Strategic Planning Committee, 6 January 2026

00:07:59Okay, good morning everybody. We are going to get started. To begin with the usual health and safety announcement. There's no fire alarm drill anticipated today, so in the event of a fire alarm sounding, please leave the building through the nearest fire exit, and by following the green running man signs above the doors, and make your way to the rear of the car park. If anybody needs assistance leaving the building in the event of an emergency evacuation, please let us know. The organiser of the meeting will then tell you when it is safe to return.

00:08:28Please also make sure all phones are either muted or switched off to start the meeting proper then good morning everybody and welcome to the Strategic Planning Committee meeting on tuesday the 6th of january 2026 and happy new year colleagues I'm your chair Councillor Todd olive to my right is vice chair Councillor Mike howe supporting officers present today are Ed Freeman assistant assistant director planning strategy and development services damian hunter planning solicitor and wendy harris democratic services officer could I remind everyone please that this meeting is recorded for publication on the council's website so please can members and officers making a contribution to the meeting use a microphone or your comments will not be recorded before we begin the rest of the meeting I'd like to express our thanks to Councillor Dell haggarty who resigned from the authority late last year but before that was a member of this this committee, and Councillor Colin Brown, both for their service on this committee, and extend a welcome to Councillors Fitzgerald and Faithful, who I see are both not here today,

00:09:35But we welcome them in their absence. Anyway, we'll now start the meeting proper then by doing a roll call of committee members and declarations of interest, please, Wendy.

00:09:48Thank you, Chair. I'll start with yourself, Councillor Olive. Present and no declarations at this time. Thank you. Councillor Howe, Vice-Chair. Present and no declarations. Councillor Brian bailey good morning wendy present no declarations Councillor Jess bailey present no declarations thank you Councillor Blakey present and no declarations thank you Councillor Davey present no declarations thank you hopefully Councillor Faithfull will arrive shortly because he normally catches the bus. Councillor Fernley, no.

00:10:29Councillor Fitzgerald, no. Councillor Hayward, no. Councillor Ingham. Present, no declarations. And you're right, I got a message from Peter Faithful. He was hoping to get a lift, which I just read. So, unfortunately, that didn't happen.

00:10:49Thank you. Councillor Jung. Present and apologies from Councillor Paula Furnick. Did you say no declarations? Thank you. No, Councillor Ledger. Councillor Parr. Present, no declarations.

00:11:11Thank you. So the non-committee members, do you have any declarations for this meeting? No? Okay. Lovely. Back to you, Chair. Okay, looks like I'm going to have to hold the button down on my microphone when I want to speak then. Councillor Yung, do you have apologies to offer from someone? Yeah, I've just had a WhatsApp from Councillor Fitzgerald. She's on a diversion route at the moment, but she'll be with us shortly.

00:11:55Okay, thank you, Councillor Yung. In view of the fact that one of the public speakers this morning has indicated that they'd like to comment on the outcome in the minutes of the meeting in November which we would otherwise have considered at agenda item one before public speaking. I'm going to bring public speaking forward and we will do that item first before we move on to the remainder of the agenda and so without any further ado then agenda item four public speaking and first up please [member of the public]. So as confirmed by

00:12:53Mr. Freeman, you have a plan that's not sound and legally compliant out for Reg 19 consultation again. Assuming you do not want to make changes that may be considered significant and will send it to the inspector in this form, you risk triggering the next big issue, which was noted in 2.12 of September 2nd SBC report, stating that if the inspector is required to make significant changes to the plan, the plan simply fails its examination and cannot be adopted.

00:13:19I say again, if inspectors need to make substantive changes to a plan during examination, it renders it significantly different from the submitted version, therefore violating Reg 19 rules leading to the plan's failure at examination and preventing its adoption. You're playing a dangerous game as the rigmarole of the inspector trying to rectify the plan is a merry-go-round of consultations. I urge you to make some tweaks now, while you still have some powers to do so, to get the plan in the form you do believe is sound and legally compliant.

00:13:50[Passage not reproduced here. It contains allegations or strong criticism of named people or the council, made at the meeting. We don't repeat allegations; you can hear the passage in the council's own recording by playing it from this point.]

00:14:20There's a pathway now. Please do not be too stubborn to take it. Remember, the LPA should rigorously assess the plan before it is published to ensure that, in your view, it is sound and meets the necessary legal requirements. This approach may raise uncomfortable questions, but the purpose of preparing a plan is to address all necessary matters and not rely on the inspector to attempt to fix deficient plans at examination.

00:14:46In December, I pointed out an error with the plan not aligning with the SPC-agreed sustainability appraisal evidence, which states no built development in the top 400 metres of EXMO20, but not written in the plan. Someone noticed a similar misalignment with an evidence decision for Wimple 08, yet they managed to get the Reg 19 plan withdrawn, amended and republished during the consultation. Amending the plan on December 11th in the middle of the consultation.

00:15:17Inconsistent and procedurally flawed. I'm not wanting some lame excuse today. That's another one on the list for the inspector. A long list. and councillors this plan is being developed in your names with every vote you become complicit in this questionable behavior so I suggest that you state any concerns or caveat your decisions as there's a lot of documents that go through this committee that alas you can't read in full and therefore put considerable blind faith in others in putting your name to them your integrity is potentially being undermined do not waste this 563 house lifeline you have being given. Thank you and Happy New Year. Thank you, [member of the public]. [member of the public]. You'll be

00:16:28Disappointed to hear that this morning I am not going to be talking directly to EXMO20, but only because it isn't on the agenda. You know why I'm really here, though. Instead, I am raising my serious concerns about the failures in process within this Local Plan, particularly the way decisions appear to have been made. This undermines the credibility, legality and soundness of the plan. Prime examples of the failures are the continued lack of a complete air quality mitigation strategy, the inherent conflicts contained in the HRA, and the site selection methodology. You will all remember that this had to be changed in December 2024 to retrospectively accommodate failed EVAR sites. At Regulation 19 stage, the Local Plan is supposed to be justified, evidence-led, and consistent. And what we are seeing is evidence that is being shaped to fit predetermined outcomes. The proper sequence is evidence first, assessment second, decisions last. But what we have is a decision has been made, the plan has been amended, and the evidence selectively relied upon to justify that amendment.

00:17:41This is not plan making it is outcome driven planning and this approach raises several fundamental problems firstly procedural failure if changes are to be made they should be transparently consulted upon with clear explanation of why the earlier version was no longer valid second problem is soundness the plan cannot be justified if policies are altered or sites are amended without a demonstrable evidence-based need, and the need must be consistently applied across all alternatives. Thirdly, and in my view most importantly, public trust. When communities see decisions altered to specific sites after the fact, confidence in your Local Plan is damaged.

00:18:28It creates the perception, whether you intend it or not, that decisions are being driven by by developer pressure rather than by planning principles and by us, your residents. And fourthly and lastly, legal risk. A Local Plan that appears to retro-write decisions is vulnerable at examination. Inspectors demand a clear audit trail showing how evidence-informed choices, not how choices reshape the evidence. So Regulation 19 is meant to test whether this plan is sound.

00:19:01Its current form, it is not. I therefore urge you, the committee, acknowledge these failings in process. Have the courage to write them now before the inspector rejects the whole plan. And you, councillors, this I think will be your legacy. And again, I urge you, get the process right now before the inspector marks your word. Let's not forget, evidence first, assessment second, resulting in good decisions. Happy New Year [member of the public]. Thank you.

00:19:38[member of the public]. I will be again focusing on the council's commitment to public engagement and

00:20:01Have three points to make. Point one, following the completion of the first consultation we were told that we would not receive one-to-one responses to our comments. However I have checked the updated sustainability appraisal report and I found a whole new section, over 30 pages which details the Council's responses to all of the comments received on this report in the first consultation. Surely the people that raised these comments should have been made aware of the Council's responses.

00:20:32The owners should not be on the public to search every document just in case the Council have responded. Point two, turning to previous attempts at effective engagement with this committee I asked some specific questions at the last SPC meeting however no suitable responses given and I will not waste time repeating them today however I would like to note that I sent an email to Councillor Olive at the beginning of December 2025 asking these questions again and including an additional question which I copied to all councillors on this committee as of today I have not had one response. The additional question I asked in the email relates to the second consultation and it was what publicity and communications has been provided to the public in relation to the second consultation. If members of the public sign up to the common place and the council newsletter they may have been informed but how many of the public do this?

00:21:33Search social media and online specifically for the second regulation 19 consultation and you may see a post dated the 28th of November or one from Councillor Faithfull or even one for the Exmouth Journal dated the 1st of December but again who does this and should the public have to search for this information surely there should be more clear and structured processes of engagement in place Finally, this second consultation was mainly for the new community at Malcom.

00:22:07As of this morning, Commonplace has four comments on the whole chapter that includes one for Malcom. This committee was told by Mr Freeman that the 1,100 comments for EXMO20 was not unusual for a large development. So what would be the expectation for a new community of 10,000 homes? If only one comment so far, what is the Council going to do to proactively engage with the public on this matter?

00:22:40To reiterate what I am requesting is that when you seek to consult with the public, that EDDC and this committee need to prove that they are genuinely and comprehensively seeking to engage with and listening to the public. Responding to my specific points and questions raised here would be appreciated.

00:22:59Thank you for your time. Thank you, [member of the public]. [member of the public]. Good morning. Happy New Year.

00:23:14Thank you for a warm chamber. My question is, it's a question, not a statement. My question is regarding the strategic planning consultation. I'm a resident in Honiton, and there is real concern amongst local people that the housing plans are going to put great strain on an already overstretched local infrastructure. Obviously, I'm thinking about doctors, surgery, schools, roads, and especially at this time, the recent water report that has revealed major problems with water treatment and pollution in the Otter.

00:23:54Please, can you let us know how you plan to address these issues? Can we have a local, some meetings where actual people can come? because I think the computer portals and that way of doing it is incredibly unfriendly and hard to access. It's only been in my experience. And is it true that the planning is on hold until Southwest Water has resolved the many water issues and the otter is no longer being heavily polluted?

