Agenda item

The emerging Local Plan contains policies and designations that facilitate sustainable growth within the suburbs and refer to supplementary guidance (in the form of a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)) to steer this. The project team would appreciate and value Scrutiny’s view on the issues outlined in the report.

The Head of Spatial Planning introduced the item to the Sub-Committee by advising that the Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) is being produced as guidance to steer the policies and designations that facilitate sustainable growth as set in the emerging Croydon Local Plan 2018.

This report and presentation had been brought to Scrutiny as part of the development and process of producing the draft Supplementary Planning Document to ensure that discussions take place to examine, discuss and dissect the guidance.

The Sub-Committee was advised that there was increased pressure for Croydon to meet the demands of London’s growth and deliver at least 1677 homes per annum to 2036. This document would act as a guide and steer how sustainable growth of the suburbs can be achieved.

The document would provide guidance and certainty to communities, officers, applicants and their agents to steer proposals for developments to enable sites to achieve their potential as part of a holistic long term vision for Croydon.

The SPD would focus on three key guidance areas:

(i) Residential Extensions;

(ii) Re-Development – of existing sites, to increase density and provide a quality benchmark; and

(iii) Focussed Intensification – Guidance on evolving character and increased density as a result of development.

The Sub-Committee was further advised that this was borough wide guidance and there was a need to differentiate areas of the borough in the plans. Croydon was a green borough and as a result the guidance would also be relevant in conservation areas, however Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plans will take precedence.

It was proposed that the draft Supplementary Planning Document would be ready for formal consultation by July 2018, with adoption of the document anticipated in October 2018.

In response to Members’ comments that the document was not yet ready for public consultation, officers responded that this was one of the reasons why it had been presented to Scrutiny.

The aim of the presentation was to prompt question and discussion, and there were still a number of detailed matters and considerations to be addressed.

The Sub-Committee was informed that the consultation documents would include text and the language used would be universal. The plan would also include a section on policy and be clear on elements that were driven by planning legislation and development plan policy.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Homes, Planning and Regeneration commented that the document would act as a guidance to deciding the types of developments that would be suitable for specific areas in the overarching context that space must be sought for thousands of new homes and that this must be knitted into suburban areas.

Members commented that the guidance should be clear on issues of subjectivity due to the expected longevity of the document and that the proposal flags up the potential for permitted development rules not to apply on some proposals. Officers responded that the guidance would be nuanced and subjective depending on proposal, location of sites and housing types.

In response to Members’ questions on whether the SPD would reflect policy on landscape of a site, officers advised that the intention  was for the SPD to provide an explanation of best practice of what can be achieved on landscape and how to balance the use of space. Officers further advised that any conditions relating to landscape would be added to planning consents and tightly enforced.

There would be proposed discussions with Transport for London (TFL) to provide sustainable transport and create bus routes in areas where they do not currently exist or not frequent.

The Sub-Committee was informed that Croydon was leading the way and was ahead of other Local Authorities in the development of the SPD and it would appear that the Mayor of London’s draft London Plan had taken on board learning from Croydon’s draft Local Plan.

The Sub-Committee learned that the Croydon Local Plan would be reviewed every five years and that the Council had been working with partners such as the Health, Education and Utilities sectors to identify future needs and support anticipated growth in each Ward.

Members commented that the direction of travel of the SPD was very clear and that it would be more detailed than previous SPD. There were concerns that it could be overly prescriptive and the expectation of sites to deliver more could be viewed negatively by some.

Officers responded that the document would assist with instances where planning applications were received which showed a deliberate avoidance to provide affordable housing through underdevelopment of any particular site. The document would also provide guidance by acting as a point of reference on maximisation of plots.

The Sub-Committee commented that Councillors should have been provided this plan earlier to enable input prior to the collation of the document and that the proposed consultation period of July and August should be revised to enable high resident consultation.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Homes Planning and Regeneration responded that the reporting of the proposals to the meeting was to open a discussion with Councillors and that strong engagement with stakeholders and residents was welcomed. Officers also stated that they would discuss further the timings of the proposed public consultation.

In reaching its recommendations, the Sub-Committee reached the following CONCLUSIONS:

1. That the challenge was to make the guidance clear and accessible to all users;

2. That the presentation achieved its aim of prompting questions and discussion on matters to be considered in the Supplementary Planning Document;

3. That the Council needed to communicate effectively to users the background of this document, and the importance of the use of this guidance in future developments; and

4. That the transport policy would have an impact on the Local Plan and should be developed in line with the SPD.

The Sub-Committee RESOLVED to recommend to Cabinet that:

1. The proposal be clear on what is meant by the term ‘optimising use of plots’;

2. Consultation be held with housing associations in the borough to promote working with local developers;

3. The Small Builders Forum be consulted and invited to comment; 

4. The proposed consultation period be considered to enable further resident participation;

5. The Council should explore a wide range of methods to engage with residents on the Supplementary Planning Document;

6. Any conditions placed on the development of landscape be tightly enforced; and

7. The document to highlight areas of subjectivity in design policies.