Agenda item

To submit the Senior Planning Policy Officers’ reports

APPENDIX 1 – OPEN SPACES IN NEW HOUSING DEVLEOPMENTS SPG

A presentation by Linda Lee giving an update on the Open Spaces in new Housing Developments SPG since it was presented to the Joint Local Development Plan Panel on the 17 July 2018.

 

Matters arising:

·         Should the SPG state that all children’s play areas have to adhere to appropriate standards?

·         Support paragraph 2.2.5, which asks for justification from the applicant regarding developing at a lower density in order to ensure that applications are not purposefully trying to avoid reaching the threshold level of 10 or more

 

Response:

·         All childrens’ play areas need to adhere to the National standards therefore it does not need to be included in the SPG.

·          Comment noted

 

Decision:

 

Approve the publication of the SPG for public consultation.

 

 

APPENDIX 2 – LOCAL MARKET HOUSING SPG

A presentation by Rhodri Owen giving an update on the Open Spaces in new Housing Developments SPG since it was presented to the Joint Local Development Plan Panel on the 17 July 2018.

 

It was noted that following discussions with legal departments of both Councils there is one change from the original SPG, which is to extend the period for marketing the property for 12 weeks in steps 1 and 2. The cascade system.

 

Matters arising:

·         Will it be possible to increase the footprint of local market houses for people who require a home office?

·         Will there be a maximum price for building or selling local market housing?

·         How much evidence will applicants have to present and how detailed will the Councils’ assessment of the evidence be? What will happen if the evidence is found to be incorrect after the house has been built?

·         Will builders be allowed to build houses and sell them on to eligible people?

 

Response:

 

·         Home offices will need to be part of the footprint of the house and not as additional space. This will be the case no matter what type of house it is, including affordable housing. Any room in the house can be used as a home office.

·          There will be no maximum price to build or sell Local Market Houses. Similar to affordable or agricultural dwellings they will be affordable to local people or affordable by design.

·         The Planning Service does not wish to make the process of submitting a planning application more onerous than it should be. However it is important to ensure that only eligible people live in local market houses. Therefore it is important to ask for robust evidence. In terms of people submitting incorrect or fraudulent evidence during the application process there are means of taking enforcement action against them which may mean court action because they have knowingly circumvented the planning system.

·         Builders will be able to build the local market housing but, as with affordable housing, the housing must be occupied by people who meet the relevant requirements. The planning permission will be subject to a condition or 106 agreement ensures that.

 

Decision:

Approve the publication of the SPG for public consultation.