Agenda item

Councillor Haysey, Buckmaster and Williamson declared an interest in the item as they sat on the Old River Lane Delivery Board. They took no part in the discussion or voting of the item.

Councillor Goldspink also declared an interest in the item as she sat on the Old River Lane Delivery Board. She took no park in the discussion of the item.

The Executive Member for Corporate Services chaired the meeting for Item 9.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth presented the report on the adoption of the Old River Lane Supplementary Planning Document. She said that Old River Lane was a development site allocated in the East Herts District Plan 2018 (Policy BISH8) which formed a key opportunity for sustainable redevelopment in the heart of Bishop’s Stortford and an opportunity to complement the retail, community, and leisure provision in the town centre.

Councillor Goodeve said that the Old River Lane SPD sought to guide this ambition by setting out a clear vision and development objectives.. The draft version was published for public consultation for four-weeks between the 5 July and 2 August 2022 and received over 400 comments from nearly 100 individual consultees.

Councillor Goodeve said that since the agenda was published, the Council had received a letter from the Bishop’s Stortford Civic Federation relating to information regarding the arts centre proposals set out in paragraphs 3.4.5 to 3.4.8, which were additional areas of text included after the public consultation. The paragraphs were added in response to a number of comments made during the public consultation which requested that the draft SPD should mention the Arts Centre that had previously been promoted by the Council as a landowner. Following receipt of the letter and having reviewed the additional proposed paragraphs in light of this, officers have concluded that the removal of paragraphs 3.4.6 and 3.4.7 would be appropriate, because the text contains a level of detail beyond that required for the SPD. Minor amendments to paragraph 3.4.8 were also proposed.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services asked Members to confirm that they had seen the amendments to the document.

Councillor Goodeve confirmed that a hard copy of the amendments had been circulated to Members prior to the meeting.

Councillor Kaye said that he was pleased to see so many responses to the consultation and that amendments had been made following concerns raised. He said the document was now an encouraging one to move forward.

Members thanked Officers for their hard work on producing the Supplementary Planning Document.

Councillor Goodeve proposed and Councillor Kaye seconded a motion supporting the recommendations in the report. On being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – To recommend to Council:

(A)       That the responses to the consultation be noted and the officer responses and proposed changes to the Old River Lane Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) be supported;

(B)       That the Old River Lane Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), as detailed at Appendix C to this report, be agreed for adoption; and

(C)That in accordance with the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004 it has been determined that a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Old River Lane Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) is not required as it is unlikely to have significant environmental effects beyond the District Plan policies.