00:24:28And I quote from a letter to me from a councillor. on the Honiton Town Council, EDCC Strategic Planning Committee Chair confirms Council will reject further planning proposals in Honiton Region until Southwest Water delivers adequate treatment capacity. What's that going to look like, and how can we be certain that is held to? Because as has been commented on before, they're putting more weight on this bridge, and at some point it's going to break.

00:25:00And simply building houses is not the answer to a really fundamental problem to do with what the town can actually cope with.

00:25:11Thank you. Thank you, [member of the public]. [member of the public], please. Thank you very much, Chair, for allowing me to speak today at short notice. I'm indebted to a lot of national landscapes, WhatsApp and Facebook page, for bringing this item to my attention, along with [member of the public] of Devon Live. I'm talking on with respect to item nine, to all by a Local Plan. I've been asking the committee to accept the premise that the standard method does not apply to East Devon due to the presence of national landscapes.

00:26:12The committee has refused to address the issue, but it now recognizes it. We now have a farcical situation where EDDC is being conjoled into accepting the difference between Torbay's standard method numbers and their rightly constrained numbers, constrained by the South Devon National Landscape. This is nonsense. The Government National Planning Policy Framework standard method parameters already take into account the effects of national landscapes. So if all the districts follow EDDC's logics, then the government will build too many houses with the associated housing price crash.

00:26:52More importantly, EDDC will become attracted to populists of other neighbouring districts with movement of populists. Both EDDC and the donating districts' housing markets will fail, leaving the most needy in negative equity. The National Planning Policy Framework calls for the minimum number. This committee seems to be trying to maximise the numbers. Furthermore, this report questions the statistical validity of Torbay's new figures. But EDDC has admitted it does not have any statisticians who could come in.

00:27:28We know this because EDDC has not had their housing report reviewed by a qualified person. Finally, EDDC officers say that the Torbay is not unique. This is irrelevant. EDDC is eighth in the ranking of 288 authorities, i.e. one in 40. To be exceptional, it only requires to be one in 20, and not unique. The Torbay figures show this can be a significant change in numbers.

00:27:59Thank you. Thank you, [member of the public], and lastly, Councillor Collins. I'd prefer to get all the public speaking out of the way and then have Mr. Freeman.

00:28:16Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I wish to speak about trees, woodland and forests versus food production. It really doesn't add up. We're planting trees in Britain and cutting back food production to help the environment. Yet we are importing food from countries where forests are being cut down to grow that food. If climate change is a global issue, this makes no sense. Producing food here under higher environmental and animal standards is often far less damaging than clearing rainforests overseas to meet demand.

00:29:29All we are doing is exporting the damage, not reducing it. A tree planted in the UK doesn't cancel out rainforests destroyed elsewhere. If we are serious about the planet, we should be producing more of our own food, not outsourcing at environmental cost. Looking green isn't the same as being green. Now, in East Devon, you're taking an awful lot of agricultural land for developments. This land is surely needed to produce food.

00:30:18I would like to see this committee seriously looking at sites where you've got agricultural land that you're taking out of production just to build houses or employment lands. This land will always be needed for future generations to produce food. Once you've concreted and tarmacked and built these houses, That land will be gone forever. What are our grandchildren and their children going to live off of? Because there won't be no food abroad, I can assure you that.

00:31:00Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Collins. Mr Freeman, is there anything in there that you think it's appropriate to come back to at this time, please?

00:31:17Thank you, Chair. Well, perhaps a couple of points to pick up on. I mean in terms of [member of the public] and [member of the public] comments obviously they know to make those views through the consultation that's running at the moment so I won't respond or previously have obviously commented on many of those points through previous meetings. In terms of [member of the public] point about the consultation I'd make the point that there is further comms to come. There's still several weeks left of the consultation. We obviously had a bit of a lull over Christmas and New Year but appreciate further comms to draw attention to that is needed and will take place over the coming weeks um obviously the other thing to say on that is the focus of this consultation is on how this version of the plan has addressed comments raised in previous iterations of the plan and previous consultations so we have through the contact details that we already have through Commonplace contacted everyone who's commented previously on the plan and all those that we've previously consulted so the main audience has already had a direct um correspondence from us

00:32:15On the consultation um in terms of [member of the public] comments about Honiton um I'd highlight that in terms of meetings and consultation there have been uh further consultation we're at quite a late stage of planned production now we have been through this there was public um consultation session in a Honiton at the Reg 18 stage back in 23 I think it was uh which was very well attended from memory where a lot of these issues around infrastructure were raised and have been taken on board through our work. In terms of southwest water and the water cycle study then clearly there are policies and comments in the plan about how development new homes won't be able to come forward until and unless southwest water delivered the infrastructure needed to accept the flows from that so that is written into the plan to ensure that the system's not overloaded through new development.

00:33:07Um and finally just in terms of [member of the public] comments uh I mean I've had quite detailed correspondence [member of the public] about this whole issue about how we're considering um the national landscape in terms of the standard method and housing figures I don't suggest I replicate that today we don't we don't agree on on the issue but I don't see the contradiction with what we're saying about torbay which we'll come on to later I think the distinct difference is that we are putting forward a plan that does meet the housing need for East Devon notwithstanding that 58% of the district is National Landscape Torbay are proposing not to meet their standard method need and so there's a key difference there I think in terms of the approach that's being taken and hence our comments on their plan which we'll come on to later in the meeting. Thank you Chair.

00:33:53Thank you Mr Freeman. The last thing for me to say on that is I'm sorry you haven't had a response yet [member of the public] I actually don't remember seeing an email from you but uh with that said um if it was in early december I have not been looking at my emails for most of december and hadn't done until yesterday morning so I will endeavor to get your response this week so apologies you've not had one yet that then brings us back to the remainder of the agenda for oh sorry Councillor Ingham yes Just quickly, Chair, the speakers we've heard this morning, most of them, I think, certainly nearly all of them, have spoken before.

00:34:37Sometimes we become immune to what they say to us. I'm thinking especially of Councillor Collins and his advice. We all know, but we choose to park it separately when we consider the emerging East Devon Local Plan and play it small heed. I just wanted to say to you, ours is not the only vision for East Devon. We're not the only people who think we're doing the right thing.

00:35:09Lots of people think we're doing the wrong things. A constituent of mine recently said, Ben, why aren't you planning to build on Woodbury Common? After all, the land there is of no use and no value to future generations. You shouldn't. You're laughing. I hope future generations are able to laugh at some of the decisions we're taking now because of our disregard for horrible land and its value to the future.

00:35:45Thank you, Chair. Can I have quiet from the public gallery, please? Thank you. Councillor Bailey, briefly. Very briefly, Chair. Thank you very much. We've heard all this before, and I'm quite pleased to hear it again. And I'm pleased that you're going to address the remarks from [member of the public]. this is an ongoing vicious circle going on for years god's not making any more land so we have to respect the land we have and I think to follow I wouldn't say blindly because we don't follow blindly but to be in a position where we're cajoled to follow the mppf in all its wisdom or lack of that we should be seriously considering a building embargo this council did it about 25 years ago when South West Water did a clean sweep I believe it took about 5 years but the results were very very good and now we're in a situation a worse situation with South West Water and the infrastructure than 25 years ago which I remember well and we're still giving permission to build.

00:37:00And I personally think that is wrong and I would like yourselves and the committee and the officers to reconsider the fact that we could from the embargo on for all the reasons stated and lots of others.

00:37:11Thank you, Chair. Thank you. I've seen your hand, Councillor Jung. I'm not going to take us round in circles on this because we actually have some substantive items that are actually on the agenda to discuss today. We've talked about what we're doing about Southwest Water. We talked about it at length late last year, and we have been unequivocal that where the evidence says that there is not capacity for the system and where infrastructure is not forthcoming in time from Southwest Water, we will not be giving planning permission.

00:37:42It's a moratorium by another name, Councillor Bailey. I understand, believe me, I share the frustrations of everybody in this district with Southwest Water, but we are actually taking that action. As to a broader moratorium, as to the issue of the MPPF, we have a legal obligation to comply with what government is telling us to do. We've talked in this committee before, I think twice in my term of office, which now feels an awful lot longer than two and a half years, about not following the requirements set out in the MPPF, about not following the standard method, about refusing to follow those rules that government set out for us.

00:38:23And when the facts are presented to us, when the risks are put in front of us, we have said, no, we're going to follow the rules. Twice, just in my term of office, twice, let alone all of the times that I know this committee have done this before. I get everybody's frustrations. Believe me, I share them. But we have this discussion. We go round and round in circles.

00:38:46And it's just I find it very frustrating. So, you know, I understand we're coming from, Brian. I understand where you're coming from, Councillor Collins, I understand where you're coming from, Councillor Ingham, but we've had the conversations, we've made the decisions, going round in circles and talking about them over and over again, when the Local Plan isn't on the agenda at all today, isn't a good use of our time.

00:39:12So I'm going to move us on. Thank you. It's not that I'm not interested. It's not that I don't care. But we've talked about it and we've got other stuff that we need to talk about today. So thank you. I'm going to move us on. Agenda item two, apologies. I have Councillor Levine written down and I believe we've had Councillor Fernley noted from the floor. Do we have any other apologies?

00:39:37I've received no other apologies. No, okay, thank you. So, Councillor Fitzgerald and Faithful, do you have any declarations to make? No declarations from me, thank you. Have you logged in, Peter? It's behind your iPad. Yes, I'm a member of Autry Samaritan Council, reference item 7, neighbourhood plans. So, yes, we probably will want some money, thank you. Okay. Mr. Hunter, to draw you out of your reverie, agenda item 7, do Town and Parish councillors need to declare an interest in it?

