Purpose

Local planning authorities have
a statutory “duty to cooperate” with other relevant
bodies in order to encourage and enable strategic
planning.
 
In preparing their draft Local
Plan, Sheffield City Council have identified numerous strategic and
cross boundary matters on which agreement is sought with Rotherham
and a number of other Councils.
 
As a result, Sheffield City
Council have prepared Statement of Common Ground to support
submission of its draft Local Plan for examination on:

-      
Sheffield City Council draft Local Plan

-      
Local authority obligations under the Duty to
Co-operate
 
There are some implications for
Rotherham arising from the Statement which will be detailed in the
report.
 
Being a signatory to the
Statement will benefit Rotherham in demonstrating how the Council
has cooperated on strategic issues and identifies outstanding areas
of disagreement.
 
The recommendation is that
delegation is given to the Assistant Director for Planning,
Regeneration and Transport to be a signatory on behalf of the
Council to the Sheffield City Council draft Local Plan Statement of
Common Ground.
 

Decision

RECORD OF OFFICER EXECUTIVE
DECISION
  

Date of
Decision:

4th March
2024

Decision
Maker:
(Including Job
Title)

Simon Moss
Assistant Director –
Planning, Regeneration and Transport

Specific
Delegation:
(If
any)

Assistant Director – Planning, Regeneration
and Transport Head of Planning and Building Control / Planning
Policy Manager

 

To agree any statements of common ground,
memorandums of understanding or other formal statements regarding
the Rotherham local plan or other local planning authorities’
local plans. Agreements to be made in consultation with the
relevant Cabinet Member.

 

Brief Description
of Decision:

That the Council be a signatory
to the Sheffield Plan – Joint Statement of Common
Ground.
 

Reasons for the
Decision:
 
 

In preparing their Local Plan,
Sheffield City Council has identified a number of strategic and
cross boundary issues on which agreement is sought. Rotherham
officers have input to the draft Statement at various stages and
are content with the wording. The majority of these agreements have
no significant implications for Rotherham. However, the Council has
set out a remaining area of disagreement in the Statement
concerning the logistics study supporting Sheffield’s Plan
and potential pressure on land supply within Rotherham for larger
B8 uses. It is anticipated that the inspector examining
Sheffield’s plan in due course will consider areas of
disagreement in more detail as part of the examination.
 

Details of
alternative options considered and rejected:
 

An alternative
option is that the Council does not sign the Joint Statement of
Common Ground. This may be detrimental to ongoing co-operation with
Sheffield City Council, including the ability for the Council to
negotiate and prepare its own Statement of Common Ground to support
the partial update of the Core Strategy. Being a signatory to the
Statement would be of significant benefit to the Council in
demonstrating to the planning inspector an active engagement in
strategic planning across the city region. Meeting the duty to
cooperate is a statutory requirement, if the inspector deems it has
not been met a local plan examination cannot continue. The duty
cannot be met retrospectively. It is therefore advisable that the
Council does all it can to meet the duty in the preliminary stages
of the Local Plan Core Strategy partial update prior to submitting
the plan for examination.
 

Conflicts of
interest declared by any Executive Member consulted by the decision
maker which relates to the decision:

None

Dispensations
Granted:
(If
any)

None

Reports or parts
of reports considered

Delegated Decision Report:
Sheffield Plan – Joint Statement of Common Ground

 
I certify that
this is a true record of the executive decision in relation
to the Sheffield
Plan – Joint Statement of Common Ground.
 
 
 
Signed by the
Decision
Maker                                    
Dated: 4th March, 2024
Name: Simon Moss
Job Title: Assistant Director, Planning, Regeneration
& Transport