests of soundness the equivalent for neighbourhood plan are the basic conditions which are set out at paragraph 2.9 of the report so as I say the the independent examiner has recommended modifications these are set out in the summary table attached at appendix B to the papers and at paragraph 2.14 of the report through to 2.18 some of the key modifications are picked out so there are a couple of policies there which the examiner has recommended are deleted in their entirety and the key ones being policy c1 which relates to promoting sustainable development in the parish and really that's partly reflective of the it was taking a strategic approach to the emerging local plan and the independent examiner felt that it it wasn't necessary to have that policy in the MDP but it is entirely it with the parish to determine upon adoption of the local plan it's it's in their right if they wish to to review the neighbour plan in due course and actually before the examiner sent through his report he did actually hold a meeting with myself and the parish to go through some of the modifications he was going to recommend to to explain his thinking his thoughts on those and to seek confirmation of you know an agreement of the modifications ahead of his report being published now there is as well as the two policies he's recommending are deleted there are a few policies where he has recommended deleting certain elements of those and they're set out at paragraph 2.15 and just to give you an example there is policy c11 in the neighbour plan which is relates to locally significant views and one of those significant views was number six which um would have affected the strategic allocation at paddock wood and land at east capel which we have in our emerging local plan and the examiner was of the view that it would be in direct conflict with the emerging local plan so he recommended that view six be deleted from that policy and then there are other policies which the examiner has recommended are recast to to give give clarity for example to to what they're trying to seek and really there aren't many modifications examiner has proposed um experience has shown that with all the the emerging naper plans there are generally always modifications to to them and that's too because the examiners are very robust in making sure that the naper plans do meet the basic conditions required by the legislation the examiner has also had regard to the strategic policies of the development plan for tunbridge wells which are set out at paragraph 2.19 so it basically comprises the safe policies of the 2006 local plan the tunbridge wells core strategy document from 2010 the site allocations local plan from 2016 and the kent minerals and waste local plan which also forms part of the development plan and then he has also had regard to the emerging local plan and the reason for that is set out at paragraph 220 and 221 they you know this capel and paddock wood naper plan they've obviously um had quite a link with the emerging local plan so they have had regard and that regard has been given to that and the modifications proposed have been um discussed with the the parish council and the parish council have agreed to carry out the suggested modifications in full and actually they've been very good in amending the neighbor plan already so we now have a copy of the the amended neighbor plan which is at appendix c of the papers which is essentially what is now termed the the referendum neighborhood plan so it's a neighborhood plan that incorporates all the modifications needed to make sure it complies with all the basic conditions and then having carried out those modifications the the recommendation is that the neighbor plan now proceeds to referendum and the referendum is scheduled to take place on the 5th of september and essentially if it's successful at referendum the neighborhood plan would carry full weight from that moment and then within eight weeks of the referendum we as a borough council are then required to to make the um make the neighbor plan and there's a very narrow set of circumstances which um which mean that you know we could decide not to do that but um essentially the legislation you know requires us to to to make it within that eight week period so the recommendations are set out on page one of the the reports are 170 of your report pack and to read those out recommendation one is that the the examiner's report at appendix one be noticed noted and published recommendation two is that the submission neighbor plan cable neighborhood plan be modified in part as set out with the record with the modifications at appendix b which as i say with the parish has been very quick in managing to incorporate those already recommendation three that the cabinet decides to progress the cable neighbor plan as set out at appendix c to referendum and then agrees the publication of the decision statement which is the final appendix to the reports appendix d so where's an authority required to basically publish the the action we're taking in response to the examiner's report and then finally recommendation four is that if the cabinet recommends in the event that it recommends the um the recommendation and the referendum result is a positive one which is essentially more than 50 percent of the the people um voting vote in favor of the plan so essentially they would go to a polling station on the 5th of September and vote yes or no for the neighborhood plan to be used for the purposes of planning decision making so providing that is a positive result the um cable neighbor plan would then be um subsequently considered at the next um full council which we at this moment in time we're thinking would be the october meeting um at which we would seek to make the neighborhood development plan thank you many thanks for your report do we have any questions cast farewell it's more of a statement really than a question uh obviously now we've had several uh parish ndps come through this this advisory board and and full cabinet and then referendum and then uh to full council and on the back of that i think initially we should say well done to capel uh in joining that that list on on the borough now to getting forgetting to this stage uh why would we not support it especially with the reassuring news that the capel parish council have fully taken on board the recommendations of of the independent examiner i see it really as a procedural issue that it comes through the the borough council and to full council and i i would certainly endorse fully recommending uh through this committee that uh the cabinet recommend that it goes forward to referendum counselor akeef thanks mark um i just wanted to ask you a bit more about one of the recommendations if that's all right i think it's policy c10 which is about local green spaces um and the examiner recommended not including some allotments and he said that's because they're not in very attractive condition but i was just a bit curious about that because elsewhere in the borough i know that the allotments are really beloved and have very long waiting lists so was there any concern when you went through the recommendations with the parish council about not including the allotments and does it does it threaten them for the future in any way if they're not included thank you no i i don't believe it would threaten them essentially when you designate local green spaces there is national um that there is national policy set out in the national planning policy framework and in designating local green spaces there's certain criteria that you have to meet in order to designate