00:40:39I had taken the view that I didn't, as I didn't think it met any of the criteria, but as Peter has decided that he does, for the benefit of the many Town and Parish councillors around these tables. well at this stage chair it really is just whether or not you personally feel that your particular parish or town council has a particular interest in in that matter uh if it's just you know a general interest insofar as it's one of the town councils or parish councils in East Devon I would suggest not but if it's a specific interest because you know they're landowners or something like that then then it's you know potentially an interest that you need to declare so again at this stage I don't know whether it's something that's really you know sorry no exactly it's just for noting so I don't think it's really something that needs to be commented on in view of an interest okay thank you mr. Hunter do any town and parish councillors with us want to declare an interest at that point? No? Okay. Councillor Bailey.

00:42:05Thank you Councillor Bailey. Unless anybody else feels a burning need I'm I'm going to move us on. Sorry, Councillor. I think Mr Hunter has made it quite clear. If we ought to have to declare or choose to declare an interest on something that may affect our council, we're going to have to declare an interest on practically every item. The thing is, have you personally a financial interest in that?

00:42:41Are you investing in that? As explained Mr Hunter. We've had [member of the public] advice, and it's for folks to make their own decision. I'm not going to labour the point, counselling it. Yeah, I'm supporting it, and let's not waste time. That's what I'm saying. Respectfully, counselling it. Okay, are there any... We've done apologies, we've done declarations of interest, we've now done public speaking. there are no matters of urgency under agenda item 5 and no confidential exempt items under agenda item 6. Is everything all right on the end of the table? Oh, Brian's just silencing his phone. Okay. In which case then, agenda item 7, please, the future of neighbourhood planning support. Mr. Freeman. That's right. We haven't done the minutes yet. Thank you.

00:43:35I postponed them and then forgot about them. Very good. Does anybody have any comments, please on the minutes of the previous meeting on the 25th of November. Now in which case then as chair I'll move those minutes as a true and accurate record. Members please raise your hand if you're in favour. Any against please? Any abstentions? Okay thank you I think that's clearly carried which brings us actually this time to agenda item seven please Mr Freeman. Thank you chair. So this report seeks to provide members with an update on work on neighborhood planning in the district and some future issues particularly around the support that we provide for neighborhood planning and funding that's available members may have seen that government financial support that was going direct to the communities to support plan making work has been ended as part of the funding review so this had provided grants of up to 10 000 pounds per neighborhood planning group which was often being tapped into and used by our communities to fund professional support for that work reports such as Habitat Regulations assessments

00:44:46Etc that require technical input that the communities won't necessarily have in in-house and it's been particularly important for a number of our communities given the landscape and environmental sensitivities of many areas of the district so it's quite regrettable that governments have withdrawn that funding and that obviously has it knock on implications for our neighbourhood planning groups in terms of their ability to progress neighbourhood plans in the absence of that funding so despite that government remain committed say they remain committed to neighbourhood planning and obviously funding does still remain to support the examinations process which is the funding that comes largely to ourselves to fund the examination process and over the years this has helped us to build up a bit of a reserve which has helped to pay for the officer support that we've had to support NAPA planning work in the district so that's largely made the NAPA planning work self-funding in effect through that process but obviously with that withdrawal of that wider government funding and also a slowdown in the number of

00:45:55Plans coming through to us which I think is partly because of where we are in terms of the Local Plan process in that there's this need for plans to be in general conformity with the the Local Plan so obviously with us progressing a new Local Plan we think some groups have have been holding off waiting for the new Local Plan to progress so that they're in general conformity with that rather than the outgoing Local Plan as it were which also has a benefit in terms of decision making in the future because the most up-to-date plan will ultimately carry greater weight in that process so I think that's been been a factor I think there are other factors around changes in government policy and uncertainty uh in recent times as well but ultimately the number of plans coming through has slowed down which has meant that we've not had so many getting through the examination process so we haven't received as much money coming in that we receive at that stage from government um so that does mean in the next financial year where we're planning the budget on the basis that

00:46:56Support we provide for neighborhood planning will have an impact on the core funding of the council probably for the first time um to the extent of about 36 000 pounds uh in that financial year so that's just to uh to make members aware of that impact on on the wider budget we do as officers however feel that the support that we provide for neighborhood planning is invaluable in terms of the work that's going on in the district there's fantastic work being done by neighborhood planning groups across the district and we do want to continue to support that work and provide them with not just the statutory support that we're required to provide to the examination process but also the support to be able to attend their meetings advise them through the process and also do work to encourage and support them through that work so as I say there's been this depletion in activity which is unfortunate but I think with the plan having now reached the stage of work that it has um with the intention of submitting

00:47:57The plan for examination later this year there's now an opportunity to reinvigorate some of that work in the district um and we're looking at launching an event um to invite in the planning groups and and try and um support them as best we can in terms of moving forward with plans that can align with the emerging Local Plan moving forwards so aside from from those issues around funding and future support we also wanted to highlight much of the great work that's been going on in the district in terms neighbor plan work in recent years and you'll see the report refers to some of the additional housing allocations that have come forward the support for self-built housing that's come forward in plans the additional employment and community developments have been brought forward or in the process of being brought forward as well as the more protectionist policies that have come forward plans around protecting green spaces green infrastructure and the all-important stronger voice that this work is being given to our communities in decision-making on planning matters that affect them so it's been a really important work

00:49:02I think and really value the contributions that all of the neighbour planning groups have made through the work that they've been doing as they is it's unfortunate list the funding situation is as it is we have looked at opportunities to provide further support ourselves but the council really isn't in a financial position to be able to do that unfortunately however we have looked at what others have been doing and you'll see that set out in the report and there is an opportunity for some use of the neighborhood proportion of sill to help support plan making because that can ultimately lead to infrastructure needs being identified and an avenue for those to be brought forward so we think that's an opportunity for some of our communities at least where they've had development and had a neighborhood proportion of sill and that's one of the issues we're keen to talk to them about in terms of the event I mentioned so as I say there will be this impact on the general fund moving forward some members are

00:50:02Asked to to note the changed context for neighbour planning particularly the funding issues it's recommended that the chair write to MHCLG to formally register the council's disappointment with that decision in terms of funding and urge them to reconsider and or look at alternative funding options for neighbour planning and we can through that letter I think highlight the good work that's gone on in East Devon and the impact that that's had in terms of the delivery of of homes uh and community facilities uh and the benefits for planning in the district a committee are also asked to note the impact of maintaining our current resourcing and april planning work on the general fund as I've mentioned that amounts to about 36 000 pounds we think in the next financial year has an impact on the general fund um but we think that is important work that needs to continue um uh the other recommendation relates to an annual report through producing this report I think we've identified that we perhaps haven't kept strategic planning committees engaged in NAPA planning work

00:51:05Members will be aware that the plans themselves in terms of the council's comments and taking them through to referendum of all decisions that are made by cabinet but obviously NAPA plans when they do come through and are made form part of the development plan which is ultimately the auspice of this committee so um we feel it's important that we do more in future to to keep the committee appraised of progress in terms of naval planning work and propose bringing an annual report to you to set out the work that's been done in that year and the progress that's been made so I'd make those recommendations to the committee thank you chair okay thank you mr Freeman questions please I see a flood from the floor ollie I saw your hand first have you put it down because you didn't have a question. No, I do have a question. And the floor is yours. Although I will preface that by saying thank you, Ed. I thought this was a very well written and very clear report, some good detail in it, some good examples of where neighbourhood plans have proved useful in enabling communication with communities over housing allocations. I think particularly Cliss and Mary might might

00:52:26Disappoint disagree with me on that one I think it's very disappointing the government has done this and it seems like penny-pinching compared to the the kind of budget constraints they're facing I particularly welcome the idea of templates models and so on policies and I just wondered how councils will be able to share resources as suggested in that section sharing resources and good practice because I think peer support can be very useful when councils are going through that process and I wasn't part of the the expert neighborhood planning group last time so I wasn't a Councillor But I know that it was hard work and I think I will attest to that I think I did go to a meeting yeah and I think that's actually pretty nippy and so I think that the withdrawal of this funding is regrettable but I do like the idea of peer support always welcome that and I just wondered what the mechanism is and how can we ensure that that that is really enabled and is effective thank you Councillor Davey we're at eight and a

00:53:53Half years and counting in wimple um Councillor Brian bailey well first of all I wish you well chair that seems a long time it really does but that's probably is the point beside the point my question is whether I missed it in the report I don't think I did we made our neighborhood plan many, many years ago, and it's need of revision. Now, Mr. Freeman, would there be any officer help when we do our revision, or will there not be?

00:54:22I understand the financial constraints, but I'm thinking of officers' time that could be available if we needed it.

00:54:29Thank you. Coming down the line, Councillor Fitzgerald. Yes, thank you. Just a question about the amounts that we should be talking to our parishes about setting aside. should they want to update their neighbourhood plans, the figure of £10,000 having been allocated to parishes previously for the creation of neighbourhood plans for some of the smaller parishes might be A, difficult to raise and B, might be too much.

00:55:00So when we're having conversations with parishes about setting aside future funds, is there some guidance you can give us on that? Or maybe they could reach out to East Devon for guidance on that.

