Council and democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex, RM17 6SL. View directions

Contact: Wendy Le, Democratic Services Officer  Email: Direct.Democracy@thurrock.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

6.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 83 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Planning, Transport, Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committeemeeting held on 9 July 2019.

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the Planning, Transport, Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 9 July 2019 was approved as a true and correct record.

7.

Items of Urgent Business

To receive additional items that the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency, in accordance with Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

8.

Declaration of Interests

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

9.

Thurrock Local Plan Issues and Options (Stage 2) Report of Consultation pdf icon PDF 147 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The report was introduced by Andrew Millard and provided an update on Thurrock’s Local Plan and set out the key messages identified from the Issues and Options (Stage 2) (IO2) Consultation Document that ran from 12 December 2018 to 8 March 2019. It must be noted that the IO2 Consultation was not a plan, but a consultation. A total of 17 events titled ‘Your Place, Your Voice’ (YPYV) was held across the borough that engaged with residents of the borough in each ward during the consultation period.

 

The top 10 comments were identified through the IO2 Consultation which related to:

 

  • The need for housing;
  • Air quality concerns;
  • More or better sporting facilities;
  • Solutions for traffic congestion;
  • Protection of natural landscapes for enjoyment and ecology;
  • Better community facilities including GP services;
  • The need for more police presence;
  • Re-routing of HGVs away residential and village areas;
  • Better walking and cycling paths; and
  • Extra bus routes with more services and increased rail capacity.

 

Due to the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) proposal, there was a delay in forming a full Local Plan and in bringing it forward and the LTC was not expected to be finalised until 2021.

 

The next stage in the preparation of the Local Plan was the rollout of Design Charrettes which was resources that would be provided by the government and would bring together key stakeholders to collaborate on a place-making vision to guide the regeneration of the selected area.

 

Referring to page 18, the Chair noted the fourth bullet point in the introduction on the duty to co-operate with London and neighbouring South Essex authorities. He went on to say that he was keen for the plan to be Thurrock centric in that it was owned by Thurrock’s communities and to ensure that unmet housing needs were still met to benefit Thurrock’s residents. Sean Nethercott answered that there was a duty to cooperate and when the time came for the Local Plan to be examined, would show that Thurrock Council had consulted with neighbouring Local Authorities (LAs) on meeting cross boundary issues. It was clear that housing was a key issue and over the past few years, had been in consultations with South Essex authorities on technical work such as strategic housing assessment and the joint strategic plan which considered the scale of housing needs. He went on to explain that although the work was at an early stage, it had been suggested that it was necessary for Thurrock to meet unmet housing needs. However, it had not been evidenced yet as to why housing needs could not be met within the LAs’ own boundaries and why Thurrock was the location to meet those housing needs.

 

The Chair questioned the criteria the service had in place to meet other unmet housing needs if needed and how it would benefit Thurrock’s existing communities. He thought there should be key principles in place and asked what these were. In response, Sean Nethercott said the service had to look at what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 47 KB

Minutes:

Noting the number of ‘to be confirmed’ reports, Councillor Gerrish asked that these be assigned to a meeting date. Andrew Millard replied that he would look at each report and assign to a date. He suggested that the Mode of Transport – Trends and Changes report could be assigned to the 17 March 2020 meeting date.

 

The Chair mentioned that at the last Full Council meeting, the Portfolio Holder for Housing had mentioned a report regarding new homes that would be heard at Overview and Scrutiny. He sought clarification on which scrutiny committee the report would go to. Andrew Millard confirmed that the report would fall under the remit of the Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee but understood that there was overlap in some committees on reports. He suggested that he would provide a verbal update to the 21 January 2020 meeting on the related reports from Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee to the Planning, Transport, Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

 

The Vice-Chair asked that the Parking Strategy report cover the topic of enforcement. Andrew Millard explained that parking enforcement issues were covered under the remit of Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee.