Bridport Area Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group Meeting
 
5 July 2017 6pm, at Bridport Town Council Offices (Mountfield)

Present: Phyllida Culpin - Chair (Allington), Bob Driscoll (Symondsbury), Richard Nicholls (BLAP), Caroline Meredith (Bridport Chamber of Commerce), Glenn Crawford (Bridport), Richard Freer (Allington), Steve Spear (Bradpole).

Also in Attendance: Sal Robinson, Sue Fryer (Land Use), Gavin Fryer (Land Use), Richard Toft (Climate Change), Margaret Toft (Climate Change), Paul Bowditch (Allington Parish Council), Anna Lovell (POPP), Maureen Jackson (BLAP), Rose Carney.

Phyllida reminded everyone of the Register of Interests.

1. Apologies.

Andrew Leppard (Bridport), Katy Graham (Project Manager).

2. Minutes of last meeting.

The minutes were AGREED.

3. Matters arising from the minutes.

1. Vearse Farm.

2. A statement has been added to the Consultation Summary document stating what can and can’t be covered in a Neighbourhood Plan and that NP policies can influence some aspects of strategic developments e.g. materials, appearance.

3. Richard Toft said he has been informed that the DCC flood guidelines now specify a storm profile of +40%.

4. WDDC Response to Housing and Parishes Responses to the Draft Intentions.

• WDDC Response to Housing Draft Intentions

• The revised HNA has been given to the Joint Council Committee and the 5 parishes.

• The Housing Working Group has not sent the responses back to WDDC – to be sent when the Parish Council comments on the HNA has been received and analysed

• Some comments have been accepted by the Working Group, others are being challenged, for example regarding “low cost” versus “affordable” housing.

• Feedback from the Parishes on the Draft Intentions.

• The working Group responses to the parishes responses have been sent out

• Work on the draft intentions / policies will continue whilst the consultation is underway and revised versions of the intentions will be available during the consultation period.

• Feedback from the consultation may lead to amendments to intentions

   

5. Consultation Planning – Leaflet and Events.

• The Summary Document and Questionnaire is at the printers and will be available for distribution next week
• The parishes are organising distribution
• It was noted that when the summary was being prepared there were too many opinions on what the document should look like, which slowed the process and frustrated the authors. This must be borne in mind the next time a formal document is required
• The next event is the Melplash Show on 24 August.

6. Progress Update from Working Groups.

Katy has combined the evidence templates, Richard Frier to review and then circulate to Working Group members.

• Climate Change.

  • Richard Toft is investigating flood design / mitigation.

     He recently attended a Regen SW event, where the draft intentions document was well received. Several other Neighbourhood Plan groups were there.

• Transport

  • Richard has written down his thoughts on the Neighbourhood Plan process – he will send this to Sal for circulation

• Environment

  • The draft intentions have been updated in the light of comments from Symondsbury and Bridport

  • All owners of land selected for designation as Local Green Spaces have been informed of this intention

• Economy

  • Nothing to report

• Housing

  • Richard Toft said that affordable housing viability information can be obtained by a Freedom of Information request

  • Glenn said that the viability information for St Michael’s Trading Estate is in the public domain (he has since discovered that the published viability information (from the District Valuer's Office) lacks a critical piece of information on the developer's profit margin. It is available on the St Michael's planning application web page (under Consultees) together with a fully worked spreadsheet declaring all the costs and expected revenues from selling the houses and flats.).

  • The planning application says that 24% of the planned housing will be “affordable”, consisting of 22 units, none for “social” rent, 6 for shared ownership and 16 for “affordable” rent.

7. Public Participation / Any Other Business.

Anna Lovel asked where hospitals and medical services are covered in the NP. The answer is that these are strategic services (as is public transport) so are outside the scope of a NP.

8. Next meeting.

The next Steering Group meeting will be on Wednesday 2 August, 6 pm at Mountfield.