00:55:11Thank you. and I don't remember seeing a hand from Councillor Faithfull, but I'm going to check. No? Okay. In which case, we'll come to Mr. Freeman for those on the right of the chamber first before we do the other half. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Yes, so coming back to Councillor Davey' point, I mean, so there's peer support in two senses at the moment. I think there's a group of district-level councils that have a forum that meets the Angela, our neighbour planning officer sits on so she gets some support and guidance from across the wider sort of southwest and nationally and then we've had a series of webinars that we've done where we've invited all of the neighbour planning groups and also the town parishes that aren't actively pursuing neighbour plans so that they can be in the room and understand what's going on we're keen to reinvigorate that and do more of those I think in recent times they focus perhaps more on the Local Plan work that we've been doing and sort of communicating with them about that because of

00:56:15The obviously impact that that has on labour planning work but um we're keen to to continue that and do more of those but also do some more in-person events um because I think it's important to have that face-to-face interaction and also to get people in the room whereby people from different communities can interact more with each other uh as well and and we're in a prime position to sort of facilitate that um so I think that's part of an event that is referred to in there that we're looking at setting up um in the next couple of months um but also having a series of those going forward both online and in person to enable that kind of peer support and learning from each other's experiences because I think that's really important um in terms of council bailey's points um yes I mean as as the report says we're looking to maintain the level of support we can't provide so there is a dedicated officer angela king who's our dedicated neighborhood planning officer I'm sure will be happy to meet with uh representatives from

00:57:13Exmouth neighborhood planning group if they want to look at revising the neighborhood plan and there are other members of the team that chip in on particular specialist areas and things as well so um you know the purpose of the report is to sort of set out the the issues but fundamentally we want to maintain the current level of support um for as long as we can um uh so look for for members supporting the committee's support in in doing that despite the budget implications that that will now have um tend to cancel fitzgerald's point I think in terms of how much money to set aside for the neighborhood plan it partly depends on um sort of the size of the community and the issues within that community but also what the community wants to achieve with that neighborhood plan for example if they're looking to make an allocation that will have significant implications for how much it will cost in terms of the technical reports and things that will need to be produced versus if it's um perhaps less proactive shall we say in terms of what the plan wants to achieve in

00:58:12Which case the costs would be less um so it's probably worth a conversation again with angela um in terms of what the community wants to to achieve and then we can probably give a rough indication as to what the likely sort of reports are needed once it's been scoped out um but I think one thing we would say in terms of general advice to neighbor planning groups is what we've seen so far is a tendency for plans to try and produce a sort of Local Plan for their their community and cover the whole range of planning issues that we cover in the Local Plan and I think one of the messages we want to get out is that it's not necessary um they're welcome to do that if that's what they want to do but they're probably uh taking on more than they need to shall we say um in that um if there are particular local issues where they want to add to the Local Plan rather than um necessarily duplicate things to do in the Local Plan then that can help to narrow the scope

00:59:10And therefore reduce the cost of the work that's involved in the time uh that it takes people to do it but still achieve the community's aspirations from neighbor plan if there are particular issues that they want at a local level to address so I think that's quite an important piece of work at the outset is to do that scoping exercise to understand what what people actually want to achieve what are the priorities for the community and then we'd be in a position to give a steer in terms of how much that's likely to to cost and the implications of that thank you okay thank you mr Freeman coming down the other side could I have hands again please as I've forgotten who wanted to ask a question. Okay, Councillor Jung then, Councillor Ingham please.

00:59:52Thank you Chair. Yeah, it's a great report but disappointing news that we're going to be losing this funding. We do really well on neighbourhood plans in East Devon and that is a lot of thanks to Angela King who does a fantastic job. I'm wondering that seeing that we're going to be bringing the parishes together on a suggested beatings sometime in the future that which is really good would it be appropriate to add another recommendation to inform the parishes of this forthcoming withdrawal of funding from government and So they could start to plan for putting some money aside or increasing their precept.

01:00:51Because we can't, but they can. And also, when we're looking to the future, we're going into unitary councils. And in the end, there's going to be probably a Devon-wide plan and no district plan. Therefore, this is going to be a sort of a whole and neighbourhood land plans might become more important. Therefore, we need to be now, I believe we are already talking to some of the councils that we'll be unified with shortly, but a joint effort into bringing up all the experience that we've gained and now from other councils so now so we can go into the future with better plans for neighbourhood plants so to speak in the future.

01:01:54But we're looking we need to look at years ahead but I think we need to inform the parish councils of the problems coming up and also see if we can provide some assistance with when we go into a unitary council as well. Thank you.

01:02:21Thank you Councillor Jung I think I detected a question or two, isn't it? Worth highlighting that the funding has already gone. So it was, I don't think it ever came back, actually, for this financial year. Certainly it's been the case that there hasn't been any funded support this financial year at all since, I think they made the announcement in July before the summer, something like that. But it has been a good half year already that there's been no funded support available.

01:02:52I know I was waiting to put an application in for some. Councillor Ingham.

01:02:57Thank you, Chair. I look forward to the debate when I will prattle on, as others do, and myself. But the question, I like the recommendations. I will be supporting them. But my questions regarding recommendation one, it's a bit weak, in my opinion, to be blunt. Line four, disappointment is too weak, and the word urge. Can we beef those up, please, Mr Freeman, so we make it, without being impertinent or bloody-minded, well, not too bloody-minded, let the government know that we're a bit more than disappointed, and we don't want to urge them.

01:03:41We want to almost tell them to reconsider what they're doing. Do you see what I'm getting at? Because that's so polite, I suspect they may dismiss it. Thank you, Chair. Rest assured, as the person who would be sending that letter, it would not be a polite one, as it is. But perhaps, in [member of the public] view, the recommendation needed to be a bit more diplomatic. But, Mr. Freeman, some answers there for you.

01:04:08Thank you, Chair. Well, yeah, if I start there. I mean, obviously, as officers, we've made a professional recommendation to the committee if members want to beef that up and be more political, I suppose, in how they send that letter, then that's up to you. I'll leave that to members to suggest that. I tried and I couldn't speak without it. Can you continue? And if we go back to Councillor Jung's point, I mean, we have told the communities that the money's been withdrawn.

01:04:48We had a webinar in mid-December, I think it was. um and uh yeah so that we have at the webinars that I mentioned with the communities uh highlighted that I think angela sent an email around to them when it first happened as well so there has been a lot of communication uh about all of that unfortunately we weren't in a position to bring this report to the committee until now because obviously committee time was being taken up with Local Plan work before before now um and I certainly agree with uh Councillor Jung in terms of the increased role of neighborhood planning moving forwards um uh I think um obviously seeing um a more of a sort of move to more centralization I suppose with with uh unitary coming in um the combined county authority will be reducing a strategic plan which will obviously be a high level than any plan over a unitary geography would inevitably be a higher level than our Local Plan uh and the neighborhood plans that sit beneath that so it's clearly important that we're

01:05:49Providing that support ongoing to neighbour plans moving forwards I mean our Local Plan I think is some 300 pages long I doubt that a plan that on the unitary geography is going to commit 300 pages to East Devon um so uh all the more important that our neighbor plans uh fill in any gaps uh that are left and I'm keen that we support them in doing that okay thank you mr Freeman in which case then in Councillor Ingham's words, time for us to do the prattling on bit. Councillor Jess Bailey.

01:06:23Thank you, I'm going to try not to prattle on. Thanks very much for the report and I'm really pleased that we're going to be providing peer support. I think we should be proud of all our neighbourhood plans across the district. We've got loads and they make a real difference and they also really empower communities to have a say in planning which is often highly controversial as we know but what I do disagree with I think we should be trying to help fund continue to fund the government yet another terrible decision amongst many may step away from funding uh neighborhood plans but I don't see why we shouldn't and I understand the budgetary constraints we don't necessarily have to fund 10,000 per community but we could for instance fund 8,000 because actually what we're doing is making it really unaffordable for communities because there's the cost of commissioning expert advice and some of the assessments and communities particularly smaller parishes won't be able to afford to do it because some of them have precepts of less than 10,000

01:07:38A year and many would have less than £20,000 a year so I think bearing in mind the budget of East Devon District Council bearing in mind the importance of neighbourhood plans we should be trying to do more than just provide peer support and I think that we should be providing financial support to help communities I think it makes a real difference and I think in the grand scheme of things we're not talking about a massive amount we're not talking about hundreds coming through each year we're talking about a really quite small number so I would support a change and a further recommendation that we actually actively continue we step in where the government is failing and continue to support our communities particularly our small rural communities which have low precepts so I don't see why we can't look at doing that so I'd like to add a recommendation that we provide financial support where the government is stepping away.

01:08:34Thank you. Perhaps I could ask you to draft some wording while we go around some other speakers, please, Councillor Bailey, thank you. I have Councillor Ingham, you're prattling next, please. Yes, thank you. Chair, I want to drag you back to 2012 when the Localism Act brought this in and how refreshing It was where that coalition government decided that the little people were important, so important that the first time in over a thousand years, it wasn't just landowners and forgive me, city planners in the last two centuries that were able to consider the growth and expansion of major settlements and small ones.

01:09:18Where actually we could, in our small village communities and town communities, could actually engage and influence that. And that was the whole point of the Localism Act, and that's where neighbourhood plans very quickly became rather popular. And as we heard, some villages once had a rapid rate of knots, and I know the first village that started embarked on that only just finished theirs. So they appeared at different rates. But what I am concerned about is, and that's going back to our public speakers, are we really listening? Are we taking on those voices?

01:10:03It's essential that we do through neighbourhood plans support them and not just say you will comply to our local plans but to double check ourselves and say do our local plans over you know the next few decades do they embrace the aspirations expressed through neighbourhood plans And we should make sure that they do. So I really do commend what our officers have put forward as recommendations and we must support that. But I just ask you to be mindful. What is the point of a neighbourhood plan if it's not implemented? What is the point of a Local Plan if it doesn't embrace the wants and needs of our communities?

01:10:53We should be mindful of both of those. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councillor Ingham. I have Councillor Blakey, then Brian Bailey, then Ewing, then Fitzgerald.

01:11:06Thank you, Chair. It was mentioned during the question section that this might be penny-pinching on the part of central government. I don't believe that, because the amount of money involved, I think, is so trivial when set against the national budget. It's neither here nor there. I believe that what this is about is the suppression of local influence on planning policy. I think it is part of a larger move towards centralization of planning in this country, and I find it utterly reprehensible.

01:11:49And the idea that we are going through a period of devolution is becoming increasingly laughable, as we discover more as we go on. So briefly, we are faced with a position where costs for the preparation of local plans are going to be pushed on to council taxpayers, without a doubt. at town and parish level, or as Councillor Jess Bailey has suggested, that there be financial support from elsewhere, that is to say this authority, but I wonder where we would actually find that funding from.

01:12:34So I'm absolutely in support of the recommendations as they sit, and we'll wait to see what the amendment looks like. But absolutely, we should not let the local plans, the neighbourhood plans, wither on the vine. I think it is a deliberate government move that we should resist absolutely. Thank you. Somebody else has said it, so I'll pipe up at that point. I tend to agree with you, Kevin. It's not about money.

