Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

To receive any declaration of personal interest.

None to note

To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chairman for consideration.

No urgent items were received.

The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting of this committee held 21 September 2018 be signed as a true record.

The minutes of the Committee held on 21 September 2018 were accepted as a true record.

To submit the Planning Policy Manager’s report

A presentation was given by Nia Haf Davies with information about the public consultation on the Guidance and highlighting the observations received, officers' response to those observations and the amendments to the Guidance as a result of the public consultation. No observations received during the public consultation entailed a significant change to the draft Guidance. The copy of the Guidance in Appendix 2 included the required amendments as a result of the consultation. Following its adoption the Guidance will be a material planning consideration.

Nia explained that the Guidance fell into the category of plans and programmes that would contribute to the decision making process on planning applications. It was resolved to go through the screening process to determine if the guidance should be subject to a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in accordance with European Directive 2001/42/EC and the Environmental Assessment of Associated Plans and subject to an Appropriate Assessment under the Habitats Regulations 2004. As the Guidance supported policies that had been subject to ASS and that the Plan was assessed under the Habitats Regulations, the conclusion was that the Guidance did not need to be subject to further work. This screening assessment was confirmed by the specific environmental bodies. A screening report will be published.

The Committee was asked to adopt the Guidance.

Matters raised:

·         Paragraph 4.5 - that the median housing price was lower than the price of affordable housing in Llanengan.

·         Paragraph 1.6 - reference was made to a comment received from a Local Housing Campaign Committee - how was it possible for the Authorities to allow developments that do not provide affordable housing as part of the development?

Response:

·         To note the point and the comment was factually correct. The purpose of the table was to give an overview of the situation at a County level. It indicated that affordability, namely the difference between housing prices and income, and drew attention to the importance of promoting affordable housing in the plan area.

·         This section of the Guidance states clearly that support for these types of developments will only be exceptions. The Plan's affordable housing policies are clear that having affordable housing is the starting point and evidence will be required from the developers in the form of a viability assessment to justify another method of developing sites. The alternative method could mean receiving a financial contribution from developers. Reference was made to the Affordable Housing Guidance that was being prepared, which will give more details about expectations in terms of providing evidence. The role of this Guidance is to give advice regarding the expectations associated with having a mix of housing - type, size and standard.

Decision:

It was resolved to adopt the Supplementary Planning Guidance: Mix of Housing.

To submit a Senior Planning Policy Officer’s report

A presentation was given by Linda Lee highlighting the observations received during the public consultation period for this draft SPG. A table was presented that was part of the consultation report (Appendix 1) stating this comments together with a response and the Officers' recommendation.

It was noted that the observations had highlighted the need for minor amendments and two more significant amendments to the SPG namely:

·         How should an 'excess' of holiday accommodation in an area be defined? It was noted that some responses asked for a specific figure or percentage. The situation differs across the Plan’s area and therefore it is not possible to give one figure as a threshold that would be relevant to everywhere within the Plan's area. It was suggested that the best way forward would be to highlight the specific considerations to establish those circumstances when there is sufficient serviced or self-serviced holiday accommodation in an area and where adding to them would be problematic.

·          More information and guidance was required in the SPG regarding how to deal with applications for change of use of hotels to residential use. A Policy in the JLDP protected hotels, however, it was necessary to provide further information for this. It was suggested that the best way forward would be to include a new section in the SPG to explain the evidence that would have to be submitted to prove that the hotel was no longer viable.

            Support for the proposed responses was requested and the right to conduct a       public consultation regarding the two amendments described above and in       row 1 and 2 of the public consultation report.

Matters raised:

·         When dealing with planning applications for self-service holiday accommodation would all types of holiday accommodation be included, including holiday homes, in the equation to assess if there is an excess in the area?

·         There were two different opinions about the need or otherwise to try and retain hotels: (i) In the Victorian age going on holiday was very popular but due to changes in visitors' aspirations, frequency of holidays and holidays in this country, staying in a hotel was not as popular and many hotels were closing. It was difficult to think how this could be prevented; (ii) Some visitors still like to stay in good quality hotels.

Response:

·         To note the comment that there are several types of accommodation in the Plan area for visitors, - holiday homes (when their owners come to stay at different times of the year); holiday accommodation (when their owners let them to different visitors at times of the year or throughout the year); hotels; caravans and similar types of places to stay. Policy TWR 2: Holiday Accommodation, in JLDP only deals with serviced and self-serviced accommodation. Other policies exist within the Plan to control the location of types of accommodation that require planning permission, namely the policies that deal with caravans and alternative holiday accommodation, in order to avoid harm to communities. Policy TWR 2 controls the impact of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.