Agenda and minutes

1.       When the continuous alarm sounds you must evacuate the building by the nearest available fire exit. Members and visitors should proceed to the visitors’ car park at the front of the building and await further instructions (during office hours staff should proceed to their usual assembly point; outside of office hours proceed to the visitors’ car park). Please do not re-enter the building unless instructed to do so.

       In the event of a fire any person with a disability should be assisted in leaving the building.  

2.       To receive any announcements from the Chair of the Meeting and/or the Chief Executive.

64.1          The evacuation procedure, as noted on the Agenda, was advised to those present.

65.1          Apologies for absence were received from Councillors H C McLain, P D McLain, P W Ockelton, G M Porter, P Smith and M R Stewart. 

Pursuant to the adoption by the Council on 24 January 2023 of the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct, effective from 1 February 2023, as set out in Minute No. CL.72, Members are invited to declare any interest they may have in the business set out on the Agenda to which the approved Code applies.

66.1          The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 24 January 2023 and took effect on 1 February 2023. 

66.2          There were no declarations made on this occasion.

At its meeting on 9 November 2023, the Executive Committee considered the Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Strategic and Local Plan Public Consultation (Regulation 18) and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that it be APPROVED for consultation under Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning Act (Local Planning)(England) Regulations 2012; and that authority be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Lead Member for Built Environment, to prepare diagrams illustrating the general location of development options for inclusion in the consultation document, and to make any other necessary minor amendments, corrections and additions to the document prior to publication for consultation.

67.1          At its meeting on 9 November 2023, the Executive Committee considered the Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Strategic and Local Plan Public Consultation Document and recommended to Council that it be approved for consultation under Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 and that authority be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Lead Member for Built Environment, to prepare diagrams illustrating the general location of development options for inclusion in the consultation document, and to make any other necessary minor amendments, corrections or additions to the document prior to publication for consultation.

67.2          The report which was considered by the Executive Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 1-47.

67.3          In proposing the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the Lead Member for Built Environment advised that as Members were aware, the Council had agreed to formally work together with Cheltenham Borough and Gloucester City Councils on a Strategic and Local Plan (SLP).  This was the start of a long journey and, for now, it was not at the stage of needing to prioritise anything.  The formative Regulation 18 stage was about asking people what they thought the plan should contain and obtaining views on broad policy options and issues – it was about big questions such as how and where to respond to the needs of a growing population and how to address climate change and nature recovery through the planning system.  It was therefore proposed that the draft document, attached at Appendix 1 to the report, be published to form the basis of a wide ranging round of public consultation and engagement starting in December.  This included a draft vision and strategic objectives which had been discussed at various points with Tewkesbury Borough Council’s Planning Policy Reference Panel, and equivalent Member panels across the partnership.  It also set out a range of issues and posed 31 questions to start the conversation with communities and the development industry.  The Planning Policy Reference Panel recently met jointly with the Member Working Groups from Cheltenham Borough and Gloucester City Councils and a large number of helpful comments and suggestions were made on an earlier version of the document. To a large extent, these were reflected in the revised draft consultation document set out in the Council papers.  She reiterated that one of the recommendations was that the document be further refined before being published in December. This would include grammatical and Plain English improvements but also conceptual diagrams, which were currently being drawn up, and would attempt to generally illustrate – without showing site details – the broad patterns of development that would arise from the various growth options described in the document.  Gloucester City Council had approved the document and Cheltenham Borough Council would be considering the document at its Council meeting on 11 December 2023.  It was proposed to launch the consultation immediately after to ensure that documents were in the public domain before  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67a

At its meeting on 9 November 2023, the Executive Committee considered the Tewkesbury Interim Housing Position Statement and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that it be APPROVED and published to explain the Council’s approach to decision-making on planning applications involving the provision of housing; and that authority be delegated to the Associate Director: Planning, in consultation with the Lead Member for Built Environment, to make any necessary minor amendments and corrections to the document prior to publication.

67.13        At its meeting on 9 November 2023, the Executive Committee considered the Tewkesbury Interim Housing Position Statement and recommended to Council that it be approved and published to explain the Council’s approach to decision-making on planning applications involving the provision of housing and that authority be delegated to the Associate Director: Planning, in consultation with the Lead Member for Built Environment, to make any necessary minor amendments and corrections to the document prior to publication.

67.14        The report which was considered by the Executive Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 48-60.

67.15        In proposing the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the Lead Member for Built Environment advised that this Agenda item was in response to the recent Planning Inspectorate appeal decisions that confirmed Tewkesbury Borough Council was now unable to demonstrate a five year housing land supply.  Members had previously received informal briefings on this issue, including discussing the consequences of applying the “tilted balance” to planning decisions on housing applications, in line with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) rules; however, this was a highly technical area and one which often gave rise to confusion and concern amongst communities, members of the public and even some developers.  The situation was often mischaracterised as one where the local plan policies were out of date and planning permissions for housing must be granted but the truth was much more measured. The NPPF certainly introduced a presumption in favour of granting sustainable development for many - although not all - housing applications as a result of the shortfall.  This meant that policies on matters such as settlement boundaries were to be treated as out-of-date and the overall outcome must be that more approvals were given in order to generate the deliverable sites to make up the shortfall.  Nevertheless, the starting point for making decisions was the policies in the development plan, many of which remained fully up to date. In judging whether in an individual case the adverse impacts would “significantly and demonstrably” outweigh the benefits, it was still necessary to consider the Joint Core Strategy, Tewkesbury Borough Plan and relevant Neighbourhood Development Plan policies which were an important part of that balancing exercise.  This meant looking carefully at important matters such as highway safety, unneighbourly amenity impacts, design and layout, accessibility, harm to valued landscapes and so on.  With all this in mind, it was considered it would be helpful to publish an Interim Housing Position Statement clarifying the position in some detail, and this was set out at Appendix 1 to the report.  One of its purposes was to confirm there was a housing shortfall, and to acknowledge the need to remedy that, but it also highlighted the types of location and housing schemes which were more likely to be considered acceptable by the Council, and by appeal Inspectors, in making up the shortfall under the tilted balance.  The document also pointed to actions the Council could take, and encourage others  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67b