Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Shelley Room, 2nd Floor, Parkside

Items
No. Item

8.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

There were apologies for absence from Councillor Haigh.

9.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 207 KB

To receive the notes of the meeting held on 4th November 2019.

Minutes:

The notes of the previous meeting on 4th November were received by the group.

10.

Declarations of Members' Interests

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

11.

To hear from the Monitoring Officer

Minutes:

The Chairman of the task and finish group explained that if Councillors considered that additional parking was required, planning officers would still approve an application if County Highways had said to allow it.  It was felt that the County   Council’s parking matrix was insufficiently flexible and that District Councillors had greater local knowledge of parking requirements.

 

The Monitoring Officer stated:

·         Horsham were the Planning Authority

·         County Highways must be consulted with regard to various types of development shown listed in schedule 4 of The Town and Country Planning (development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 and anything thought to have an adverse impact on safety including impact on overflow into the street could come under that interpretation.

·         If it were arguable that there were a safety issue and Horsham didn’t consult with County Highways as the statutory consultee, Horsham could be open to challenge by way of judicial review if a planning decision went to appeal due to lack of consultation. 

·         County Highways had a right to comment on Local Authority Planning Decisions.

·         If Members were to develop a planning matrix requiring more parking spaces and therefore impacting on viability, it might push development away from Horsham and again be open to challenge

 

It was noted that the bus service was poor.  It was felt that the West Sussex County Council parking matrix was unrealistic giving 0.8 of a parking space per flat.

 

It was noted that a lot of people had company vehicles at home in addition to their own vehicles.

 

The Chairman of the Task and Finish Group asked how Arun District Council had managed to draw up supplementary planning documents. 

12.

To hear from a Planning Officer

Minutes:

The Planning Officer noted that:

·        West Sussex County Council is the local highway authority and statutory consultee. Its role is to provide advice to local planning authorities on the transport implications of a development to inform planning decisions.

·        HDC are the determining authority and must consider the advice of WSCC as a material consideration.

·        The new County Parking Standards approved in July 2019 are evidence based.

 

The Planning Officer was not aware of any other authorities who had developed their own planning matrix. 

 

It was felt that if Horsham District Council developed their own parking matrix, County Highways could continue to comment solely on risk to the highway.

 

It was suggested that another possible route would be to accept the planning matrix from County Highways if the District was allowed to fine-tune it to circumstances.

 

There was a discussion around whether it would be better to have general car parks on sites rather than individual ones.   It was noted that whilst developers would find this cheaper, people prefer to have their own space.

 

RESOLVED

 

·        The Planning Officer would check whether any authorities apart from Arun District Council had developed their own parking matrix.

·        The Chairman of the Task and Finish Group would seek clarification from Arun District Council on what exactly they had done and how they did it

·        The Scrutiny Officer would invite a member of West Sussex County Council Highways to the next meeting of the task and finish group

 

 

13.

Date of next meeting

Minutes:

The next meeting of the group was scheduled for Monday 16th December at 4pm.