Decision

Summary of Decision

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development has agreed:

       i.          To re-designate the Mayfair Neighbourhood Forum for a further period of five years; and

     ii.          To authorise the Executive Director of Innovation and Change to formally publish a designation notice.

Reasons for Decision 

Section 61F(7) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, as inserted into that Act by Schedule 9 of the Localism Act 2011, sets out the conditions that a Neighbourhood Forum must meet, as well as the considerations that a local planning authority must take into account when determining an application for the designation of a Neighbourhood Forum. These legislative aspects are set out in greater detail in Section 6 of this report.

This legislation states that a local planning authority may designate an organisation or body as a Neighbourhood Forum if the authority is satisfied that a number of conditions have been met. The existing Mayfair Neighbourhood Forum (the Forum) meets all of these conditions, and there has been no change in this since the original designation.

The City Council is also required to have regard to whether membership is drawn from different places in the applicable Neighbourhood Area and from different sections of the community in that area. The application submitted by the Forum indicates their membership consists of 630 members, comprised of a mixture of residents, businesses, organisations, land owners and community associations. It is therefore considered that the Forum satisfies this requirement in that it represents the interests of a diverse and representative group drawn from the designated Neighbourhood Area.

The City Council is also required to assess whether the purpose of the Neighbourhood Forum reflects, in general terms, the character of the area. The submitted application for re-designation states that the Forum was established to promote and improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of Mayfair through the production of a Neighbourhood Plan along with following on to deliver on that plan. The Mayfair Neighbourhood Plan became formally ‘made’ on 24 December 2019, meaning it was adopted as part of Westminster’s statutory development plan and is operational in the designated Neighbourhood Area for the purposes of assessing planning applications. This demonstrates that the Forum has fulfilled their primary objectives in preparing and having adopted a Neighbourhood Plan for their area, with the focus now shifting to delivering the plan through implementation and monitoring.

Consultation on the re-designation of the Mayfair Neighbourhood Forum resulted in no objections or competing applications.