those so the independent examiner when examining the the proposed local green spaces in the napred plan would have had regard to the national policy and the the ones that he's proposing are not included he would have essentially assessed those and determined that he didn't feel it it met the the the criteria necessary in order to designate them okay there weren't any any concerns raised when you went through with the parish council about that so that that that's okay the the parish council have not raised raised that with us but the the other thing of course is that as as we've already said once the local plan is adopted they will get an opportunity to to review the neighborhood plan and if they wanted to you know it's it's up to them if they choose to reassess sites and to actually reconsider you know the the evidence behind that so a bit like our local plan we have to have an evidence base robust evidence base which justifies everything we have in the local plan the the neighborhood plans are also accompanied by evidence-based documents so it would be open to the parish to reconsider that in the future and to potentially you know try again if you like to allocate them through a review of the neighborhood plan thank you thank you chairman um just to concur with council affair whether it's an absolutely extraordinary uh document it's really thorough and um absolutely would commend this to the cabinet and the council um and well done the people of capel it's a really good plan thank you any other questions i've got one myself i'm a pallet wood town councilor i think i read one of the comments from one of the prospective developers which is on the west capel east yeah west cape east capel west paddock wood site was that because it's the other side of the 8228 the developer seemed to be saying should perhaps the paddock wood neighborhood plan design specs take priority over the capel ones is there a view there as to whether that's the developer's got an option for that parcel to go for paddock wood versus cayton essentially the way i see the the strategic allocation at paddock wood and east capel working because obviously you've got is essentially the the allocation in the local plan straddles both parishes so actually both napa plans um would be applicable when it comes to assessing the planning applications so i you know the the the paddock wood would not sort of outweigh the capel one because obviously the land at east capel falls within capel parish so in essence it's the capel neighbor plan that would apply to that part of the allocation if you like and the the the paddock wood neighbor development plan would apply to the the remainder of the allocation obviously you'll you'll be aware that we are um there's there's extensive master planning work going on so to to inform how that how that strategic allocation will come forward and be delivered and as officers we would seek to ensure that there is that sort of synergy and conformity across both neighbor plans as the site progresses in the future um the independent examiner he in examining the plan does also have um in the same way that our local plan examiner has inspector has all the details the independent examiner for the napa plan does get given all the comments received to the public consultations so he's fully aware of all those comments that that would have been received in making his recommendation okay thank you yeah i i sorry about me okay i i just like to say uh agree with what council fair would have said um southbridge high rooms we're just doing our neighborhood development plan at the moment and wow there is so much work to it i mean i'm one of the young people going to visit scouts and the guides and and the all the youth groups and things to find out what they they want to see and so much has to be created and there's so many different areas i mean we have so much green space in southfield hybrid which belongs to south the common so it's not designated i am right now aren't they if it belongs to south the common it's part of the south of town council we wouldn't just get because we'd already be looking after it anyway so we wouldn't want to save it because we save it anyway well it's essentially it's up for the up to the neighbor plan group to to determine what what they would want to do with that um and i mean you're right and and as members have said this evening you know there is a huge amount of work that goes into the production of a neighbor plan and you know at paragraph 3.7 of the report you know we set out that the the examiner has recognized that it's a really good example very good example of a neighbor plan and i think this is the 10th now in in the borough and then as you say we've got southborough preparing one at the moment as as well as sandhurst so i think um when i attend the sort of planning policy officer groups for kent i think we've now got more than than any other borough in the county so you know it's a real achievement for for the parishes and um you know to be supported thank you castle palmer first thanks um yes walker's actually had the first neighborhood plan for the council they're actually reviewing that at the moment um but yes congratulations to cable the answer to councilor keith's question about 20 years ago a planning application came before eastern area planning because we had two separate planning committees um to actually build houses on those allotments at cable it was turned down then and as far as i'm aware it's never come back so hopefully it won't castle hill do you have a follow-up no i was just going to say yeah it does take an awful lot of work and and it's brilliant there's so many parishes and times that i've done this because you learn so much you know when you start thinking oh yeah oh yeah and there's that there oh what's that that you you know you do learn so much about where you live that you know it's quite amazing really and it's just going through the whole process of it it you know brings the community together it's just you know even if you don't necessarily achieve what you set out what you thought you were going to set out in terms of planning policy or whatever um it's it's an amazing process for communities to engage in um yeah so thoroughly recommend thank you okay any more questions before we move to recommendations no okay so if we move to recommendations then i think we're all agreed that option one is that we or say a that we endorse the advisory board option 4.1 as set out on page 179 of the report are we agreed agreed thank you um item nine urgent business there's no urgent business at this time although one thing i would like to raise is that we do have the option of doing these now online by teams so just think about that as to whether yes as to whether we might want to do it all in person yeah quite like yeah yeah quite like to come together like to see each other person sorry sorry you're saying the option to hold this committee online or really because usually because we have to make a decision we haven't been able to hold them online in the past this committee is a um it's an advisory board so it's not a decision-making committee so um the first meeting of the municipal year has to be held in person but you can decide from going forward to have a teams meeting teams is good for me okay also just think about it and just drop me an email and we'll know doesn't mean everyone needs to be online we can do every other or no whatever people think okay so item 10 the date of the next meeting was the 9th of july 2024 and just here otherwise that'll be in the town hall uh really thanks the meeting's closed thank you