Neighbourhood Plan Committee

Minutes

Minutes of the NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN COMMITTEE meeting held on Thursday 7^th April 2022 at 19.30 pm

Virtual Attendees: Parish Councillors: Claire Tester, Ian Weir, Kristian Berggreen, Bill Hatton and Carolyn Barton

Clerk:  Ian Cumberworth

NP21/55 APOLOGIES: none

NP21/56 DISCLOSURE OF INTERESTS: None declared.

NP21/57 MINUTES to agree the Minutes of the Neighbourhood Plan Committee held on the 2nd September 2021.

&

Agree and accept the minutes from the informal virtual Neighbourhood Plan Committees held on the 9^th December 2021 and 3^rd March 2022.

NP21/58 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.

There were no members of the public present.

NP21/59 Community Led plan

The Clerk advised members that there appeared to be a limited pool of external entities who have experience in supporting Parishes in preparing community led plans also sometimes known as a parish plan. One organisation nationally that seems to have supported this type of work through their reginal network is ACRE – Action with Communities & Rural England. The local group is Action in Rural Sussex.

Advice has also been sought via the Clerk network organisation (WSALC) and I am currently awaiting more information.

Members were advised that in the event of only limited providers being identified where the personal skills of the person or company is of primary importance the Council standing orders (13.3 (vii) did provide flexibility to enable access to test the market outside of the standard arrangements subject to certain conditions being complied with.

Members discussed the proposed options and noted that Standing Order 13.3 (vii) could be utilised if necessary to source a suitable provider.

Members AGREED to this approach in the event of insufficient suitable providers being identified.

NP21/60 Mid Sussex District Plan Review –

Cllr Tester introduced the paper and initially sought whether there was any update from the MSDC Scrutiny meeting in January when they determined to pause the plan. Members were not aware of any progress but it was felt that MSDC maybe awaiting a response from Michael Gove (MP’s) office in response to their letter challenging the basis of development need and the reform of the calculation formula. It is understood a large number of authorities nationally have also written to Mr Gove’s office posing the same question.

Members were then taken through the Assessment criteria (Appendix 1) which MSDC had used to evaluate sites as part of the site assessment process. The basis of the assessments were represented by a combination of colour (traffic lights) and descriptors. Members acknowledged that the approach in the site assessment process completed by MSDC was somewhat different to the current plan.

In appendix 2 this detailed a map of the sites within the parish that were initially considered together with the final eight sites that progressed to the more detailed assessment phase. Members clarified that although more than eight sites were shown on the SHELAA site maps some of these sites had been sifted out at the initial evaluation stage by MSDC and did not progress to the more detailed evaluation stage.

As part of the review MSDC looked at eight sites within the parish of Hassocks, one of which was disregarded as it was disconnected from the defined built up area and settlement boundary. It was concluded that the development of this site did not meet the requirements of achieving sustainable development’. (ID – 682 – Ockley Lane and Wellhouse Lane)

The seven sites that underwent a more detailed review were:

ID	Site
1025	Land at Byanda ,Brighton Road
1022	Former Hassocks Golf Course
901	Open Space north of Clayton Mills
752	Land north of Friars Oak
742	Russel Nursery , Brighton Road
375	National Tyre Centre, 60 Keymer Road
210	Land rear of 2 Hurst Road

 

Within Appendix 2 it also detailed the assessments of each of the eight sites which members reviewed in turn and discussed the merits of these as they currently stood. Members expressed the view that when looking at the detailed assessments there did appear to be a number of assessments that could be reviewed to further strengthen the rationale to support the sites unsuitability for development if necessary.

Of the sites considered by MSDC only one site ‘Byanda’ was proposed as suitable for development within the proposed life of the District Plan which is currently subject to planning application which will be considered by MSDC in the near future. The summary MSDC conclusions were set out for each site in Appendix 3 which summarised the rationale for either rejecting the site or recommending further testing.

Members NOTED the comments within the assessments and indicated further work could be undertaken on the assessments if necessary post the outcome of the MSDC’s current pausing of the District Plan review to strengthen the assessment of the unsuitability of the sites for development.

NP21/61 Glover Landscape Report Consultation (SDNP) Cllr Weir and Cllr Barton attended a recent parish briefing from the South Downs National Park on the Glover report consultation. The SDNP were encouraging parishes to participate in the consultation. The members who attended the session felt the main concern was the suggestion to reduce the number of board members which they felt would impact adversely on representation and local democracy. After discussing various elements of the briefing members AGREED that the Clerk should submit a representation expressing the members concerns regarding the reduction of the board size. The Clerk undertook to submit this prior to the consultation closure date on the 9^th April.

NP21/62 Urgent Matters. None

NP21/63 DATE OF NEXT MEETING.  26^th May 2022.