Issue - meetings

To consider a joint report by the Heads of Planning Services and of Housing Services inviting responses to the consultation document addressing the issues arising from the  preparation of the Gypsy and Traveller Sites DPD.

Approved for public consultation the content of the Huntingdonshire Gypsy and Traveller Sites Development Plan Document:  Initial Issues Consultation Document; Principles and Processes; agreed that the Heads of Planning Services and of Housing Services, after consultation with the Executive Councillor for Planning Strategy and Transport, be authorised to finalise the Interim Sustainability Appraisals and to make any minor consequential amendments to the text and illustrations of the Development Plan Document as may be considered necessary.

Further to Minute No. 08/130 and by way of a report by the Heads of Planning and of Housing Services (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book), the Cabinet was invited to consider the content of the Huntingdonshire Gypsy and Traveller Sites Development Plan Document:  Initial Issues Consultation Document; Principles and Processes.

Members were advised of the background to the preparation of the document, its main aims and objectives, arrangements to produce a scoping report which will form the basis of an interim sustainability appraisal and to involve Members and Town/Parish Councils in a series of workshops prior to the formal consultation.  Having been advised that the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Service Support) had considered and supported the Document, the Cabinet

RESOLVED

  (a)  that the Issues report for the Gypsy and Traveller Sites Development Plan Document be approved for public consultation;

  (b)  that the Heads of Planning Services and of Housing Services, after consultation with the Executive Councillor for Planning Strategy and Transport, be authorised to finalise the Interim Sustainability Appraisals; and

  (c)  that the Heads of Planning Services and of Housing Services, after consultation with the Executive Councillor for Planning Strategy and Transport, be authorised to make any minor consequential amendments to the text and illustrations of the Development Plan Document as may be considered necessary.

To consider a joint report by the Heads of Planning Services and Housing Services.

(Councillor P L E Bucknell, Executive Councillor for Planning Strategy and Transportation  was in attendance for this Item).

With the assistance of a joint report by the Heads of Planning and Housing Services (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Panel considered the content of a proposed consultation document which had been designed to invite public views on the issues which would help guide the preparation of the Development Plan Document (DPD) for Gypsy and Traveller sites within the District.

Having been acquainted with the background to the creation of the DPD, together with the requirements for side identification in Huntingdonshire in the Regional Spatial Strategy, Members were informed that the consultation document was the first public step in the preparation of the DPD. 

In discussing the process, the Panel recognised the potentially contentious nature of the issue, especially once the process moved on to site identification. Members therefore acknowledged the need for a robust basis for the site selection exercise and the importance of generating interest and comment at this stage of the process. Specific questions were raised concerning the availability of consultation responses, the method of engaging with the gypsy and traveller community, the options available for the acquisition and allocation of appropriate land and the role which District Council Members could play in the process. Concerns also were raised about the implications for Huntingdonshire residents of potential sites selected by neighbouring authorities near to the District’s boundary.

Having regard to the possibility of sites being chosen in the more rural areas in the District, the Panel suggested that the proposed 6 weeks consultation period might be too short for some of the smaller parishes to respond. As the scope to extend the deadline for comment was constrained by the need for early approval of the DPD, the Panel asked officers to alert town and parish councils and Members of the District Council to the forthcoming publication of the document and its significance. Officers also were requested to consider the possibility of convening a limited number of workshops for interested town and parish councils. Whereupon, it was

RESOLVED

  that the Cabinet be recommended to endorse the recommendations

within the report as submitted.