Note – the status of Neighbourhood Plans in the District may be found via this link
https://www.west-lindsey.gov.uk/my-services/planning-and-building/neighbourhood-planning/
Minutes:
The Development Management Team Leader reported that on 20 July 2023, draft regulations had been laid in Parliament to introduce a national planning fee increase of 35% for major applications and 25% for all other applications, including an indexation mechanism to allow for annual inflation-related adjustments in the future. The regulations had also introduced a new prior approval fee for development by the Crown on a closed defence site, removed the ‘free-go’ for repeat applications and reduced the Planning Guarantee for non-major applications from 26 weeks to 16 weeks.
The Government had launched a 12 week consultation, ending 18 October, 2023 on reforms to the plan-making system.
The Government’s vision was for local plans (and minerals and waste plans) to be simpler to understand and use, and positively shaped by the views of communities about how their area should evolve. The Government wanted plans to clearly show what was planned in a local area – so that communities and other users of the plan could engage with them more easily, especially while they were being drawn up. It had been considered that plans needed to be prepared more quickly and updated more frequently to ensure more authorities had up-to-date plans that reflected local needs. The Government had expressed the view that plans should make the best use of new digital technology, so that people could get involved without having to go through hundreds of pages of documents at council offices and wanted to drive improved productivity and efficiency in the plan-making process. Officers were preparing an appropriate response. Details of the latest consultation and how to respond, should individual Members wish to do so, could be found at:-
The Government had also opened a consultation (ending on 25 September 2023) on expanding Permitted Development Rights. In summary the consultation referred to the following:-
· Changes to certain permitted development rights that allowed for the change of use to dwellinghouses.
· Changes to certain permitted development rights that allowed agricultural diversification and development on agricultural units.
· Changes to certain permitted development rights that allowed for non-domestic extensions and the erection of new industrial and warehouse buildings.
· Changes to the permitted development right that allowed for the temporary use of land to allow markets to operate for more days.
· Changes to the existing permitted development right that allowed for the erection, extension or alteration of schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, and closed prisons to also apply to open prisons.
· The application of local design codes to certain permitted development rights.
Officers were examining the proposals with a view to submitting an appropriate response. However should Members wish to respond individually, details of the consultation could be found at:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/permitted-development-rights
The Committee was advised that new permitted development rights had been introduced on 26 July relating to temporary campsites. Following the renewed demand for domestic holidays and to support local tourism, a new permitted development right had been introduced which allowed for the temporary use of land for recreational campsites for up to 60 days per calendar year. The right was subject to limitations and conditions, including an annual prior notification to the local planning authority before land was used as a campsite and prior approval in Flood Zones 2 and 3.