Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2017.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2017 (copies of which had been circulated) were approved as a correct record.

Councillors and officers to declare any interests which they have in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

Councillors and officers were invited to declare any interests which they had in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations were made.

To consider whether it is in the public interest to exclude the public during consideration of agenda item 4 which contains information ‘not for publication’ by virtue of Category 3 ‘Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority)’ as set out in the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

RESOLVED – That in order to prevent the disclosure of information which was not for publication relating to the financial or business affairs of the any particular person (including the authority), the disclosure of which would not be in the public interest, would not be fair and would be in breach of Data Protection principles, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration Agenda Item 4 – ‘Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA)’.

To consider a report of the Chief Planning Officer.

The Chief Planning Officer submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) detailing a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment which had been undertaken to better understand Stockport’s potential urban housing land supply.

The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment was a requirement of national planning policy, set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.  It was report that without one both the Council’s future Local Plan and the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework would not be considered sound and would consequently be at risk of being rejected by the Planning Inspectorate.

It was reported that the most recent Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment undertaken in Stockport was in 2010 and whilst the availability of land had been updated annually as part of the Residential Land Availability update, this had been informed by sites that had come into the supply via planning permission, but the longer term approach of assessing potential had not been reviewed.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

To consider an update from the Chief Planning Officer.

The Chief Planning Officer attended the meeting and provided an update on the concept plans and site assessment work for the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.

It was confirmed that the Council had received the initial draft, and it was anticipated that the work would be complete by the end of February 2018.

The following comments were made/ issues raised:-

·         It was requested that the completed Concept Plans and Site Assessment Work report be submitted to the next meeting of the Working Party for consideration.

·         Concern was expressed in relation to the pace with which details of revisions to the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework would be provided to the public.  It was commented that the Combined Authority currently proposed to release the final site allocations in the revised Greater Manchester Spatial Framework on 14 June 2018 and that it was not possible to release site based information in advance of that date.  However, it was reasonable for the Council to engage with the public on the issues under discussions, the number of units being proposed for development and what that might mean for options in the Green Belt.

·         It was requested that a report be brought to the next meeting of the Working Party identifying a communications plan for the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework and the Local Plan.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.