Havant Borough Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Berwick, Hulls and Coates with Councillor Hagan standing in as deputy for Councillor Coates.

There were no declarations of pecuniary interests relating to matters on the

agenda.

With regard to those members of the Committee, who were also members of the Cabinet Liaison Panel – Local Plan, the Monitoring Officer had advised that as this an advisory group with no decision making powers, membership of this group did not prevent members from taking part in the debate and vote. However, it was recommended that members of the group should declare their membership.

Therefore, Councillors Tansom, Horton and Hagan declared that they members of the Cabinet Liaison Panel – Local Plan.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 4 December 2024 be approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee were given an opportunity to scrutinise and submit comments on the ‘Consultation on the Draft Building a better future plan’ report and it’s appendices.

The committee noted that the meeting’s purpose was to principally to discuss whether the plan should move forward for public consultation; not to discuss the merits of sites.

The Chairman advised that she had asked for a Task and Finish Group to be established to enable members of the Committee to have an opportunity to discuss the Local Plan in greater detail before its final submission for approval.

Members asked questions of clarification from the Leader, Councillor Phil Munday and the officers and raised points in relation to:

·       The provisions in the draft plan to mitigate the risk of private sector developers not completing developments on the allocated sites.

·       How the Council would seek to ensure that the design of all developments of a high quality.

·       The robustness of the assessment process for allocating sites for development in the plan

·       Whether the consultation process would be equitable and included sufficient arrangements to encourage younger and illiterate residents and those areas, with an historically low response rate to consultations, to take part in the consultation.

·       The processes for ensuring that the infrastructure would be able to accommodate developments on the allocated sites.

·       The impact of devolution on the draft plan.

·       How the draft plan balanced unmet need and the natural environment.

·       The population profile of the borough and engagement with Hampshire County Council social care on the need of different types of housing for older persons.

Following questions, Cllr Grainne Rason, at the request of the Chairman, attended the meeting and sought the Committee’s views on the need to include additional environmental safeguards for development sites in Emsworth. The Officers confirmed they supported such a provision and that this could be added in the plan before the relevant Cabinet meeting. In response to Councillor Rason there was no support for additional environmental safeguards being included to protect selected areas in the Borough.

The Chairman reminded members of the Committee that, in view of the importance that the plan, she will make arrangements for a Task and Finish Group to be created to look at the plan in greater detail before its adoption by the Council.

RESOLVED that Cabinet be recommended to:

1.     Approve the Draft Building a Better Future Plan (Appendix A) for consultation;

2.     Approve the Consultation Programme for the Draft Building a Better Future Plan  (Appendix B), which is scheduled to take place from May 2025;

3.     Approve the 2025 Statement of Community Involvement (Appendix C);

4.     Recommend to the Full Council that the Housing Delivery Position Statement be withdrawn; and

5.     Delegate authority to the Executive Head of Place, following consultation with the Leader of the Council to make any necessary amendments to the documents above. These shall be limited to minor updates and editing, changes and correction of any errors and shall not change the substance of the material.