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Statement made by the Chair of the Parish Council at the start of the last Ordinary Meeting of Southwick Parish Council held on Tuesday 17th January 2017.

Chairman’s Special Announcement

Before the Open Forum starts it is important for me to say a few words about the purpose of this Parish Council meeting tonight because you may have been drawn to attend this meeting by some misleading information.

This is a normal monthly Parish Council meeting routinely set up by law to enable the Parish Council to carry out its lawful business as detailed on the Agenda.

It is NOT a Planning Meeting at which we can devote all the time hearing Parishioners views and reasoned arguments about development applications.

You will hear later in the meeting under item 14d that there will be such a Planning Meeting devoted to hearing the views of all Parishioners about the Redrow Homes Outline Planning Application delivered to us by Wiltshire Council on 12 January 2017.

I apologise if any of you thought that this was a Planning Meeting, but it was not of our doing.

The Parish Council also wishes to point out that it is NOT the duty of a Parish Council to STOP any or all planning applications. A Parish Council’s duty is to seek out the wishes of the majority of Parishioners, particularly for possibly contentious planning applications, as well as ensuring that the application makes sense, is sustainable to the Parish, and that the Parish Council comments passed back to Wiltshire Council about the application would satisfy the majority of Parishioners.

The Parish Council in this respect has a difficult task to do as it will NOT be able to please everyone, but we do need to hear your views with reasoned arguments regarding potentially contentious applications, and the Parish Meeting is one of the places where we can do this.

We appreciate that there is not a great deal of time set by Wiltshire Council to respond to this Redrow application and we have already requested from the Senior Planning Officer for an extension of the Consultation Expiry Date to 28^th February and I can confirm that the Planning Officer has agreed to this request.

As tonight’s Agenda includes a lot of Parish Council Business, I will be restricting the Open Forum to 15 minutes as per the Agenda, but I would urge all of you to write to the Clerk as soon as possible if you have strong views about the Redrow application stating your reasoned argument for those views, as well as making those views and arguments known to Wiltshire Council.

Can I also draw your attention to the Wiltshire Council web site where there is a page devoted to “How do I comment on planning applications?” This page contains two important sections about what issues will be considered, and what will not be considered. Significantly,  you cannot bring matters that are not material to the application such as ‘loss of value’ and ‘loss of view’ as these are outside the boundaries of the planning process and are more civil matters between parties. There is also a link to the online system where you can post your comments.

Thank you for listening and I now adjourn the Parish Council Meeting to start the Open Forum for a maximum of 15 minutes.

Two Significant Dates

Wiltshire Council will close submissions to the Shlaa map in mid December 2016 and will report in mid January 2017 on any changes that they propose to make to the existing map.

Wiltshire Council has a statutory duty to consult The Parish Council and we currently have an adopted policy of not wishing to see any large housing development within our Village.

Unfortunately Planning Inspectors have recently within West Wilts granted permissions to build on green field sites because Wiltshire Council has not been able or willing at Public Enquiries to demonstrate that it has a five year housing land supply plan.

However you can be assured that we will continue to be vigilant and will work with others like "Save Our Southwick" to stop large scale housing developments encircling our village.

A Map of SHLAA Sites in Southwick produced by WC

Since consultation started your Parish Council has opposed and continues to oppose large scale development within the Village.  Full details of our responses have been regularly reported in our minutes (available on this website) over the last few years.

"The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) provides information on a range of potential housing sites and gives an indication of how dwelling requirements could potentially be met.
This evidence will be used to inform the Local Development Framework (LDF) Core Strategy and Site Allocation Development Plan Documents and Neighbourhood Plans.
Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments are expected to be updated as part of the Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) process." (WC Website.)   Map