Agenda, decisions and minutes
Venue: Boardrooms 1&2 - Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley HA9 0FJ. View directions
Contact: Joe Kwateng, Democratic Services Officer 020 8937 1354, Email: joe.kwateng@brent.gov.uk
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Declarations of personal and prejudicial interests Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant financial or other interest in the items on this agenda. Minutes: None. |
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Brent Local Plan - Development Management Policies & Minor Alterations to Core Strategy PDF 88 KB This report presents a draft Development Management Policies document, a proposed set of minor alterations to the Core Strategy and proposed changes to the Proposals Map of Brent’s Local Plan. Members are asked to recommend to Executive that these be agreed for public consultation starting in May 2014.
I have produced the appendix to the report separately and sent copies to members only. Few spares are available for inspection on request. Please contact the Democratic Services Officer for assistance. Additional documents: Decision: (i) that Executive be recommended to agree the draft Development Management Policies document, and the proposed Minor Alterations to the Core Strategy and changes to the Proposals Map, for public consultation starting on 26 May 2014 for 6 weeks;
(ii) that the Strategic Director, Regeneration & Growth be authorised to make further editorial changes to the document prior to finally issuing it for public consultation. Minutes: The Committee received a report that presented a draft Development Management Policies document (DMPD), a proposed set of Minor Alterations to the Core Strategy, and proposed changes to the Proposals Map of Brent’s Local Plan. Ken Hullock, Head of Planning and Transport Strategy explained that the reasons for producing the Development Management Policies document was to bring up-to-date the Unitary Development Policy (UDP policy), first drafted in 2000 and adopted in 2004.
He continued that the DMPD was the final step in drawing up the folder of Development Plan Documents (DPDs) that would make up the borough’s development plan and as the basis for determining planning applications would ultimately supersede the UDP. Members heard that this round of consultation on the draft Development Management Policies document would provide an opportunity for the community and businesses to comment on the policies. He then outlined the key changes, drawing attention to the following;
Betting shops, Pawnbrokers/Payday Loans It was proposed that a cap should be set to prevent an overconcentration of and clustering of Betting shops, Pawnbrokers/Payday Loans. He continued that in order to ensure these uses did not dominate any single length of frontage, a limit on the proximity of these uses to each other was proposed. Members heard that given the rapid increase in the number of these uses and the need for expedient action, consideration should be given to introducing an Article 4 Direction, to remove national permitted development rights. Introducing an Article 4 Direction has financial implications in terms of loss of fees and potential compensation claims and it was therefore recommended that a more detailed report on the implications be submitted to a future Planning Committee meeting for members’ consideration.
Takeaways To promote healthy eating and support the Brent Obesity Strategy (2010) it was proposed to introduce a policy which prevented an overconcentration of takeaways and restricted their proximity to schools.
Shisha Cafes It was proposed to restrict the proximity of shisha cafes to schools. This proposal was in light of the evidence from the Brent Young Persons Cigarette and Shisha Audit (2012) which found that students from a school in Brent that had more than one shisha café within a 0.5 mile radius were twice as likely to be current shisha smokers than students from schools that had no shisha cafés within a 0.5 mile radius.
Frontage It was proposed that the limit on the proportion of primary frontage in non-retail use be increased from 35% to 40%, in recognition that projected demand for comparison floorspace had reduced and that with the exception of Ealing Road Brent’s town centres were currently exceeding the limit
Retail impact assessment It was proposed that a local threshold that would require retail impact assessment be set at 500sqm, as it was felt that the national threshold of 2,500sqm would potentially allow developments which could cause harm Brent’s town centres.
Visitor accommodation Conditions would be applied to ensure visitor accommodation was not permanently occupied by requiring applications for hotel development to ... view the full minutes text for item 2. |
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Further Alterations to the London Plan- Public Consultation by the Mayor of London PDF 570 KB The Mayor of London is proposing, and consulting upon, further alterations to the London Plan. This report explains the key changes from the existing London Plan and highlights the implications for Brent. It also proposes how the Council should respond.
I have produced the appendix to the report separately and sent copies to members only. Few spares are available for inspection on request. Please contact the Democratic Services Officer for assistance. Additional documents: Decision: that the proposed alterations to the London Plan as outlined in the report be noted and that the Strategic Director, Regeneration & Growth be asked to respond to the Mayor’s consultation based upon the council’s own planning objectives. Minutes: Members considered a report that explained the key changes from the existing London Plan, highlighted the implications for Brent and suggested some basic responses to the key planning issues on Further Alterations to the London Plan which was currently being consulted upon by the Mayor of London. Ken Hullock, Head of Planning and Transport Strategy highlighted the key changes to the London Plan which had the biggest implications for Brent.
Population The population projection that underpinned the Alterations to the London Plan showed that London’s population would grow from 8.2 million in 2011 to 10.11 million in 2036. This represented a growth of nearly 10% but for Brent, the projected expected population growth was 25% which would present huge implications for planning in Brent. There would be a lot of pressure on the use of scarce land, particularly for housing and also the supporting infrastructure such as schools and health facilities and the need to accommodate job creating activities in a sustainable way.
Housing The need to plan for this growth had the most significant implications for individual boroughs in terms of the housing targets that the London Mayor was setting through the Alterations. Brent’s increase was 34% for conventional housing but this rose to 43% when account was taken of non-self-contained housing, almost completely attributable to student housing consents granted in the Wembley area.
Town Centres Members heard that in response to previous GLA consultation, the Council made the case that, in light of the development of the London Designer Outlet and consented major retail street, Wembley and Wembley Park town centre would be effectively one centre, of a scale and with an offer characteristic of a Metropolitan centre as defined in the London Plan. As it was not acknowledged that both Wembley and Wembley Park could potentially change in status to one combined Metropolitan centre, officers were recommending that Brent made representations so that it was acknowledged within the London Plan that Wembley had the potential to expand as a single Metropolitan centre
Employment It was proposed to focus release of land around transport nodes and town centres. Members heard that the proposed major release of industrial land in Park Royal at Old Oak, just over the borough boundary south of Willesden Junction station, had been accepted by Brent through the process of agreeing a draft Vision for the Old Oak area, although it was expected that this release would be compensated for by the intensive development in the area for alternative employment opportunities. Although Brent supported the identification of Old Oak as a new Opportunity Area with the potential to deliver 55,000 new jobs it was felt that the overall job creation figure could be higher as the Vision drawn up for the area estimated that up to 90,000 jobs could be created. In the ensuing discussion, members noted that the housing target figure of 1,525 per annum would be difficult to achieve in the current economic climate and particularly due to scarcity of land in the ... view the full minutes text for item 3. |
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Any Other Urgent Business Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Democratic Services Manager or his representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 64.
Minutes: None. |