01:13:09When you see it in the context of what's going on with LGR and the desire to reduce the number of councillors and have us operate at much greater geographical scales, I think it's fundamentally about taking local voices out of planning in a very, very real way. particularly when you consider all of the government's other rhetoric about streamlining the system, making applications happen faster, all of that stuff.

01:13:37I 100% agreed with you. Councillor Brian Bailey. Yeah. I have great respect for the neighbourhood plans. However, going back to the Exmouth neighbourhood plan, we did put in the neighbourhood plan that we didn't want any development in North Exmouth, in Eyestock Village, which is one of the oldest walled villages in the country. And unfortunately, all the area of Northern Exmouth, which has now come under EXMO20. I'm sorry to cut you off, Brian, but if we were to litigate every planning decision, that hasn't necessarily fully complied.

01:14:17I'm just wishing to say that this was in our neighbourhood plan in Exmouth and it's not been adhered to by this authority. Okay, thank you, Councillor Bailey. Councillor Jung.

01:14:33Thank you, Chair. I've been heavily involved in budget setting for this year and we are heavily restricted in our funding and we're having to cut expenditure in places so although I totally support what Councillor Bailey is suggesting if someone can tell me where we can find the money from I would be supporting it but at the moment I've been told no we can't spend it on this we can't we haven't got any funding for that we have got any funding for important projects so on the one hand yes I see support Council Bailey's proposal of providing funds but where are we going to get that funding from before I could support that and going back to now that concept of neighborhood plans I'm a great supporter of neighborhood plans it was my first introduction into local government and I know a lot of other people have learned about local government and planning from labor plans so in that way it brings people into into the mix of deciding on look on local issues in that area and it's it's a it's a vital part of our work

01:16:16That we need to engage with local communities and it we need local communities to feed back what what they want in their areas so it's vital so we have to continue with it how we continue with it and where we're going to get the funding from is the big question tend to agree with you sadly Councillor Jung I have counselors Fitzgerald then faithful thank you I also in principle I I agree with Councillor Jess Bailey's suggestion very much so on the same basis that Councillor Bailey suggested that a lot of our parishes, for a lot of parishes, £10,000 is an awful lot of money, both in the context of their precepts and also the CIL, the CIL monies that they can expect to get from small developments that are already taking place.

01:17:14But I would just say that there seems to be also a need to educate our own councillors and also our parish and town councillors, but even councillors in this council, about what neighbourhood plans can do and the possibility of allocating sites, the possibilities of community-led development.

01:17:41Because this isn't something that we come across every day. It's not something that's particularly typical in our district compared with, for example, North Devon, where there are more successful community-led developments. And it's something that I've been trying to sort of educate myself about since I've joined this council, but there isn't a plethora of information about it. I've just secured a housing needs survey for one of the parishes in my ward.

01:18:09That's been something I've been trying to secure since I joined the council I think there's one part of it is finding funding and the other part of it is actually educating councillors on what is the art of the possible and what we would like to see and we talk about it in this forum the difference between what we can actually achieve and what we would like to achieve but how can we go about that, how can we use our position as district councillors to make our parishes aware of the resources available and to facilitate those community-led development groups or groups that might do that. So I would support potentially looking at an envelope for funding. I wouldn't necessarily suggest that we just make it available to every ward, every parish. I think there needs to be a level of onus on them to come forward and ask for it and have a plan as to what they want the money for um thank you thank you Councillor Fitzgerald I was just uh briefly whispering to mr Freeman there I think we'll take those points

01:19:19Away for that event um that we'll be organizing this quarter and look at doing something around best practice what's the art of the possible um what have other plans in in east heaven done and because we we already have all of that knowledge you know angela is a a veritable wealth of information about all of the plans that we have so we'll take that away and pick it up Councillor Faithfull please thank you chair just following on from all the comments have been made by other councillors the one point of town and parish councils is that they do not have a limit on how much they can adjust their precinct by which everybody else Devon County and district councils we do have a limit but as it has been said it the check the amount of change will be quite substantial bearing in mind not just for this at town Autry town we've got Devon County libraries looking at town funding we've got East Devon looking at parks and green spaces transferred over and they will need to get we need

01:20:42To get our precinct sorted out probably this month to get for next year so can we please get our as much information as quickly as possible because you know we've got so many other things we're having to consider in our pre-seat for next year thank you chair thank you Councillor Faithfull Councillor Davey being a chair and I think in the letter we could also point out the inconsistency in saying you're supportive of neighborhood planning while removing the funding although I take your point which I hadn't really considered and Councillor Blakey made it very eloquently as well about the removal of local voices from planning decisions and and I I particularly deplore the presentation of local councils are somehow obstructing the planning process when actually they're often just an integral part of it and and produced better decisions, not necessarily refusals, but much better quality development as a result of the process.

01:21:54I think I do support the principle of attempting to continue to support local parish and town councils in their preparation, and I think a lot will want to come forward with amended plans. But I think it might be useful rather than making an open-ended commitment that we need to maybe come back with another report about how many plans actually might need that funding if we look at how many are in preparation at a given time and the kind of funding support they might need.

01:22:34And then we could work out the cost implications and maybe then find some way of kind of making the case at least that planning requires that kind of budget in order to continue supporting neighbourhood plans. Otherwise, we're just kind of approving the principle, but without any figures or detail to back it up. I would suggest that was the recommendation that another report comes back on the cost implications rather than simply saying we support the principle and then trying to think well where's the money going to come from I think given the time scales that report would probably have to go to um either the overview and scrutiny meeting that's looking at the budget or straight to cabinet rather than bacteria if that was to be the approach um but perhaps mr Freeman can offer some thoughts if we go down that road and Councillor How thank you very much chair and to follow on what others have said actually this is a blatant attempt to squash local opinions I'll say carefully not necessarily democracy but it is opinions that are put forward in a structured way that blatantly

01:23:53The government doesn't like and doesn't want to hear about following up on numerous other points yes parish and town councils can set their own precepts with no limit so they can up them quite easily so being careful and mindful of that I think if we're going to contribute I think we should contribute to neighborhood plans I'm wary of our budget constraints at the same time so a a lower level would make me a lot happier you know it's fairly obvious 27 20 well 26 27 plans over the last eight years or so even if they all did it again that's only 27,000 in a year of 1,000 pounds each times by whatever number and Councillor Bailey actually puts in but I do think the local parish or town needs to foot the majority of the bill because it benefits them directly the issue I've always had with neighborhood plans is what we as a community as East Devon rarely did and that is they were designed to enable development not to restrict developments and that is a fundamental issue with

01:25:06Nearly all our neighborhood plans I was lucky with our my custom Mary the neighborhood plan came up at the right time we pushed it through and got the review done and it has an allocation for the development that the our Local Plan our emerging Local Plan was proposing for my village but the residents wanted in a different location simple nice and easy and we managed to get that through so there is that caution retail of don't think of neighborhood plans as a restrictor you've got to think of it as a neighbor and Councillor Fitzgerald's point is absolutely spot-on we have for too long in our communities try to do the wrong thing in the right way but the wrong thing and we do need to look at how our communities can take back that control to get the exact type of development that they want and benefit and follow others it's not just what we as East Devon do which we have done very well we need to look at the wider pictures of what other communities have done and how they've

01:26:11Achieved some of their fabulous things throughout the county you know of what they've done so I fully support that but that was just my thoughts thank you okay thank you Councillor Howe um other than Councillor Parr every Councillor On committee has now spoken um so for good order I'm going to propose the recommendations as written and then come to Councillor Bailey uh for some uh some wording of her amendment please you are Councillor Bailey Councillor Bailey I did also say her so I was going to make a recommendation that the committee recommends development of a grant scheme to provide financial support the development of neighborhood plans and and requests a report is brought back the next Strategic Planning Committee and the second one is something like the committee recommends to the finance portfolio holder that an appropriate budgetary provision is made for the new grant scheme for the budget 2627 could you say that again please slightly slower the committee recommends the development of a grant scheme to provide financial support for the development of neighbourhood plans

01:27:49And requests a report back to the next Strategic Planning Committee. But I know that's not until March. The second point being, a second recommendation being, the committee recommends to the finance portfolio holder, and I'm not sure whether that's the right way to do it, that an appropriate budgetary provision is made for the new grant scheme for the financial year 26-27.

01:28:49Yeah so uh those two proposals are proposed additions to the three recommendations that I've already proposed do we have a second of Councillor Bailey's amendment Councillor Bailey okay so bailey bailey there we go the dream team um so I'm going to open the floor again now if you have a comment it needs to be on the two additional amendments that have been proposed please not on anything else Councillor Blakey thank you chair it's a small amendment to the addendum if I may sorry it's only the addition of a couple of words because I think that one of the things we should be considering as part of this is if taking into account what Councillor Jung has said about the lack of funds within East Devon, could we use the wording grant or loan scheme where grant is used?

01:30:07Could a fixed-term loan be offered to those smaller parishes? It would mean that they would have to adjust their council taxes or find the funds from whatever other means they can. But if EDDC is not in a position to fund the extra, would a loan repayable over a shortish period be a sensible way to do it? So that is my suggestion, is that we do look at that as being a potential way forward.

01:30:41I think I know what Jess is going to say, but Councillor Payne.

01:30:46Thank you to Councillor Blakey. But knowing, as I do, the way smaller parishes work, loans, it's just overcomplicated and it's not going to work because it's just, it'll be too much paperwork, too complex. And the figures that we're talking about for East Devon are really comparatively small. And I just think it's just, you know, I think we either do the loan or, sorry, I'm at it, either do the grant or just don't overcomplicate it with loans.

01:31:13Thank you. Do you want to press the issue, Councillor Blakey? please say no yes no thank you Councillor Makey good Councillor Ringer thank you so I was just going to say you'd be if you took out that loan you'd be then paying it back to a different authority once we're being dissolved you know so I'm not sure if most council taxpayers would approve of that level of accountability I do say my opinion is I'm afraid that those three recommendations put forward by the officers are clear and I don't think we should expand on those I'm sorry this is not a good time as we're going into the end of our final term as a district council to start cluttering up how we enable the neighbourhood plans.

