Issue - meetings

The purpose of the report is to seek Cabinet approval for consultation on a draft Residential Amenity Space and Place Quality Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) and to delegate authority to the Corporate Director for Communities and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Planning to consider consultation responses, along with any necessary changes, and the decision on whether to adopt the Residential Amenity Space and Place Quality SPD.

Cabinet RESOLVED to approve the Draft Residential Amenity Space and Place Quality Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), as set out in Appendix A of the report, to be issued for statutory public consultation.

Councillor Tatler (Cabinet Member for Regeneration & Planning) introduced a report seeking approval to undertake consultation on a draft Residential Amenity Space and Place Quality Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

In considering the report, members were advised that the SPD had been developed to clarify and provide clear guidance in relation to the Council’s expectations for well-designed places and existing requirements in terms of residential amenity and good urban design in Brent’s Local Plan.

Cabinet endorsed the scope of the SPD, which it was noted would cover a wide range of amenity space types, sizes and scales of development designed to improve residents’ quality of life by seeking to ensure high quality environmental design aimed at improving health, wellbeing and social cohesion and address wider inequalities such as those exposed during the covid pandemic.  As part of this approach, members noted how the scope of the SPD extended beyond the typical design guidance, through introduction of a new “Place Quality Framework” setting out a new system for the assessment of design quality framed around health, wellbeing, social sustainability and quality of life outcomes building on emerging guidance that would be a material consideration in determining future planning applications.

Members were advised of the extensive range of both internal and external engagement undertaken to inform the content of the SPD and having considered and welcomed the approach in seeking to improve quality of life through the design of places, Cabinet RESOLVED to approve the Draft Residential Amenity Space and Place Quality Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), as set out in Appendix A of the report, to be issued for statutory public consultation.