Agenda and minutes

To note any substitution of Panel Members in accordance with Council Procedure Rules.

The following substitution of Committee Members had been made in accordance with Council Procedure Rule:

Councillor C. Juggins for Councillor S. Thusu

Councillor J. Cragg for Councillor F. Wachuku

Apologies of absence were received from Councillors L. Musk, S. Thusu and F. Wachuku.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2023 (previously circulated).

The Minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2023 were approved as a correct record.

To note declarations of Members’ disclosable pecuniary interests, non-disclosable pecuniary interests and non-pecuniary interests in respect of items on this Agenda.

Councillor S. Boulton declared a non-pecuniary interest in items on the agenda as appropriate by virtue of being a Member of Hertfordshire County Council.

Report of the Assistant Director (Planning) on the Examiner’s Report of the Northaw and Cuffley Neighbourhood Plan.

Report of the Assistant Director (Planning) on the Examiner’s Report of the Northaw and Cuffley Neighbourhood Plan.

Following the conclusion of the consultation on the submitted Northaw and Cuffley Neighbourhood Plan in September 2022, an Independent Examiner was appointed by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council with the consent of Northaw and Cuffley Parish Council to conduct an examination of the plan.

The purpose of the independent examination process is to ensure the plan meets a set of nationally prescribed basic conditions and to recommend if the plan should proceed to a referendum.

The Examiner submitted his report to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council on the 27 January 2023. The Examiner has recommended modifications and, subject to these modifications, recommends the plan to proceed to referendum. These modifications have been made to several policies to ensure the Neighbourhood Plan would meet the basic conditions and other legal requirements, the two main modifications that the Examiner has recommended were the deletion of 2 housing site policies, specifically Policy S1 which is the Meadway and policy S2 East of Northaw Road East, these are allocated in the Welwyn Hatfield local plan as HS27 and HS28 respectively.

The reason for removing the sites from the Neighbourhood Plan is that it would be allocating a site in the Green Belt for residential purposes and it is established practice in the NPPF that release of the land from the Green Belt is a strategic matter rather than a neighbourhood planning matter.  If the Welwyn Hatfield local Plan were to be adopted a future review of the Northaw and Cuffley Neighbourhood Plan could look to include these sites to provide any further policy guidance.

Other modifications recommended by the Examiner seek to provide clarification and to ensure that policies are aligned with national and local policy, including planning and hybrid matters. So the referendum, subject to the examiners, recommendations, will be the 4 May 2023 to coincide with the local elections. If the plan proceed to referendum, the question put to residents within the neighbourhood area will be as follows: “Do you want Welwyn Hatfield borough council to use the Northaw and Cuffley Neighbourhood Plan to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area”.

The plan will require a majority vote, so at least 50% in favour of the plan to be able to move forward to be made by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. There is no minimum or maximum turnout required and if the plan is made it will form part of the statutory development plan for the borough and will be used in the determination of planning applications.  Like the examination, Welwyn Hatfield borough council are responsible and liable for conducting and holding a referendum, current provisions allow an application for these costs to be met. However, it is anticipated that these costs will be recoverable through grants received from the Department for levelling up housing and communities upon issuing a statement detailing the council's intention to send the Plan to referendum £20,000 can be claimed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

Report of the Assistant Director (Planning) on the Brownfield Land Register Update 2023.

Report of the Assistant Director (Planning) on the Brownfield Land Register Update 2023.

In 2017 the government introduced legislation which required planning authorities to prepare and maintain their Brownfield land register. The purpose of the register is to provide information on brownfield land in the borough, the council considered suitable for development.  The report sets out the detail of sites included on this update to the brownfield land register. No sites have been promoted to the Council for inclusion since the last update, so the changes to sites are as a result of planning permissions which have been granted being added to the register and sites which have completed being removed. The updated brownfield register includes 46 sites with a total dwelling capacity of 3,724, which compares with the dwelling capacity of 3,676 in the last update to the register, in November 2021. The majority of sites on the brownfield register already have a form of Planning permission making up 77% of the total dwelling capacity, local plan allocations or sites identified through the Council's Housing and economic Land availability Assessment together account for 19% of the dwelling capacity.

The following points were raised and discussed:

·       Members stated that in the Appendix which list of sites included, the final column is ‘minimum net dwellings’ and asked if the table should also show ‘maximum net dwellings’.  Officers stated that the full register does have a ‘maximum net dwellings’ although that column is optional.

·       Members said it would be helpful to have figures on the state of construction in each of the sites as it does not inform us of what is happening.  For example, the Hope and Anchor, 2 Station Road in Welham Green was permissioned a while ago and there is nothing happening there.  It would be useful to know and ascertain who the good developers are as that might be useful in the future when the NPPF changes, and the council does not want developers sitting on a lot sites as this will affect building numbers.   Officers said that they can add this in the future.

RESOLVED:

(unanimous)

That the Cabinet Planning and Parking Panel recommended to Cabinet that the Brownfield Register be approved for publication, and that the Assistant Director (Planning) be given delegated authority to agree any minor alterations to finalise the Register, following consultation with the Executive Member for Environment, Planning, Estates and Development. If unanimously agreed by the Panel, for the decision to be taken by the executive member using their delegated powers under paragraph 18.1(b) of the Cabinet procedure rules.

Report of the Assistant Director (Planning) on the Annual Monitoring Report 2021/22 and covers the period from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

Report of the Assistant Director (Planning) on the Annual Monitoring Report 2021/22 and covers the period from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

The Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) monitors development that has taken place in the borough during the year and assesses whether this development meets targets across a number of indicators in relation to the Council’s planning policies. The AMR covers a range of topics including housing, employment, the environment and infrastructure. The AMR also sets out expectations for future development in the borough.

In terms of retail, the AMR reports on the results from the latest retail vacancies study in Welwyn Garden City Town Centre. Vacant retail frontage length increased to 12.7% in 2022 from 9.9% in 2021, in the years prior to 2020 vacancy had fluctuated around 3 to 4%. In Hatfield Town Centre vacancy decreased to 13.3% from 21.7%. In the 2021 survey the decline in vacancy was largely due to one large unit being filled, which is the new Poundstretcher store. It is worth noting that part of the vacancy in Hatfield is due to the redeveloped 1 to 9 Town Centre. 

In regards to housing completions, there were 258 net housing completions between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, which included 37 new affordable homes.

In regards to future supply, the AMR includes an update of the Council's Five Year, Housing Land supply position. As the new Local Plan is still under examination, the council turn to the default housing target position, which is derived from the standard methodology, which was 888 dwellings per annum. The Council's housing supply against this target remains below the five-year requirement at 3.2 years.  However, it has improved slightly from the last published figure of 2.6 years.

In regards to the economy, the borough saw a net gain in employment floor space of 10,500square metres as a result of the completion of four industrial units at Coal Green Lane on the eastern edge of Welwyn Garden City. However, overall there has been a net loss in employment floorspace since the start of the plan period in 2016/17 of approximately 16,000 square metres.

The following points were raised and discussed:

·       Members thought the report was interesting and provided lots of information.

·       It was noted that the estimated diabetes diagnosis rate for Welwyn Hatfield was lower whereas the best rate was 98.6%.

·       It was noted the percentage of physically active adults is a bit lower than the best percentage. The borough is a university town which contains young adults, so expect the physically active adults would be higher than the national average.  Officers stated that in terms of the indicator, the council were identifying it as part of the context for the borough as a whole.

·       Members questioned the term affordable dwellings versus social rent versus council housing.  In one of the paragraphs it states the number of affordable dwellings granted, and then says one of these was a high percentage, but that was because it was a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.