Issue - decisions
Local Plan Annual Monitoring Report 2023-24
18/12/2024 - Local Plan Annual Monitoring Report
The Lead Planning and Implementation Officer presented the report that considered the Council’s Local Plan Annual Monitoring Report for the period 2024-2025.
Under current planning legislation, the Council was required to produce an Annual Monitoring Report (AMR). The main purpose of the AMR was to monitor the implementation of adopted Local Plan policies but it must also include information on the following:
- Progress of the Local Plan and any other related documents against agreed timetables;
- Neighbourhood Planning;
- The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) where this has been introduced;
- And how the Council has fulfilled its obligations under the Duty to Co-Operate.
The AMR must be made available on the Council’s website, at its main offices and at any other appropriate locations. The Council’s most recently published AMR covered the two-year period 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024. The new draft AMR for 2023 – 2024 was attached at Annex A and the key points of interest were summarised in Section 2 of the report and included: Local Plan Progress, Salt Garden Village Area Acton Plan, Supplementary Planning Documents, Neighbouring Planning, Community Infrastructure Levy, Duty to Co-Operate, Implementation of Local Plan Policies, Overall Strategy, Providing New Homes, Sustainable Economic Growth, Transport and Movement and Environmental and Heritage Assets.
The following points and suggestions were noted by the Committee:
- In table 10, column 2 provided the allocated total dwellings for the allocated sites.
- The Local Plan projected the numbers in column 3 were how many were anticipated to have been built on the site.
- Discussion with partners was ongoing around the County Wide Statement of Common Ground.
- The Heritage at Risk Register information was derived from the Heritage England website would need to be considered when commenting on the suitability of the Botley West Solar Farm.
- It was explained that there had been an imposition of Grampian conditions on new developments coming forward to ensure no dwellings were occupied before the identified sewage treatment works upgrades had been undertaken. The infrastructure required was contained in the infrastructure delivery plan and required partnership working with Thames Water.
- The issue in West Oxfordshire was that allocated larger sites had proved complex and therefore had undermined delivery and trajectory; these were the issues that West Oxfordshire faced and not land banking.
- In regard to issues with sewage and Thames Water, any work would need to be done within the revised Local Plan through the Infrastructure Delivery Plan to ensure proactively and resilience with partners. It was also suggested flooding should also be dealt with in a more responsive ways and it was requested that a more concerted effort needed to be included in the report next year. It was also requested that independent assessments from the community could influence a range of indicators and it was confirmed those would be looked at further for the next report.
- It was questioned why sewage was not mentioned as a pollutant and needed to be reflected as a contributor in the report.
- In regards to the Community Infrastructure Levy, a consultation on the draft charging was underway; however, there was no timetable for the examination and without a date programmed for that Officers could not commit to timeline. It was believed it would early next year at the very least.
- The housing supply could be increased through approving more development sites through the Local Plan. There have been some appealed decisions that have granted approval for development. There were some completions due and the position did fluctuate from year to year and needed to be reviewed regularly.
- In terms of affordable housing, a survey and viability assessment were being undertaken to determine whether the policy would be amended for the district.
- The Strategic Housing Team were working on evidence of the emerging Local Plan and to rebase the requirement and traveller accommodation would be added to the next report.
Thanks were given to Officers for the report by the Committee.
RESOLVED that the Committee noted the report and it was agreed that there were no recommendations to the Executive on 11 December 2024.