Agenda item

(A)     That the draft Harlow and Gilston Garden Town Stewardship Charter be approved for consultation

The Leader of the Council presented the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town – Draft Stewardship for Consultation report. He stressed that the document was a draft and a generic strategic document that set out six high level principles for stewardship. He said that the document should help to ensure that the council gets the unique and specific solutions right for the Garden Town. He said that the consultation would run for a minimum of eight weeks and a draft would be circulated to all Garden Town community groups and relevant Town and Parish Councils.

Councillor Buckmaster asked the Leader for the Council for assurance that if stewardship arrangements could be separated, that they would be. He accepted that there were strong similarities between the draft stewardship and the Places for People draft but there were other garden town work streams that could have a bearing on the document. He asked for reassurance that the responsibility for managing a wide range of assets like parks, play areas, allotments and community centres would remain solely in the Gilston town. He said if the responsibility went outside the area, it would challenge the principle of community ownership.

The Garden Town Lead Officer said that the draft document was trying to achieve a set of high-level principles that established good practice to be applied across the Garden Town and it did not seek to constrain Gilston in any way. He advised Members to keep an open mind when it came to what the best solutions were. He said the Garden Town was seeking to achieve delivery of 60% of transport by active healthy modes and residents in the new developments were likely to want to access facilities in Harlow so this would need to be developed in partnership with other organisations.

Councillor Buckmaster said he understood about the transport issue but said some partners would want control over the green spaces.

Councillor Dunlop said he did not understand why East Herts needed to be a part of the partnership at all. He felt the council should set the charter as it sees fits and questioned why it was being done at this stage before any s106 agreements had been signed. He said that Gilston was part of East Herts and felt there was a pull towards Harlow.

The Garden Town Lead Officer gave some history to the Garden Town and said that the concept came together over the life of the District Plan which resulted in the allocation of 10,000 homes. He said the council worked with partners as the planning strategy needed to be considered beyond the district boundaries. He said that the council worked with Harlow and Epping Forest Councils to support the delivery of growth. He said that there were significant benefits of working in partnership and Gilston had local involvement and commitment.

The Garden Town Lead Officer explained that the draft stewardship had been put together now to provide some overarching principles and the detail would follow later. He said that resources and priorities had also played a role as the team had been focussing on the planning applications for the last couple of years.

Councillor Dumont said that he had been open in terms of raising concerns from residents about the development and spoke at the outline planning application before the election. He said he remained disappointed that the level of affordable housing had dropped from 40% to 23% but he said the Executive were being asked to approve that the document goes out for consultation. He said he hoped the council would take on board the positive and negative feedback in the final document.

Councillor Dunlop said the consultation results would be skewed as it would be heavily weighted towards the larger population of Harlow.

Councillor Crystall asked if it was possible to distinguish between respondents in different areas.

The Garden Town Lead Officer said that the consultation would take place on online platforms and will offer to meet and discuss with community groups and parish councils. He said the consultation would capture the location of respondents.

Councillor Wilson said he thought it was sensible to have an overarching plan between two closely linked areas. He said residents will want to use the facilities in the local town so it was inevitable that there had to be co-operation.

Councillor Crystall responded to Councillor Buckmaster’s question about reassurance on retaining local control. He said that the Green Party were big supporters of local control and it made sense that local control was retained as much as possible. He said he had heard what Councillor Buckmaster had said and recognised that it was a key issue.

Councillor Daar asked if neighbouring parish councils were being consulted.

The Garden Town Lead Officer said he was more than happy to open up the consultation as wide as necessary if Members felt it appropriate.

Councillor Dumont asked if Great Amwell and Stanstead parishes could be included as the Garden Town was the biggest issue for the local area.

Councillor McAndrew said Much Hadham were affected too, and it was used a rat run to get to Ware.

Councillor Daar asked if the stewardship arrangements precluded the new villages from having their own Town or Parish Councils.

The Garden Town Lead Officer said it would not. He said thoughts were starting to emerge locally as to how the existing parish councils could come together to fit the new geography.

Councillor Crystall proposed, and Councillor Glover-Ward seconded supporting the recommendation in the report. On being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED - That the draft Harlow and Gilston Garden Town Stewardship Charter be approved for consultation