Issue - meetings

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning)

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning sought Cabinet approval to publish the Local Plan Issues and Options Consultation Responses.

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning)

The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning, Samuel Smith introduced  the report to seek the Committee’s endorsement of the proposals and recommendations to be made to Cabinet in respect of the publication of the Local Plan Issues and Options Consultation Responses and Introduced before introducing the report authors Richard Powell, Planning Policy Team Leader, and Laura Massey, Planning Policy and Delivery Officer.

The Planning Policy and Deliver Officer advised that the Council are in the early stages of developing a new local for Tamworth to guide development in the borough until 2043. The first stage is the issue and consultations document which was approved by Cabinet in 2022. The Consultation went out for 7 weeks between September and November 2022 looking at the key issues affecting the borough and what people thought were the options to address these issues.

Representations were received from 47 local groups including local residents, business, governing bodies, charities, developers and landowners.

All of the responses were collated in the Appendix documents and planners have provided an initial response.

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1.     It was highlight by the Committee that only one business within the town had responded and this made it difficult for the Council to understand their wants, was this due to apathy or that they do not feel that their comments will be listened to. Could we use areas such as the assembly rooms to run regular consultations, or workshops, would using boards in empty properties within the town be an option to increase participation?

The Assistant Director acknowledged that as a learning point this may be something that needs to be focussed on at the next consultation but that they have had a similar response on the Future High Street Fund Project.

2.     Clarification around whether the Public were invited to consultations? The Officers confirmed that resident’s views were as important as business owners and any other group. The next stage of Consultation would continue to involve residents. The Officers acknowledged that the consultation did go out at the same time of the resident’s survey and this something they could look to avoid in future and that communication was key. The Officers confirmed that this stage of the consultation it was not unusual to see more responses from statutory agencies and developers as this is very high level and may have been difficult for residents to see the impact on them. The next consultation stage will see more engagement as they see more of a link to their own lives.