01:32:15I believe that what the officers have done and put forward is correct.

01:32:19Thank you, Councillor Ingham. Councillor Fitzgerald. Thank you. I would like to say that I do support this amendment extra recommendation. I don't envisage this involving an awful lot of money. I also agree we shouldn't overcomplicate it with extra loans. We're talking about small parishes that are most likely to benefit for whom, you know, putting up the precepts, they're already putting up their precepts because of the looming LGR.

01:32:54They are already, they may have already committed or at least may have already got consultations on how to spend their current seal funding. And so we're talking about over the next couple of years having a small pot of money available in the instance that neighbourhood plans or revisions might be held up or site allocations potentially may be held up because an amount of money, which to this council is a very small amount, is not available to the parish at that time.

01:33:28So I agree with the recommendation. I don't think we should be overthinking this or overcomplicating it.

01:33:35Thank you. Do any other members wish to speak on this? Councillor Davey. Quick question. Can councils use SIL funding for planned preparation? Parish councils can. Can the district council? all I know I was thinking of parishes yeah as we said in the report the neighborhood proportion we think can and other places have been um at least at least to some extent I think it's slightly different when it comes to our uh still potting that that's for strategic infrastructure so I don't think we can but I think there's there's a lot more flexibility in how neighborhood proportion is used so just before we go to a vote just to pick up on a procedural point with the second proposed amendment does that need to be that committee recommends to cabinet rather than the portfolio holder just thinking about our reporting lines and who makes the decisions ed says he would have thought so are you happy for it to be to it would be consistent yeah are you happy for it to to cabinet rather than portfolio holder okay thank you um yes yes boss yes I can

01:35:09Okay does anybody else wish to speak on the proposed amendments before we take a vote on them please Councillor Jung yeah just for clarity if it's going to cabinet would I be able to vote on this because I'll be predetermined I mean you wouldn't be the only one jeff I don't think so we've we've never been precluded from voting on stuff a cabinet that has been considered at SPC before I don't see any reason why we would be so mr. Hunter doesn't think so I think obviously ultimately it's up to whoever's giving the legal advice at that cabinet, but I don't think there'll be an issue.

01:36:06Okay, thank you, Mr. Hunter. Okay, I see no further hands, so just for everybody's absolute clarity, the text of the two proposed additions to the recommendations in front of us is as follows. So, proposed additional recommendation four, that committee recommends the development of a grant scheme to provide financial support for the development of neighbourhood plans and requests a report back to the next Strategic Planning Committee and proposed additional recommendation five committee recommends to cabinet that an appropriate budgetary provision is made for the new grant scheme for the financial year 26-27.

01:36:47Is everybody clear that we're voting to add those to the recommendations that I proposed earlier? Okay, in which case then can I ask all those in favour of that proposed amendment, please? I count eight. Those against. I count one and those abstaining, please. That's two, Councillor Powell. Okay, so that is carried, which brings us then back to the substantive amendments, which now include those two, which we've just voted to add.

01:37:31Can I ask if we can just go straight to a vote on those? Any problems with that? Okay. In which case, then, all those in favor of all five recommendations, please. I count 10. Those against and those abstaining. One. Okay. Those recommendations are carried then. Thank you, members. We have been going for 90 minutes, so I'm going to suggest that we take a five-minute comfort break.

01:38:04So could we have everybody back here please by 11 38 at the latest okay thank you members

01:47:58I allowed you four more minutes than I had stipulated because I'm feeling generous this morning um yes it's your belated christmas present from me um there we there we go okay uh agenda Item 8, then, please, the Employment Land Review 2425. Mr. Freeman, another 300 page paper for us.

01:48:22Thank you, Chair. Yes, so this is the latest in a series of annual monitoring reports on employment land provision in the district. So hopefully longstanding members of the committee will be familiar with the structure and form of these reports, like the housing ones. We try and bring them through on an annual basis so that we've got accurate monitoring data of provision, provision in particular in relation to focusing on sites where consent's been granted or there's extant consent within the monitoring year and consider issues around supply of employment land across the districts um this focusing on traditional employment uses so those um traditional b class uses that members might be familiar with so b2b general industrial b8 storage and distribution we've obviously now got the new e use class um that was introduced by the government which gives a broader range of employment uses so we've stuck to what was effectively the b1 uses around offices research and development facilities which is now class e brackets g um for those keen watchers of the use classes order um and obviously we also include three generous uses don't fall into those

01:49:31Categories but are significant employment generating uses but we haven't included the wider e class uses because that takes in all sorts of things from gyms to sports clubs and other things that aren't traditional employment uses. And looking at sort of the larger sites so those in excess of 0.1 hectares in site area. So over the year 16 employment developments were completed amounting to an additional 5.76 hectares of employment land so that's more than was delivered in the previous year but still relatively low compared to a number of the previous years that we had albeit it can be significantly swayed by an individual development of large scale for example obviously the Lidl distribution centre obviously as a one-off massively increased provision in that particular year that we won't probably ever see again so and there's a total of 3.81 hectares that's under construction and a further 50 hectares that's consented or just under 50 hectares but not commence so there's quite a substantial amount of employment land that's in the pipeline as it were and then there's

01:50:40Also what's allocated in the new Local Plan which also provides quite substantial supply for the future so this all helps to deal with known latent demand in terms of employment space and future demand that's coming forward through the evidence that was produced through the economic development needs assessment and further work associated with that we're also as you'll be aware through Local Plan delivering more than is identified through that process which is around trying to deliver increased self-containment in the existing towns achieve high levels of self-containment within Marlcombe Newtown as well as bringing forward mixed-use developments within lots of those locations to help to try and deliver those sites because there are issues in terms of the basic economics of delivering employment spaces in the district But in many cases, the cost of delivering the infrastructure and the cost of construction of employment spaces versus the future returns means it's not as economically attractive as we might like to deliver employment spaces in much of the district, particularly outside of the West End, where the economics of the Exeter market helps to boost the economics of that and boost supply.

01:51:59Um so uh just I wasn't going to go through in detail the report as the chair identifies about 300 pages of it and obviously looking at individual sites um probably isn't for the role of the committee um so I'll just draw out those main headlines there are a couple of issues with the details that have been uh brought to my attention I just wanted to touch on one was that um on page 157 in the uh the main monitoring report there's a reference to outline consent having been granted for development at Hairpath Road, Seton.

01:52:32And the planning application 22, oblique 2781, oblique M-O-U-T. Just to clarify, there is a resolution to approve subject to a Section 106 agreement, but the decision has not yet been issued. So there is a need to clarify that in the final version of the report. It was also brought to my attention at briefing that there's a site at New Court Barton on Clyst Road, Cliss St Mary which is an employment site which is not included within this work I think that's a result of the unusual way in which that site came forward and retrospective consent being granted some years ago and while there's been some additions since then they've not as yet had consent so there are there are issues outstanding there that are being resolved you'll see that appendix 1f of the report there's a growing list of sites and issues to be investigated in terms of the next iteration of this report um so I'd recommend that we add that particular site to that list of of sites to be considered in a future monitoring report there are also some issues that

01:53:39Councillor Jung mentioned to me at the start of the meeting as well around some of the boundaries that are drawn in terms of sites within his patch so I wondered if a general resolution might be to give delegated authority to add to the list of issues identified in appendix 1f and if members have further detailed issues they wish to draw attention to if they wish to email me then perhaps a resolution that gives delegated authority in consultation with the chair to add to that list of issues and we can pick those up in the next iteration of the report um but quite keen to get this version uh published as as evidence-based for the Local Plan these are more minor issues that we can pick up in the next iteration of the report so uh the recommendation as things stand is the Strategic Planning Committee note the information set out in the employment land review 24 25 and agree for it to be published on the council's website given what I've just said I would ask that there's an additional recommendation that delegated authority be

01:54:47Given to myself in consultation with the chair to add to the list of additional sites and future issues uh in appendix 1f of the report to include um future monitoring of new court barton Clyst road Clyst mary and other sites as to be determined under those delegated powers um so subject to that recommendation um I'll hand over to chair thank you thank you mr Freeman questions please I'm going to come to Councillor Jung first while he remembers that I said questions The question is, there are many farms that have diversified quite correctly with applying for planning permission for industrial uses on their farms.

01:55:39Have we covered those in the report? Because it becomes a bit of a fudge sometimes of, well, is it agricultural or is it industrial? Then, an issue that came up some years ago, we introduced the Villages Plan, which had Hillbaston and Greendale as important industrial sites or employment sites.

