15 September 2022 at 19.00
Room D at The Shoreham Centre
Agenda:
1. Approval of previous minutes
2. Open Green Spaces Meeting with Adur DC
3. Draft letter to CEO of Adur Council regarding lack of support to the Forum
4. SEA/SA Application Status
5. SBNF Update for Beach News
6. AOB
1. Approval of previous meeting minutes
DC opened the meeting and proposed that the minutes of the August committee meeting be approved. There were no objections and the meeting minutes were duly signed.
Circulate copies of August meeting minutes.
Action KH
Urgently complete uploading of all meeting minutes currently missing from the SBNF website.
Action MW
2. Open Green Spaces Meeting with Adur DC
DC contacted Moira Hayes on August 20th to request possible dates for a meeting with Pippa Reece and other interested parties. No reply has been received to date. This is unusual and a concern regarding cooperation between Adur Planners and the Forum.
3. Draft letter to CEO of Adur Council regarding lack of support to the Forum
MG apologised for not providing the draft letter as agreed due to poor health and high workload. He presented a document to the meeting outlining the guidance the Planning Authority must follow in support of a Neighbourhood Forum producing a Neighbourhood Plan. This confirmed the Committee’s view that such support has been slowin the past and is at present completely lacking. Notably regarding the lack of response to the Forum’s request that Adur Council act as Accountable Body forSBNF and receive the grant approved by Locality on the Forum’s behalf. MG agreed to provide DC with the draft letter by September 17th.
Circulate draft letter to committee members. When text is agreed email the letter to Adur Council CEO.
Action DC
4. SEA/SA Application Status
MW reported that he had only just finished the update of the Neighbourhood Plan to Rev 5. The work required to do this was much more than he estimated last month. There are still some actions outstanding regarding the Design Code section.
An official ‘Design Code’ now requires stricter compliance, so it is worth considering renaming this section to avoid needless complication. A suitable name will be discussed and agreed at a future meeting. The committee felt that the terminology issue does not impact the screening for SEA/SA assessment, which needs to be started as soon as possible. However, MW pointed out that we are preparing a Regulation 14 document, and asked if this needs to meet the basic conditions.
Reasons to change the classification of the section currently titled ‘Design Code’:
The most recent version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF 2021) includes new restrictions. NPPF para 128 now requires design guides and codes to be consistent with the principles set out in the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code.
NPPF para. 129 states: codes and guides can be written at the neighbourhood level… but should take into account the guidance contained in the National Design Guide and the National Model Design Code. As currently prepared, the SBNF Design Code is not consistent, e.g. the provision of allotments isn’t a design issue. The design code should be consistent with the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code.
ACTION: re-consider / rename Design Code
Shoreham beach is quite eclectic and therefore difficult to create an official Design Code for this area, other than broad locations for different heights and densities of development. We do not want to be too prescriptive. Is ‘Design Code / Guide’ the wrong type of document? Is it too constrictive? Is there a more flexible and appropriate planning instrument, e.g. is a ‘Supplementary Planning Guide’ more appropriate?
MG stated that Rev 5 of the Neighbourhood Plan revision can be regarded as the ‘Draft Regulation 14 Neighbourhood Plan’. Regulation 14 is a formal process where a draft Reg 14 version of the Plan is circulated widely for full stakeholder consultation.
It is hoped that it can be submitted to Adur Planning by September 24th and the application for screening for SEA/SA assessment put forward by them as soon as possible thereafter.
Action MW & DC
5. SBNF page for Beach News
The deadline for inclusion of SBNF news in the next issue of Beach News is October 8th. We are at a critical stage of the Neighbourhood Plan process, so it is vital to continue using the magazine to engage with the community and stakeholders. David Johnson suggested wording for this update.
6. AOB - AGM Planning
An AGM is due within the next three months. It was felt that items 3 and 4 of this meeting need to be progressed and ideally resolved before setting a date and notifying Forum members and stakeholders with at least three weeks notice, as required by the Forum constitution.
The next committee meeting will be held on Thursday October 20th at 19.00 at the Shoreham Centre.
Meeting closed at 20.15.
Attendees:
Dave Collins (DC) Chair
Kevin Hall (KH) Vice Chair
Mike Gibson (MG) Planning Consultant
Mike Whelan (MW) Secretary
David Johnson (DJ)
Apologies for absence received from:
Jonathan Marshall (JM) Treasurer
James Breckell (JB) Architect
Comments