1.1 The Development Policy Panel met on 14 November 2001 and made comments on three reports regarding the Winchester District Local Plan Review, the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council' s Draft Countryside Design Summary and the Government Consultation on Speeding up the Planning Process.

1.2 Each of the three documents required a response prior to this meeting of Cabinet and therefore a holding response has been sent. Any further comments by Cabinet will be forwarded as necessary.

2.1 The Panel considered Report DPP10/2001 on Winchester City Council' s Local Plan Review. The Plan (First Deposit) covers the period 2001-2011. The consultation period ended on 26 November 2001.

2.2 The Plan is accompanied by an Urban Capacity Study which states that no new greenfield allocations are needed to meet the "baseline" strategic housing requirements. Reserve sites are shown to the West of Waterlooville and to the North of Winchester as extensions to the MDAs (Major Development Areas). The reserve sites are identified as an area of search rather than being defined with a site specific boundary.

2.3 The Panel recommended that the following comments be sent to Winchester City Council. East Hampshire District Council:

2.1 Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has published its draft Countryside Design Summary (CDS) for public comment. Responses were required by 30 November. Detailed design comments have been sent to meet the deadline. The Development Policy Panel considered Report DPP11/2001 which set out issues for discussion. The Panel recommended that this Council' s response should cover the following issues:

3.1 On 2 November the Government announced new targets for dealing with planning applications and for increasing the amount of applications delegated to officers for decision in order to speed up the planning control process.

3.2 The proposal is to move away from the national target of 80% of all applications being decided within 8 weeks to:

• major developments (housing, commercial and industrial) - 60% in 13 weeks
• minor developments (housing, commercial and industrial) - 65% in 8 weeks
• all other applications - 80% in 8 weeks
• A new target of 90% of all applications being delegated to officers is proposed.

3.3 The new targets would apply from 1 April 2002. Currently the Council is achieving the 65% and 80% figures but is well short of the 60% in 13 weeks. Delegation is averaging about 78% which means Committee items would need to be halved.

3.4 A subsequent consultation document proposes new minimum performance requirements of 45%, 50% and 65% respectively for the 3 targets for those authorities who did not achieve 25%, 35% and 55% in 2000/01. EHDC is included on the list of 78 authorities to whom the proposed the new minimum targets would apply. However the Council exceeded those figures last year and are well above them now.

The Panel considered a report on these issues (DPP13/2001) and:

• Agreed that a strongly worded letter is sent immediately to object to this Council being included on the list of poor performers
  
  
• Welcomed the recognition that some applications require more time than others
  
  
• Considered that the targets for minor commercial and all other applications look to be achievable
  
  
• Considered that housing sites of 10 or more dwellings should be included in the major applications list but it is not clear if this is the case
  
  
• Agreed that major changes would need to be made to the way the Council currently deals with major applications and to achieve the target that is not being met, in particular speeding up the signing of Section 106 Agreements by the applicant
  
  
• Agreed that it was too prescriptive to apply a new target of 90% for delegated applications (78% is the Council' s current rate). Much depends on the type of applications received in a given period as to whether they should be delegated or not
  
  Contact Officer: Alistair Speirs, Principal Policy Planner 01730 234253