Neighbourhood Plan Committee

Agenda

To:      All Members of the Neighbourhood Plan Committee (Claire Tester, Bill Hatton, Ian Weir, Carolyn Barton and Kristian Berggreen) with copies to all other Councillors for information.

A meeting of the NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN COMMITEE will be held at the Parish Centre, Adastra Park, Hassocks on Thursday 26th May at 7.30pm.

Parish Clerk 18 May 2022

1. TO ACCEPT APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2. TO ACCEPT DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

3. ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR

4. MINUTES to accept the minutes of the Neighbourhood Plan Committee held on 7th April 2022 (previously circulated)

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.

6. Proposal for preparing a Community-led Plan for Hassocks (verbal update)

7. Mid Sussex District Council – Review of Mid Sussex District Council’s Local Validation List for Validation of Planning Applications (May 2022)

Members are invited to consider submitting a representation to the current consultation being undertaken by Mid Sussex District Council with a closing date of 1st of June. Appendix 1 (see below) sets out a letter received from MSDC inviting the Council to participate in the consultation and Appendix 2 sets out the Validation criteria for planning applications (including Technical Details Consent). To view Appendix 2 please click here.

Member’s views are requested to consider the content of Appendix 2 and identify any suggested amendments which will then be taken into consideration by MSDC as part of the consultation process.

8. Levelling up and Regeneration Bill – Implications for Planning and Parish Councils – Briefing note Appendix 3. To view Appendix 3 please click here.

Members are requested to consider the attached briefing note drafted by Cllr Tester setting out the potential impact on Parish Councils and determine if any further action is required at this stage.

9. URGENT MATTERS at the discretion of the Chairman for noting and/or inclusion on a future agenda.

10. DATE OF NEXT MEETING. 7th July 2022

Please Note
All members of the public are welcome to attend to attend meetings of the Parish Council and its Committees. Item 5 – a period of 15 minutes will be set aside for the public statements and questions relating to the published non-confidential business of the Meeting.

It may be necessary to consider particular items in confidential session and where this arises, these items will be considered at the end of the agenda.

FILMING, RECORDING OF COUNCIL MEETINGS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA During this meeting members of the public may film or record the Committee and officers from the public area only providing it does not disrupt the meeting. The Confidential section of the meeting may not be filmed or recorded. If a member of the public objects to being recorded, the person(s) filming must stop doing so until that member of the public has finished speaking. The use of social media is permitted but members of the public are requested to switch their mobile devices to silent for the duration of the meeting.

APPENDIX 1

Mid Sussex District Council
Oaklands Road
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 1SS

Dear Sir/Madam

Review of Mid Sussex District Council’s Local Validation List for Validation of Planning Applications (May 2022)

Since 2008 local planning authorities have been required to publish a list of information they require to validate the planning applications that they receive. Mid Sussex District’s Local List was adopted in December of 2010. This validation list details specific local validation requirement for applications made in Mid Sussex District. Provision of local information requirements is one of the requirements for a valid planning application as detailed in the National Planning Policy Framework.

The government requires local planning authorities to review local information requirements every two years. In addition, since its adoption in 2010, there have been a significant number of changes to planning legislation, policy and guidance. Mid Sussex Local List was previously reviewed in September 2020 and it is now considered timely to review MSDC’s current local validation requirements.

This letter invites your comments on the proposed changes to be included in MSDC’s Local List for September 2022.

The consultation process

The proposed Local List is open to public consultation for a four-week period running from the 1st  May 2022 to until 17:00pm on 1st June 2022.

After the consultation period MSDC’s Local List review team will consider all the comments received and amend the Local List as appropriate. Once approved this will replace the current Local List and will form the basis on which planning application are deemed valid by Mid Sussex District planning authority.

Please may I take the opportunity to thank you in anticipation of your co-operation and contribution during this process.

PLANNING SERVICES DIVISION

Minutes

Minutes of the NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN COMMITTEE meeting held on Thursday 26th May 2022 at 19.30 pm

Attendees: Parish Councillors: Claire Tester, Ian Weir, Bill Hatton

Clerk:  Ian Cumberworth

NP22/01 APOLOGIES: Kristian Berggreen, Carolyn Barton

NP22/02 DISCLOSURE OF INTERESTS: None declared.

NP22/03 ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR

The Clerk indicated that one expression of interest for the role as Chair of the Neighbourhood Plan Committee had been received from Cllr Tester who had indicated that she would be willing to carry on as Chair of the Committee.

Members were in agreement that Cllr Tester should continue to Chair the Committee and RESOLVED to AGREE that Cllr Tester be appointed as Chair for the current Municipal year.

The Clerk proposed that In light of the two members currently not present members may wish to consider holding over the election of the vice chair until the next meeting. Members supported this approach.

NP22/04 MINUTES

Minutes of the Neighbourhood Plan Committee held on the 7th April 2021 were agreed and accepted as a true record.

NP22/05 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.

There were no members of the public present.

NP22/06 Community Led plan

The Clerk updated Members on various discussions recently held with WSALC and Action in Rural Sussex regarding options to identify organisations that could potentially support this initiative. The project brief has been shared with various parties and further discussions are scheduled to discuss the brief further prior to receiving any submissions. Members were invited to attend a virtual meeting in the near future to discuss the brief further. Cllr Tester indicated that she would be available to attend with the Clerk. Members NOTED the action being taken and a further report will be brought forward for further consideration as the proposal progresses.

NP22/07 Mid Sussex District Council Local Validation List for Validation of Planning Applications (May 2022) consultation

Members were advised that Mid Sussex District Council were currently seeking feedback on the Local List consultation which closes on the 1st June. Members discussed the document set out in Appendix 2 of the agenda and raised concerns on one area in particular regarding the suggested changes to the Energy and Sustainability Assessment section and the proposed introduction of three types of application that would be exempt from complying with this requirement.

Members expressed the view that this would further dilute policy DP39 within MSDC District Plan and fail to comply with Hassocks Parish Councils Neighbourhood Plan Policy 5 Enabling Zero Carbon Development.

Members therefore RESOLVED to submit a representation setting out the Councils concerns in respect to Energy and Sustainability Assessment section. Members AGREED that the representation will be drafted by the Clerk in consultation with Cllr Tester.

NP22/08 Levelling up and Regeneration Bill – Implications for Planning and Parish Councils

Cllr Tester had prepared a briefing paper setting out the potential impact the new bill might have on Parish Councils. Cllr Tester took members through the paper and indicated that it is a heavy Bill but had picked out some preliminary items that may have an impact on the Council.

Members were advised that it is likely the Council will receive extensive opportunities of consultation over the next 12 months. The document produced by Cllr Tester was to provide an overview and how the council may wish to respond.

The Bill makes reference to Neighbourhood Priority Statements (NPS) which are similar to our proposed initiative regarding the Community Led Plan. Therefore it may be an opportunity to rebadge the Councils project as a Neighbourhood Priority Statement which could provide more weight and influence within the emerging District Plan. The statement would cover areas such as the Priorities of the Community and infrastructure needs which would build consensus and could feed into the plan, therefore in light of the potential changes it might provide an opportunity to provide formal weight in the Local Plan and the SDNP Plan.

Although the Bill is likely to take some time to go through it was indicated that any consultation undertaken prior to the new regulations being adopted would still count.

Members indicated that they would be happy to consider rebadging the Community Led plan initiative as the Neighbourhood Priority statement.

NP21/09 Urgent Matters. None

NP21/10 DATE OF NEXT MEETING.  7th July 2022.