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The Cabinet considered a report
of the Executive Director (Environment and Place) presenting the
‘Preferred Approach with Options’ for public
consultation, as part of the next stage in preparing the Southend
New Local Plan.
 
Resolved:
 
1. That the ‘Preferred
Approach with Options’ document, as set out at Appendix 1 to
the submitted report, as the third stage of the preparation of the
Southend new Local Plan, to be published for public consultation
under Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local
Planning) (England) Regulations 2012, be approved.
 
2. That the feedback received
during the previous stage of consultation, the Southend New Local
Plan Refining the Plan Options 2021, as set out in the accompanying
Consultation Statement (Appendix 2 to the report), be
noted.
 
3. That authority be delegated
to the Executive Director (Environment and Place), in consultation
with the Cabinet Member (Planning and Housing) to:
 

·        
Make minor amendments to the Southend New Local Plan
Preferred Approach with Options document prior to consultation;
and

·        
Take all necessary steps to ensure compliance with
the relevant statutory processes and procedures to undertake the
consultation.
 
4. That the updated Statement
of Community Involvement, set out at Appendix 4 to the report, be
approved.
 
Reasons for
decisions:
 
1. To ensure the expeditious
production of a new Local Plan for Southend, which when adopted
will set a clear, up to date, planning policy framework to manage
and guide future development in the City. Once adopted, the Plan
will also ensure the Council has strong control of decision making
and will continue to be able to make planning decisions, aligned to
a clear strategy which has been the subject of widespread public
engagement with the local community.
 
2. The successful delivery of
the Southend New Local Plan will contribute to the fulfilment of a
number of elements of the Council’s vision and other
strategies.
 
Other options:
 
1. The failure to prepare a new
local plan for Southend would result in its current plans becoming
progressively out of date and the Council becoming increasingly
unable to positively influence the scale, nature and location of
development within the City. Without the certainty of a recently
adopted local plan, which includes up to date policies and
proposals for the location of development and new infrastructure,
potential investors in new development may be dissuaded from
investing in the local area, fail to take account of local
priorities and not develop in the right places to best support the
local economy and community. The local community would also be left
with little certainty of where and how new development would happen
in future years.
 
2. An out-of-date local plan
also brings the potential risk of “planning by appeal”
with the responsibility for decision making being passed from the
Council and the local community to the Planning Inspectorate and
the Secretary of State, as the Council’s existing local plan
becomes increasingly out of date. Councils can be directed to
prepare a local plan by Government where they have not kept their
local plan up to date and can even have plan-making powers taken
away, should they fail to progress plan preparation in a timely
manner, or refuse to prepare a plan.
 
Note: This is an Executive
Function
Not eligible for
call-in
Cabinet Member: Cllr Anne
Jones