To receive an oral update from the Portfolio Holders for Environment and Regulatory Services and for Planning and Infrastructure.
Minutes:
Cllr E J Heron, the Planning and Infrastrucutre Portfolio Holder was unable to attend and had requested the Service Manager (Policy and Strategy) to present the information that he wished to report to the Panel.
Work on the Local Plan was progressing with some evidence-based work by consultants yet to be received. This work was on air quality, water quality and a viability study to inform the level of developer’s contribution for affordable housing. This latter viability study was expected within the following few days.
Members were reminded that their final informal briefing session on the Local Plan would be held on 20 March and this would be the final opportunity for them to influence the Plan, prior to its submission to the Cabinet and the Council for approval on Wednesday 6 June 2018.
The Panel’s attention was drawn to recent government announcements on measures to improve the delivery of additional house building, which included the publication of 5 consultation documents on 5 March. The most significant of these included some proposed policy changes that were of significance to the Council and were currently being evaluated. In general terms the direction of travel of government policy remained broadly similar, which suggested that no major changes would be needed by this Council. Some of the proposed policies looked potentially helpful, while others could be problematic. It was likely that the Council would submit a response to the consultation prior to the deadline of 10 May.
The Panel was advised that the Portfolio Holder was intending to take a Portfolio Holder’s decision with respect to the fees and charges for the transportation function. Increases were necessary to respond to the significant reduction in funding from the County Council; and also to bring this Council more into line with the charges levied by other authorities in Hampshire for temporary road closures.
In answer to questions the Panel was advised that, following the concerns expressed at their last meeting about a potential shortfall of parking in Hythe following the closure of the St John’s Street car park in early April, some initial preparatory work, such as evaluation of the existing surface and investigation of the need for planning consent, had been done to increase capacity elsewhere in the village.
Cllr Hoare, the Environment and Regulatory Services Portfolio Holder, thanked all the Council’s Operations staff, particularly the Street Scene and Waste Collection teams, for their work to maintain services and also keep essential town centres, car parks and footpaths open for the public during the recent snow and icy conditions. She also commended the Cemeteries staff who had managed to ensure that 2 burials scheduled for Friday had still been able to go ahead.
Cllr Hoare was pleased to report that the work to recharge Hurst Spit had started and was progressing well, and the work to recharge Milford beach would start at the end of April.
An anti-idling campaign had been launched in Lyndhurst to encourage drivers to turn their engines off when queuing in Lyndhurst. Posters were on display; the bus companies had undertaken to comply by their drivers turning off bus engines while queuing; and parents at the primary school would be using the longer, cleaner air route, through the church yard in order to walk to school. The poster had been designed by a pupil at Hounsdown School. The Portfolio Holder particularly thanked the Environmental Protection Manager for bringing this project to fruition.
Twenty seven New Forest Spring Clean events had now been organised; although sadly all but the Ashurst Bridge event scheduled for the previous weekend had been cancelled because of the poor weather conditions. It was hoped that they would be rescheduled for later in the Spring.
The Portfolio Holder advised the Panel that she would be appointing a member advisory group to assist her in finalising the draft business case on this Council’s actions to implement to Southampton Clean Air Zone for submission to Government by the end of March. There was very tight timetable for finalising this document as key information would not be received from Southampton City Council until 15 March. She proposed to invite the 2 local ward councillors (Cllrs L Harris and Harrison). Cllr Glass and Cllr Bennison volunteered to sit on the working group, with Cllr Carpenter as a reserve.