To approve the adoption of the Herefordshire Council’s revised statement of community involvement.

To recommend to Council the adoption of the Herefordshire Council’s revised statement of community involvement.

The cabinet member finance, corporate services and planning introduced the report. She highlighted the importance of engagement with communities during the update of the council’s Local Plan. The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) was a legal requirement, the current document had been adopted in 2017 and it was now due to be updated.

Cabinet members discussed the report. It was noted that determination of individual applications was based on the policy framework, currently the Core Strategy adopted in 2015, and underlying evidence base. It was important that communities responded to the consultation processes that would be taking place in 2022 to update these policies and evidence base documents.

Group leaders and representatives presented their comments and queries. In response to points raised it was noted that:

·        General scrutiny committee wanted to review the planning service in January;

·        The SCI was an outward facing document and the language used reflected this, more detail on the role of councillors was set out in other documents;

·        The council now had a near seven year land supply which gave a buffer and helped to resist unplanned developments;

·        It was important to get the policy framework right and include the right amount of flexibility, however some changes would need to be made at a national level.

It was resolved that:

a)               The revised Herefordshire Council Statement of Community Involvement at appendix A as amended in line with the table in appendix B be recommended to Council for adoption.

The meeting adjourned at 4:42pm and resumed at 4:50pm.