01:56:12Um how much weight is that villages plan going to have on uh uh on planning applications in the view that we're having a new um Local Plan thank you thank you Councillor Jung Councillor Faithfull thank you chair um how can this be particularly accurate when so many places are missing from the list I can identify about at least five places in Autry Parish they're not included on the list we've got nothing over in the dark side Upton Pine and I know there's places out there quote some quite substantial another question what is the situation with places like Rockbeer Hill quarry and was it Black hill quarry would be common which are not included on the list but they are most definitely seem to be having employment taking place on them despite the fact they're supposed to be getting restored to the original landscape after the quarry has finished thank you chair any further questions Councillor Davey thank you I mean I noticed reading the report that loss of employment land doesn't always necessarily mean loss of employment does

01:57:46It unless it's for housing obviously but if a change of use takes place from a warehouse to a gym it's no longer counted as employment land I think you said but it's obviously still employing people and what interests me is not so much employment land but what kind of jobs do we have um and and what are the average um sort of earnings from those do we get any separate information about actual employment and how people are employed and um and and kind of an idea of kind of salary ranges because I know one of our ambitions is always to try and improve the sort of earning capacity of people within the area and aiming to foster those high-tech jobs which often are better paid and I read an interesting article the other day about some warehousing jobs which often tend to be zero hours minimal payment the kind of basic uh basic wage um so uh do we get any separate information on actual jobs rather than just employment land but uh comprehensive though the uh report is well uh I I thought so

01:59:19But Councillor Faithfull has pointed out a few inconsistencies you're asking for an even longer report ollie mr Freeman be careful what you wish for um yes so if I come back to cancer young's uh point which I think runs through a lot of this in terms of um agricultural diversification and I think this is one of the reasons the new court barton site that I mentioned was missed is that it came through as an uh an agricultural diversification it was farm buildings that were converted and then it's gradually grown from there and I think it's picking up at what point the site grows to a point where it meets our threshold and should be included in this work and I think in the meantime the threshold of what we've been monitoring has been dropping I think this work started off as quite a high level looking at the large strategic employment sites and we've gradually tried to drill down into more detail realizing that we've got a number of these smaller employment sites in rural areas that

02:00:21Are playing a significant role in adding to our base of employment land, and we weren't picking up on that. And I think effectively some of these sites is hard to necessarily pick up from a desk-based exercise when they go from being a small-scale agricultural diversification to turning into a business park or some kind of employment space of substance that needs to be included in this work. And this is where members' local knowledge may help us in terms of adding to that base and future sites that we should be monitoring so quite keen if there are sites that are missing um I think Councillor Faithfull also mentioned rock beer quarry which now he mentions it I think is another one we've identified is missing from from this as well so um they're good points and happy to take those forward as I say um if members agree to the delegated authority we can add those into the list of sites to be looked at in future so they're noted in this report and then pick them up in

02:01:17The monitoring next time so we look at that in more detail and pick that up but that's I think where they're being missed is because of that that shift is not necessarily clear at what point it falls within the scope of this work in terms of the villages plan well as you said Councillor Jung it's being superseded by the new Local Plan so alongside the current Local Plan it's it's fundamentally out of date um and it carries weight in decision making but that has to be limited by the fact that it's out of weight and we're obviously giving increasing weight to the new Local Plan as that comes forward which will ultimately supersede it um at the point of adoption so it's it's kind of being faded out as we fade in um the the the new Local Plan um in terms of the faithful's comments uh yeah as I say I acknowledge there are some sites that have been missed for the reasons as I've said if you want to email me a list of those sites to say

02:02:18Uh if members give me the delegated for the restful we can add those into the appendix and we can make sure those are picked up in future but I don't think it undermines you know the legitimacy of this work as an evidence base for for where we are in terms of Local Plan works It's a relatively small size that make a contribution and should be acknowledged, but I don't think it fundamentally changes the outcome of the work.

02:02:43Coming to Councillor Davey' points, yeah, I mean, I think it's a good point that employment land loss doesn't necessarily mean loss of jobs. In fact, if you look at the report, the biggest loss of employment land in terms of a single loss was a site at Hill Barton Business Park, which went into an E-class use that's a gym or sports facility. But the number of jobs that were provided in that were the same as the number of jobs that were lost from the last business that occupied the premises that had been vacant for some time and marketed before we'd accepted it going to a different use.

02:03:18So it didn't actually lead to a loss of jobs arguably a loss a loss of potential jobs in that there could have been more people employed in that space had it been put to different use but having established there wasn't demand for an alternative use we kind of had to accept the position so it is more complex than just looking at the employment land and I would acknowledge that but equally we're producing it for a planning purpose and the control we have as a planning authority is over the land and its use, hence why we focus on that. I have had discussions with our economic development team in the past about looking at information we have about jobs and how we can relate this to that jobs data, but part of the difficulty is the jobs data is about the people that live in East Devon, not necessarily the jobs that are based in East Devon.

02:04:09So you end up pulling in data from people that actually might work in Exeter or in Somerset or commute out of the districts, which then skews the data because it's not actually about the jobs in East Devon. And there is no data set that tells us about just the jobs in East Devon. It's the census data that's telling us about the people that live here, whether they work here or not.

02:04:35And equally wouldn't pick up people like me that commute into the districts. um so it's a bit more complete complex unfortunately to pull together that information we have made a stab at it in in a past iteration of this I recall probably about five years ago but I don't think it was really statistically very applicable because of those issues um so I'm reluctant to sort of try and do that um with the data that we've got um but one thing I would say a word of sort of reassurance in terms of the the strategy we've been trying to promote as you rightly say it was about particularly in the um growth points of the enterprise owners now is about trying to close this gap between wages and house prices by um encouraging uh roles to come in that are sort of higher skilled higher paid um I mean the evidence that suggests that that strategy is is working the affordability ratio is dropping um I think a couple of years ago we were up to something like salaries were um something like um sorry house prices something like 10 times

02:05:44Average salaries it's down to about 8.5 now I think off the top of my head um which has because that feeds into the um standard method has actually reduced our housing requirements from what it would otherwise be still gone up overall because of the other issues in terms of government policy but it's not gone up as much as it would otherwise have done because of that affordability ratio improving um so that does suggest that um we're an improving position in terms of that relationship between salaries and house prices which is can only be a good thing um I'll leave there for a moment thank you chair okay thank you mr Freeman um Councillor Faithfull can I come back with this rock beer hill quarry thing because rock beer hill when it would they started quarrying it the condition was you know this was explained to me by the quarry manager when I was doing it for a geography project quite some years ago that they had to restore the landscape of the hill after they finished quarrying it and now we've not only got we

02:06:58Got key link is it Devon County Council Southwest highways and the latest one is we got a Amazon distribution depot on that site and it's like are they supposed to be doing this why are we having this as all this employment when it's supposed to be restoring the landscape so I don't think that's really a question for us to pick up during the meeting Peter because that's quite specifically about one individual site and it's it's not really going to the substance of the report that's in front of us but I'm sure mr. Freeman can pick that up with the team and come back to you separately about that are there further questions about the report Councillor Blakey thank you in the last year of the delivery floor space the the additional floor space created is any of that been in properties buildings areas owned by East Edmund District Council I think I know the answer but I don't know for certain without trolling through because the answer will be will be in there in the sense that if I

02:08:18Checked it against records of sites that we own but as far as I'm aware no it's the answer okay question just staying at the death yes just a question page 20 of the report 7.3 Exeter Science Park has 13 empty units which account for off top of my head about 10% of all empty units across East Devon is there can can you explain why why this is why there seems to be such a high level of empty units I also don't think that's necessarily a question for today and I doubt it's one that Ed has the answer to now Ed says he doesn't have the answer um that that's perhaps a question for um either the economy or the finance portfolio holders or indeed mr wood who sits on their board um go on 2.7 is that referring to individual units rather than because it's saying point naught one is that referring to unit size or because it's the wrong number if it's for the actual site but if it's for units and it says point one and whatever the figure is for the buildings

02:09:562.7 have you got the wrong the point in the wrong place or are you talking about a different size of whatever sorry you mean it should be 0.1 hectares rather than I'm confused what's the question yeah looking at 2.7 cutoff threshold that is typically 0.01 it says it refers to that figure refers to site the next figure 50 meter squared floor space refers to buildings 0.01 hectares is 100 square

02:11:13Meters I have just googled it the the conversion is correct the points in the right place yes a site can be measured in hectares it would be a small site but it would still be a site that is what it says it has a figure for both, Peter. If you read the rest of the sentence, the 0.01 hectares or greater in size applies to sites. It says only include sites that are 0.01 hectares, 100 metres squared or greater in size, and buildings which are 50 metres squared floor space or greater in size. I'm going to move us on. I'm going to move the recommendations that are, the recommendation that is set out in the report with the addition of delegated authority for the Assistant Director of Planning, Strategy, and Development Services in consultation with the Chair to add additional sites to appendix, what was it, appendix F of the report, Mr. Freeman?

02:12:36Appendix 1F of the report and encourage members to send in anything that they think should be picked up in future versions of the report, please. Does anybody want to talk further about those recommendations? No? Okay. in which case then all those in favour please I think that's unanimous so that's clearly carried thank you members which brings us then to agenda item 9 proposed response to consultation on the evolving Local Plan for Torbay Mr Freeman should we upset some of our neighbours well they're not really neighbours thank you chair yes so this is to make members aware of Torbay's council's regulation 18 draft Local Plan consultation which is out at the moment members will recall that Torbay have in the past indicated that they would not be able to meet their current housing need and would be looking for authorities within the Exeter housing market area which includes East Devon to help them to address that issue we wouldn't usually otherwise have brought um a plan for an authority that isn't a direct neighbor uh through to you but

02:14:01Because of that position it becomes relevant for us to comment on their their plans um as as we have done in the past and um long-standing members of the committee may recall we've commented previously on work that they've been doing in relation to to this um and made similar points to what we're proposing to make in terms of of this report because fundamentally they have an identified housing need through the standard method of 950 dwellings per year, they are proposing to meet less than half of that, in fact 42% of it, because there's reference in their plan to 400 homes per year at least to be delivered, leaving quite a substantial shortfall. And no real indications about how that should be dealt with other than that it should be accommodated elsewhere in Devon so I was just we've not had further detailed conversations with them or seen detailed evidence to back up their assumptions in relation to that and obviously we we question whether or not that is a legitimate approach to address their need I think previously at meetings you'll be aware

02:15:16That Teambridge included some wording in their Local Plan when it went through examination about this issue about leaving it open for plan review in the events that neighboring authorities couldn't meet their housing need and obviously they are a neighboring authority of Torbay um we felt it prudent and you might recall we've included similar wording in in our proposed Local Plan um to to cover our position in terms of that because the duty to cooperate requires us to have have regard to neighboring authorities in this case Torbay isn't a neighbour of ours and we would strongly make the argument that meeting Torbay's need within East Devon is fought with difficulties in itself in that the geographical location of East Devon in relation to Torbay makes that challenging to see how additional housing here would meet that need not to mention differences in in in house prices and demand if someone has a need to live Torbay how is additional housing in East Devon going to meet that that need so we have some fundamental concerns in relation to that these feed into sort of the comments that we're feeding

