Agenda item

To consider a report of the Director of Place seeking Cabinet approval to go out to public consultation on the draft East Cullompton Masterplan SPD. Also seeking approval for the continuation of technical work focused on Junction 28 of the M5, including the utilisation of £800,000 of Homes England capacity funding, to support the development of a Strategic Outline Case/Outline Business Case to support future applications for funding and discussions with key stakeholders about timely delivery of critical enabling infrastructure.

The Cabinet had before it a report * from the Director of Place seeking approval for the East Cullompton Masterplan SPD to go out the public consultation. It also sought approval for the continuation of technical work focussed on Junction 28 of the M5, including the utilisation of £800,000 of Homes England capacity funding, to support the development of a Strategic Outline Case/Outline Business Case to support future applications for funding and discussions with key stakeholders about timely delivery of critical enabling infrastructure.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Regeneration outlined the contents of the report and stated that:

·         Policy CU7 of the Mid Devon Local Plan allocates 160 hectares of land at East Cullompton for 2,600 homes, employment, infrastructure, greenspace and community facilities.  The policy requires adoption of a masterplan as a Supplementary Planning Document before any planning application could be determined. 

·         Whilst the Masterplan SPD focuses on the existing East Cullompton allocation, garden village status for the development of up to 5,000 new homes in the East Cullompton area was granted by the Government in 2017, and there is a clear direction of travel towards a garden village of significantly greater scale than the East Cullompton allocation.

·         As only the first phase of the proposed garden village is allocated, it is not possible to set out the masterplan requirements for the whole of the garden village within the SPD.  At this stage, it is therefore proposed only to develop a detailed Masterplan for East Cullompton, with Section 6 of the document looking at how a wider garden village might be developed, should it be allocated in a future Local Plan.

·         The report provides details of the draft Masterplan SPD, the background work to date, comments from the design review panel and Planning Policy Advisory Group, and details of the proposed public consultation.  Feedback from public consultation would help to shape the final version of the Masterplan SPD which, once adopted, would support the Local Plan, and guide the development of the proposed allocation. 

·         In addition, the Council had received £800,000 of capacity funding from Homes England specifically to progress technical work in respect of strategic highway improvements at Junction 28 of the M5.  These improvements were required by the Local Plan in order to bring forward development. It was proposed that the technical work would include transport modelling, an options assessment and environmental reports in order to progress a Strategic Outline Case for the required highways improvements.

A brief discussion took place regarding the Cullompton Town Centre Relief Road and whether or not there was a requirement for it to be delivered before any homes could be occupied on the East Cullompton allocation. It was confirmed that the Local Plan policies for East Cullompton required improvements to capacity at Junction 28 of the M5.  Capacity modelling carried out by Devon County Council for the Local Plan examination currently requires the Town Centre Relief Road to go in first.  However, the technical work being progressed by Devon County Council includes capacity modelling and this work could amend the position.  Mid Devon would take advice from Devon County Council on this.   

RESOLVED that:

1.            That the document at Appendix 1 is approved for public consultation.

2.            That delegated authority be given to the Director of Place in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Regeneration to finalise the consultation material.

3.            That delegated authority be given to the Director of Place to utilise £800,000 of Homes England capacity funding to continue the technical work to support development of a Strategic Outline Case/Outline Business Case in respect of Junction 28 of the M5.

(Proposed by Cllr R Chesterton and seconded by Cllr C Slade)

Reason for the decision - The Masterplan SPD would provide guidance on the planning and delivery of a strategic site for Mid Devon. The Masterplan SPD directly relates to all four Corporate Plan 2020-24 priorities including Homes, Environment, Economy and Community. The Junction 28 infrastructure project is considered vital to enable development identified in the Local Plan to come forward and make a substantial contribution to delivering the priorities of the Corporate Plan 2020 to 2024; Economy, Homes, Community and Environment. 

Note: * Report previously circulated, copy attached to the minutes.