Issue - meetings

To receive a report of the Head of Planning and Regeneration requesting  Members to consider the implications to the Local Plan of making a major modification to the Local Plan Review to allocate land at J27 of the M5 for a leisure/retail/tourism and employment development.

The Cabinet had before it a * report of the Head of Planning and Regeneration requesting it to consider the implications to the Local Plan of making a major modification to the Local Plan Review to allocate land at J27 of the M5 for leisure/retail/tourism and employment development.

The Head of Planning and Regeneration outlined the contents of the report stating that before the meeting today was the issue of land allocation and that the Cabinet were not being requested to determine any particular scheme by the land promoter or an application by the land promotor. She also clarified that business rate revenue was not a material planning consideration and should not form part of consideration of an allocation. She outlined the history of the site and the various schemes that had come forward over many years, the agreement for the new area of growth identified east of Cullompton and that a new settlement limit option north of Willand was not pursued; the proposed submission plan of 2014 that had omitted J27 as allocated land and the work that had taken place to date to address the issues raised in 2014.

She identified the site by way of presentation, highlighting the elements of the allocation and the land ownership evidence. The tourism and leisure opportunity would be supported by a retail facility in the form of a designer village outlet. She addressed the work that had taken place by the Council’s Retail Consultant and the issue of trade draw which had been highlighted during public question time, it had been suggested that there would be some trade draw impact but that this would be offset by expenditure growth and was not considered significant.  She also explained the “Duty to Cooperate” consultation that had taken place with surrounding local authorities and although some concerns had been raised with regard to the impact on retail, the allocation was still thought to be sound. However objection from certain Duty to Cooperate partners was still expected.

With regard to the movement of people who chose to shop outside Mid Devon, it was anticipated that such an allocation would have the potential to claw back some expenditure leakage.  The officer addressed the housing issue identified during public question time. An updated assessment for the whole of the Local Plan had resulted in an additional 400 houses as the result of finalisation of the Strategic Housing Market Assessment. It was felt that the additional dwellings could be met within allocated sites taking into account permissions granted.  The National Planning Policy Framework acknowledged the importance of ensuring housing numbers and employment opportunities were considered in tandem. There was a need to allocate additional land to accommodate 260 dwellings in the vicinity of Junction 27 if the land were to be put forward. Potential sites were then outlined; with regard to the site at Sampford Peverell and the questions posed in public question time: the suggestion that the site was fairly prominent meant that the density would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62