Agenda item

To consider the draft consultation responses and to adopt the Tewkesbury Garden Communities Charter and commence the process of stakeholder ‘sign-up’. 

98.1          Attention was drawn to the report of the Executive Director: Place, circulated at Pages No. 89-180, and the amendment to Paragraph 2.2 of the report circulated separately, which set out the responses to the consultation on the draft Tewkesbury Garden Communities Charter.  Members were asked to consider the responses and to adopt the Tewkesbury Garden Communities Charter and commence the process of stakeholder sign-up.

98.2          In proposing the report recommendation, the Leader of the Council advised that, as part of the earlier gateway review of the Tewkesbury Garden Town Programme, the recommendations of which had been reported to Council in September 2023, it was proposed that a programme charter document be developed to help stakeholders better understand the concept and to set out a shared set of aspirations for the programme.  A draft charter had been issued for consultation in December 2023 and Appendix 1 to the report listed the comments received during the consultation with a series of responses detailing any actions/amendments included within the charter, attached at Appendix 2 to the report, which was proposed for adoption.  The proposal was duly seconded.

98.3          A Member indicated that some changes to the document had been agreed at the Assurance Board meeting last week which had not been tabled at this meeting and she asked if the proposal should be amended to include those.  The Member also asked if the document had been taken to the other community groups and the Oversight Board to confirm they were happy for it to be adopted.  In response, the Executive Director: Place confirmed those amendments would be factored in but the purpose of this report was for the Council to adopt the substantive vision.  He confirmed that the Oversight Board had been closely involved in shaping the charter, as had all of the other governance groups.  Another Member sought clarification regarding the map at Page No. 168 of the report as he was unclear as to how the suggestion that the Garden Communities would cover six potential areas had been reached.  The Executive Director: Place advised this was something which had been discussed by the Assurance Board and would be addressed. 

98.4          During the debate which ensued, a Member expressed the view that Appendix 1 of the report demonstrated that the Council had done great job of engaging and encouraging comments in relation to the draft charter; however, in terms of the responses to the comments these were somewhat bland answers to detailed questions and he would like to see more context.  With regard to Pages No. 129 and 136 of the report which related to the comments from the North Ashchurch Consortium, he acknowledged there seemed to be pushback around some of the aspirations, particularly in terms of being carbon neutral, and he hoped the Council would continue to be as robust as it could be - there were many examples of quality market and affordable housing developments with zero carbon emissions.  Another Member indicated that she had no issue with the document and whilst she understood it was intended that developers, particularly the North Ashchurch Consortium, would sign up to it she asked who else would be expected to, for instance, would it cover all developments already south of the A46 and all Parish Councils.  She asked what redress the Council would have in the event that development commenced and developers subsequently come back to say they could no longer apply the principles because they were not viable.  The Leader of the Council recognised that would be a challenge and the charter was part of the answer in terms of having something to hold developers to but the teeth would be the Strategic and Local Plan (SLP) which would allow the planning authority to hold all developers across the borough to the high standards which Members wanted to see.  The Executive Director: Place confirmed that anyone who had a stake in the concept of garden communities would be asked to sign up to the charter and he confirmed that Parish Councils had actively engaged with the current document so far along with the community groups.  The Lead Member for Built Environment expressed the view that, although there was no absolute power within the document, it was much better to have it than not and pointed out there would be 20% uplift on the price of houses built to the standards set out in the document which would be an incentive for developers.

98.5          A Member indicated that he had previously expressed a number of concerns with the concept of the charter which did not carry any weight in planning terms and he felt it was very much a public relations exercise.  He did not have a problem with the principles of sustainability, character and identity, and the links between infrastructure and existing communities, but he would like to see them adopted boroughwide and felt this made other areas look like they were being ignored.  He felt there should be a caveat to say that things could change in the future as developers would be the ones who dictated what they could deliver for the price people were prepared to pay.  The Leader of the Council agreed that the principles should be boroughwide and the garden communities would be the first step towards that.  He reiterated that the SLP would put the Council on a firm footing as a planning authority so developers could be held to a higher standard.   Another Member drew attention to Page No. 118 of the report and pointed out that the comment in relation to the consultation response stated that “Tewkesbury has ‘Garden Town’ status and as such seeks to provide for development of around 10,000 homes…”;however, she had thought it was now being called a garden community and, on that basis, she had told residents that it was more likely to be in the region of 4,000 houses.  The Leader of the Council agreed this could be confusing but indicated that, until a full assessment of the area had been undertaken, there would be no set number.  The Executive Director: Place advised that the planning of growth towards the target was the correct interpretation rather than specific achievement of that target as a number.  The Member indicated that she was confused by this as she had thought 4,000 houses had been agreed as being viable for a garden town and, if it was to be 10,000 she asked if houses could be retrofitted as she did not think that amount of new houses could be accommodated in the area shown on the map.  In response, the Leader of the Council advised that 4,000 was the amount associated with the North Ashchurch Consortium element of the garden communities and there was a wider project beyond that.  He agreed the 10,000 figure was confusing and had stated a number of times that a specific number could not be set – 10,000 could not be an absolute without an assessment of infrastructure and all of the wider sites.  The Executive Director: Place advised that the original concept and programme for the garden town had sought to achieve that number and the charter set out the context for why that would not be the case.  The figures were incremental rather than guaranteed.  This had been fed back to Homes England which understood the change in context, and the programme for delivering improved housing with the principles of development it would seek to achieve, and had given no indication that the status would be withdrawn.   A Member expressed the view that 10,000 homes in the garden communities area was a total impossibility as there was not enough land.  A number of the houses south of the A46 had already been built, had planning permission or were under construction and by 2026, the timeline for the garden communities development to start, there would be nothing left to develop in that area.  Furthermore, the principles within the charter bore no resemblance to what was currently being delivered so she felt it was necessary to be realistic as to what garden town status actually was.  The Leader of the Council felt that the charter was realistic and ultimately, as had been discussed previously, houses would be built regardless of whether the garden communities programme was delivered.  If there was a possibility that the situation could be improved then he felt the Council had a responsibility to try - nobody was promising that applying the charter boroughwide could change a house that had already been built or which had planning permission but it was setting out the direction for new development going forward.

98.6          Upon being put to the vote, it was

RESOLVED          That the draft consultation responses be NOTED and the Tewkesbury Garden Communities Charter be ADOPTED and the process of stakeholder sign-up be commenced.