Agenda and minutes

Venue: Cabinet Briefing Room - Wallasey Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Brenda Hall  0151 691 8271

Items
No. Item

38.

Apologies For Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Foulkes, Councillor Lewis and Councillor Pilgrim.

39.

Members' Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest / Party Whip

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

 

Members are reminded that they should also declare whether they are subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

Minutes:

Members were asked to consider whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

 

Members were reminded that they should also declare whether they were subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

 

 

No such declarations were made.

40.

WIRRAL LOCAL PLAN - LETTER FROM SECRETARY OF STATE pdf icon PDF 75 KB

Report of the Assistant Director Environmental Services.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and outlined the procedure to be adopted in respect of the matter under consideration, reading out the requisition notice for the benefit of those members of the public in attendance.

 

The Assistant Director for Environmental Services introduced his report that had been prepared in response to Members’ enquiry into considering a letter from the Secretary of State seeking further information on plan-making in Wirral because of the Council’s failure to adopt a 2004 Act Local Plan. The report also provided information on the timetable and target dates in providing the long term vision, objectives and spatial strategy for the borough and the framework for future Development Plans.

 

Members raised a number of issues. Why are we behind on our targets and reasons for not keeping to timescales stated? Why no information has been sent to The Secretary of State and his Office and have other Authorities got their plans in place?

 

What work has been done to meet the National Housing Policy? Any update on the Local Development Schemes status. Why unlike neighbouring authorities have we not got our plans in place and where are we in regards with political decision making process.

 

The Assistant Director explained that there is a Local Development Scheme in two parts which has been published and shows real time updates on progress.

 

The Assistant Director is to raise the question with the Secretary of State as to why this has not been referred to in the letter.

 

The letter refers to the Neighbourhood Development Plan. The Council has plans in two areas Devonshire Park and Hoylake and 3 further areas are in the pipe line. (Birkenhead North &Tranmere, Leasowe & Beechwood)

 

The Assistant Director explained that meeting housing need was related to land allocation. The current analysis shows that Wirral does not have enough land to meet allocation. Work is being undertaken to establish the number of housing units to build and where they will be located. The Government has consulted on the methodology, but the consultation outcome is not known yet.

The Green Belt Review Methodology Consultation closed 6 December 2017. A report is expected next June/July to establish housing number’s and land allocation and will set out a 15 year supply broken down into 5 year supply.

 

Members questioned why the last 4 strategy timescales were not met as it was due to be completed in September 2017

 

The Assistant Director explained that plan making is a very slow as process. The main issue is a delay in housing needs assessment. The political decision making process also takes time. The process is set out in the timetable. The majority of the plan was already written in 2012. The critical issues are housing needs and allocations. There is an identified need for approximately 803 additional houses per year over the next 3 years. The past few years an average 500 units have been built per year.

 

A Member asked if the plan could be sent to Secretary  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.