The Chairman thanked Councillors Edis and Sohi for their service on the Committee as this was their last Committee meeting and wished them both well for the future.

None

To confirm and sign, as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23^rd March 2022 (Appendix ‘A’).

The Minutes of the meeting held on 23 March 2022 were confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Apologies were received from Councillors Anderson-Bassey and Kusneraitis.

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests or other registrable and non-registrable interests in items on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were made.

The planning application listed below was considered by the Committee.  All representations received on the application were reported and copies had been made available for inspection by Members before the meeting.  The Addendum had also been published on the Council’s website on the day of the meeting. No speakers had registered to address the Committee.

            RESOLVED that –

            the following application be determined as indicated: -

The Committee was informed of the outcome of public consultation on the Affordable Housing SPD (AH SPD). The SPD provided clarity and guidance on the implementation of the affordable housing policies of the adopted Runnymede 2030 Local Plan by setting out when, how and what affordable housing the Council expected in new developments.

The Council undertook public consultation for a period of 8 weeks from 1 December 2021 to 25 January 2022. A total of 9 representations were received. The issues raised in these representations, and any changes made to the AH SPD as a result of these comments, were set out in the Consultation Statement reported to Committee. In addition, the Consultation Statement also summarised the issues raised during early stakeholder engagement on the draft SPD and included any other changes made during the finalisation of the AH SPD and the reasons for these changes.

            Officers considered that the modifications proposed were minor in nature and as such, did not materially change the general thrust or substance of the draft SPD and so did not require further consultation. Therefore, the Committee was asked to adopt the AH SPD with the modifications outlined in the Consultation Statement.

            In response to an issue raised regarding circumvention of the requirement to provide affordable housing, Officers confirmed that Policy SL20 specifically stated that developers may not circumvent the Policy by artificially subdividing sites or by failing to develop a site to its full potential. Should two or more separate planning applications come forward within 5 years for adjacent sites within the same ownership and/or which have a clear functional link, the Council might conclude that the developments should be considered as a single scheme. However, any such case would be treated on its merits on a case by case basis.                       

            In response to Member questions Officers would arrange for the consultant to do a Member briefing to clarify how the methodology for commuted sums worked in practice.

                        The Committee supported the adoption of the AH SPD with the modifications set out in the Consultation Statement.

                        Resolved that-

the Affordable Housing SPD  be APPROVED for adoption, with an implementation date of 20^th April 2022.

The Committee received a draft Sustainability Appraisal (SA) incorporating Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report for the 2040 Local Plan.

SA/SEA is an established mechanism for assessing the sustainability and environmental performance of plans and programmes such as the Runnymede 2040 Local           Plan and is a legal requirement under the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and Environmental Assessment of Plans & Programmes Regulations 2004 (SEA          Regulations).

            The draft SA/SEA scoping report:

·                     Identified other relevant legislation/guidance and their sustainability/environmental objectives/key messages;

·                     Established the baseline environment across a number of topic areas;

·                     Predicts the evolution of the sustainability/environmental baseline in the absence of the 2040 Local Plan;

·                     From the key messages/objectives and baseline, identified sustainability issues/problems the 2040 Local Plan should seek to address;

·                     Sets out the Sustainability Framework, against which the sustainability of plan options and policies would be assessed.

The SEA Regulations required that when deciding on the scope and level of detail of the assessment, the consultation bodies (Environment Agency, Historic England, Natural England) should be consulted for a period of 5 weeks.

The Committee was asked to give its approval to undertake consultation on the draft

SA/SEA Scoping Report for a period of 5 weeks from 22nd April to 27th May 2022 

with the consultation bodies and the general public

Para 6.16 of the Scoping Report would be amended as per the addendum to refer to

the creation of a new river channel built in two sections in Runnymede and

Spelthorne and deletion of the reference to three flood channels.

Para 1.17 would be amended to state ‘sealing’ instead of ‘signing’ of Magna Carta.

Para 7.17 would also be updated to reflect the most recent position on Heathrow.

The population figures would be reviewed by the consultant undertaking work on HEDNA to reflect the Census results when published

Subject to the above -mentioned amendments, the Committee approved the draft SA

incorporating SEA being subject to public consultation for 5 weeks.

                       Resolved that:

            the draft Sustainability Appraisal (SA) incorporating Strategic
           Environmental Assessment (SEA) be APPROVED for public
           consultation for a period of five weeks.