02:16:25Back in terms of this which are very similar to comments we've made in a previous response to work that they were doing about how Torbay should be perhaps more proactive in looking at how it can meet its need within its own boundaries should it potentially be be a case where they're simply saying to government they can't meet the the need that's identified because of the um the issues that they highlight um so I won't go through the comments in in detail that they're in in the report but the proposal is that we make those comments robustly back to torbay in terms of their consultation um on their their plan um and ask them to take those into account um so I think the exact wording the recommendation is that Strategic Planning Committee agree that this council respond to the Torbay Local Plan consultation using the text set out in this committee report advising about concerns around their current policy position in respect of housing provision. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Freeman. First question from me. Are any authorities that

02:17:30Actually neighbour Torbay responding along the same lines do we know? I don't know what responses they will be sending I know we're not alone in having the concerns that we have um I think there are some challenges in terms of the point at which neighboring authorities are in the plan making process obviously team ridge um you know have uh in the final stages sort of adopting their plan um I think there are other neighboring authorities have uh plans that were adopted only a couple of years ago um so this is part of the issue of them looking kind of beyond neighboring authorities for help with this um because of where the neighboring authorities are in the plan making process but um that doesn't overcome the issues that we're raising I don't think um and and others I would imagine we'll raise who are authorities within the Exeter housing market area but not adjoining torbay um I would wouldn't be surprised if similar comments were made but I don't know for sure um what response they will be making okay thank you mr Freeman further questions

02:18:39Councillors davie then jess bailey then brian bailey um from reading the report on page 297 of point b I it appears to suggest torbay hasn't even done a call for science um and if not would inspector accept a plan that had been put forward without even attempting to find out if there are available sites in the area or is it simply they've done a call for sites and it's not come up with sufficient for the the amount of development that the government requires of them Councillor Jess bailey thank you um I don't disagree with the text of um the uh recommended by officers but I wonder if it's sufficiently robust because I mean we can hardly meet our own targets let alone trying to meet some other authority that's miles away so I know we have a duty to cooperate but I wonder whether we should be a bit more blunt shall we sign it off with bog off Councillor Brian Bailey thank you chair I find myself agreeing totally with Councillor Jess Bailey I think this is a very

02:20:14Just to remind members we are in questions still may I express an opinion on this you may express a question Councillor Bailey well my question is as mentioned by my colleague we are struggling but we're having difficulty in getting our numbers correct, our numbers up so why on earth would you want to take someone else's numbers when they appear not to have bothered? This appears to me to be an excellent case of buck passing and if it works for them, why doesn't it work for us?

02:20:47Why don't we say to North Seven, here you take our housing allocation, we don't want them Solve a hell of a lot of problems Mr. Freeman will sleep better at night Thank you Chair The answer to your question is we wouldn't want to, Brian, but there's a duty to cooperate, so we have to at least listen to them. Mr. Freeman, are there any other answers you wanted to give to – I think there was one question that I did take.

02:21:08Yes, so there was a question from Councillor Davey. I mean, as I understand it, they have done a call for sites, and nowhere near enough sites came forward. I think what we're saying in point B in the response is that, particularly because Torbay is quite a small geographical area, that if through their own work they're identifying sites that perhaps haven't been put forward in a call for sites but are appropriate sites that they might support for development that perhaps they should take a more proactive approach and approach the landowners and sort of say would you be willing to bring that site forward?

02:21:39Can we help to support it coming forward in some way to be a bit more proactive than just a call for a site in response? Which to some extent we might have liked to have done but such a large geographical area is just not feasible But Torbay is a much, much smaller geographical area, so it feels like perhaps a more proactive approach like that could be achievable, particularly given how far short of their housing need they're proposing to go in terms of their delivery.

02:22:07I would say as much as I agree with the kind of pushing back against Torbay's need coming to East Devon, I do have some sympathy for the issues that they're experiencing given such a small geographical area and the environmental constraints that they have. and I think tour bay counts probably deserve some credit in terms of what they are doing in terms of I'm aware that they are proactively buying up um sort of former uh hotel and b&b sites and things and redeveloping them for housing purposes themselves as their own proactive response to some of these issues so it's not like they're not doing anything to address the issue they are trying to be proactive um and deliver uh housing sites and regenerates um you know run down old hotels that they have within within their patch themselves um but um you know that's um tip of the iceberg in terms of of the numbers that they they really need to deliver and I think they would acknowledge that um so I don't think that changes our response but just for balance I think it's

02:23:08Important to say that they are taking measures to try and address this issue okay thank you [member of the public] Bailey is it an actual question this time okay Councillor Bailey question to our well-known solicitor Damien and asked him are we legally obliged to go along with this awful idea thank you very much yes we have to provide comment as set out in the report we don't have to agree with what they want but that's why Mr Freeman has drafted the report to give our comments I think the issue here uh Councillor In terms of the report is our response to their consultation it's they're not they're not asking us to take housing at this point in time what they're asking for is a response to their Local Plan consultation which is what we're proposing in terms of the duty to cooperate there's a legal requirement to comply with the duty to cooperate but it's not a duty to agree so we don't have to agree with them but we do have to have regard to what

02:24:23They're saying and communicate with them on these issues um and this is part of that process but I think the issue is is the response is suitably robust um and accurate response to send back in response to their consultation I'm going to move us to debate and I'm going to propose the recommendation that set out in the report from the chair does anybody wish to speak Councillor Jung and then Councillor How oh no thank you change your mind yeah Thank you, Chair. Having worked in Torbay for many years, I know it well. I know most of the rat runs and where all the queuing traffic is, et cetera.

02:25:12They have a tremendous challenge on their hands to find appropriate sites for building. It's, as Ed Freeman has said, no, it's very restrained already at the boundary. There are already substantial communities on the boundary just within South Hams and just within Timbridge. And they are almost on top of each other. So I've got a lot of sympathies for Torbay. when I saw what the housing number was going to be I was very surprised at that number so I've got a lot of sympathy for them but we also have our own problems with finding the housing how housing numbers here so the response I think is appropriate and I would be supporting this thank you does anybody else want to say that they agree with the recommendation I'm going to take us to a vote then please members all those in favor of the recommendation as set out in the report please that's unanimous Thank you very much, members.

02:26:41Agenda item 10, the infrastructure funding statement. Mr Freeman. Thank you, Chair. So, again, this is a regular item that comes through every year. We have to publish an infrastructure funding statement which sets out monies that we've received and spent in terms of SEAL and Section 106 monies across the year. And so this is the latest iteration of that report. It follows the same template and form as last year's report, which members may recall is a new approach to this in terms of trying to make it more engaging and interesting as a document through the use of sort of publishing software to liven it up.

02:27:29Their headlines really are in terms of the reporting year is eight Section 102 agreements were signed securely just under £5 million in financial contributions and 415 affordable dwellings. A total of £1.622 million was collected in financial contributions and £734,000 was spent on community infrastructure. Obviously, the current position is a number of spend decisions were made, and those are currently being progressed through funding agreements to take those forward.

02:28:05Two of those have been completed in respect of eczema for albicub and pin host surgery. Others are being progressed to take those forward. But that's essentially the current position, and that's what's set out in the report and the funding statement. I would say uh the funding statement should have been published before the end of 2025 so apologies for the delay here there was a last minute issue when it was going to go onto the last agenda whereby um finance identified an error in some of the figures which then delayed it um but I'm not aware of any penalty for publishing a few days late other than I'd get a reminder I think by the end of the month if it wasn't up by then so um uh hopefully members are happy we can get it published um as soon as possible and fulfill that obligation of legislation so the recommendation is that the committee note the contents of the report and the requirement to provide an annual infrastructure funding statement and that members approve the publication and submission of it

02:29:04To government um based on the information detailed in the report thank you thank you mr Freeman questions please councillors howe jess bailey and faithful I'll start with the obvious one um on the summary of neighbourhood sill, I'm wondering why one of my parishes isn't listed at all. Bishops Clyst or Clyst St Mary. And they've got sizable sill funds sitting around. Had you not heard, Councillor Howe, we decided to abolish Clyst St Mary, I'm afraid.

02:29:41Councillor Jess Bailey, is it the same thing? Similarly, Aylesby is not on here.

02:29:49Councillor Faithfull, your question. so when do spending get put onto the reports are they when they start a project or when they finish the project because we've I think we've got a project in Autry where which I believe is using still funding as part of it which is just started will that be in the this year's report or will it be in the next report when it's finished do you know so so the reports for the financial year to the end so the 24 25 financial year um so anything that's um come forward since then will go into next year's um infrastructure funding statement um as to why I was being implicit mary or not on him my initial response was going to be that I assume they hadn't received or spent anything in the year but then there are parishes on here that that applies to it we've still got them listed with a remaining amount so we're saying that Aylesbury and Clisset Mary have outstanding still amounts that are not on here no but have they received anything either in the year spent anything in the year or have

02:31:19Anything outstanding I'm pretty sure okay but either way you've got stockland here with no receipts no zeroes all the way across so either we're listing them all or we're not yeah no it's a good point I don't genuinely don't know why they've been missed um if members are happy to agree subject to delegated authority to myself and consultation with the chair I can get those added in and make sure that any others that are missed are identified and added in as well and apologies for the error. Can I just ask another question so I think we publish them on our website and we submit them don't we to government what does government do with it do they publish it somewhere or do they ever ask any questions or do they ever come back to you and say what about this or what about that do we ever hear anything from them? I've never heard anything from them in response to it I think the only thing I heard one year was someone asking whether or not we

02:32:26Posted it or not responded and we had but I've not had any comeback in terms of the information or anything well it's published on our website so they just pick it up from there, I don't think they publish it anywhere else it's just on our website Any further questions? No? Okay. In which case then I will propose the recommendations as written from the Chair, save to amend recommendation two to add on the end with delegated authority for the Assistant Director of Planning, Strategy and Development Services in consultation with the Chair to make any amendments needed to pick up missing information.

02:33:18Everybody clear what we are voting on? Councillor Jess Bailey? I think we should specifically name those parishes. There might be others. I know but I think we should say Aylesbeer. To pick up missing information regarding Aylesbeer, Cliss and Mary and any others that are identified. Happy? Okay, all those in favour please. That's unanimous. Thank you very much members. That brings us to the end of our January meeting. I'll see you in March.