(a) Motion received from Councillor Bray, seconded by Councillor Gould
“This Council wishes the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to note the following:
Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council believes that local people, through their democratically elected local authorities, are the most suitable judges of what development is acceptable in an area and the suitable level of contributions that developers need to make;
Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council opposes:
· The Secretary of State's proposals for the Planning Inspectorate to have powers to override agreements between Councils and developers over the number of affordable housing units allocated to planning applications.
· The Secretary of State’s proposals for planning permission – currently required for extensions of more than three or four metres from the rear wall of any home – to only be needed for those reaching beyond 8m for detached homes and 6m for others
· The Secretary of State's intention to override Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1990 which will allow developers to immediately appeal to the Planning Inspectorate over the allocation of affordable housing units in any scheme they maybe concerned with.
· The Secretary of State's proposals for the Planning Inspectorate to take planning powers away from local authorities which he deems to be slow or of making poor quality planning decisions in determining applications.
This Council notes that the current Coalition government did listen earlier in the year over concerns regarding the National Planning Policy Framework and revised its plans accordingly, so urges the Government to listen to the concerns being expressed by the cross-party LGA;
This council however welcomes other parts of the stimulus package including:
· £300 million to provide 15,000 affordable homes across the country
· An extension of the refurbishment programme to bring an extra 5,000 empty homes back into use
· £280m for FirstBuy, the shared equity scheme to give a futher 16,500 first time buyers the chance to own their own homes
· Up to £10bn of guarantees to housing associations, property management companies and developers which will be able to use the guarantees to secure lower borrowing costs. This will lead to hundreds of thousands of extra rental homes being built.
This council also notes:
· the record of the previous Labour government on providing affordable social housing – and that during their 13 years in power, the social housing stock fell by another 420,000 houses, as Labour continually failed to build more homes than they were selling off. In the meantime, social housing waiting list soared to almost 1.8million, a rise of 741,000 families.
· the record of previous Conservative Governments where 1.1 million social homes were lost from the stock during the 18 years of Tory rule up to 1997, through a combination of Right to Buy sales and a failure to invest in replacements. When the Major government left office more than 1 million families were on social housing waiting lists.
This council resolves to formally write to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, outlining this council’s opposition to the plans.
(b) Motion received from Councillor Gould and seconded by Councillor
“This Council asks our Chief Executive to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and urge him to support the national e-petition of over a 100,000 signatures to abandon the unfair beer duty escalator. Introduced by the last government in 2008, this tax unfairly increases duty by 2% above inflation annually and today beer is taxed at a staggering 40%. This excessive tax year on year penalises those who work in the local pub industry and has a detrimental effect on employment, tourism and community cohesion. This e-petition is only the 12th out of over 16,000 submitted to have ever reached the 100,000 mark, thus sparking a Parliamentary debate, showing the strength of feeling both locally and nationally.”
(c) Motion received from Councillor Crooks and seconded by Councillor
“The Council acknowledges from the Parish Councils bordering the River Sence, their concerns regarding a possible increase in flood risk to their areas from new development within the catchment area. The Council requests that the Environment Agency and all relevant planning authorities ensure that all developments within the River Sence catchment are built in accordance with Government guidance on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems to minimise this perceived risk, and that the environment agency takes an overall view of these developments to ensure the existing drainage systems are able to cope given the recent increase in flooding”.
Minutes:
(a) Motion received from Councillor Bray, seconded by Councillor Gould
“This Council wishes the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to note the following:
Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council believes that local people, through their democratically elected local authorities, are the most suitable judges of what development is acceptable in an area and the suitable level of contributions that developers need to make;
Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council opposes:
· The Secretary of State's proposals for the Planning Inspectorate to have powers to override agreements between Councils and developers over the number of affordable housing units allocated to planning applications.
· The Secretary of State’s proposals for planning permission – currently required for extensions of more than three or four metres from the rear wall of any home – to only be needed for those reaching beyond 8m for detached homes and 6m for others
· The Secretary of State's intention to override Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1990 which will allow developers to immediately appeal to the Planning Inspectorate over the allocation of affordable housing units in any scheme they maybe concerned with.
· The Secretary of State's proposals for the Planning Inspectorate to take planning powers away from local authorities which he deems to be slow or of making poor quality planning decisions in determining applications.
This Council notes that the current Coalition government did listen earlier in the year over concerns regarding the National Planning Policy Framework and revised its plans accordingly, so urges the Government to listen to the concerns being expressed by the cross-party LGA;
This council however welcomes other parts of the stimulus package including:
· £300 million to provide 15,000 affordable homes across the country
· An extension of the refurbishment programme to bring an extra 5,000 empty homes back into use
· £280m for FirstBuy, the shared equity scheme to give a futher 16,500 first time buyers the chance to own their own homes
· Up to £10bn of guarantees to housing associations, property management companies and developers which will be able to use the guarantees to secure lower borrowing costs. This will lead to hundreds of thousands of extra rental homes being built.
This council also notes:
· the record of the previous Labour government on providing affordable social housing – and that during their 13 years in power, the social housing stock fell by another 420,000 houses, as Labour continually failed to build more homes than they were selling off. In the meantime, social housing waiting list soared to almost 1.8million, a rise of 741,000 families.
· the record of previous Conservative Governments where 1.1 million social homes were lost from the stock during the 18 years of Tory rule up to 1997, through a combination of Right to Buy sales and a failure to invest in replacements. When the Major government left office more than 1 million families were on social housing waiting lists.
This council resolves to formally write to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, outlining this council’s opposition to the plans.”
Whilst in support of the majority of the motion, some Members felt they could not support it due to the politicisation of the matter.
Councillor Lay left the meeting at 8.58pm.
Councillor Bray along with sever other Councillors stood to request that voting on the original motion be recorded. The vote was recorded as follows:
Councillors Bill, Bray, Cartwright, Cope, Crooks, Gould, Mrs Hall, Mr Hall, Hodgkins, Hulbert, Inman, Lynch, Mayne, Mullaney, Nichols, Taylor and Witherford voted FOR the motion (17);
Councillors Allen, Batty, Bessant, Camamile, Chastney, Ladkin, Moore, Morrell, O’Shea, Richards, Smith, Sprason, Sutton and Ward abstained from voting.
It was therefore declared CARRIED and
RESOLVED – the motion be approved.
(b) Motion received from Councillor Gould and seconded by Councillor Nichols
“This Council asks our Chief Executive to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and urge him to support the national e-petition of over a 100,000 signatures to abandon the unfair beer duty escalator. Introduced by the last government in 2008, this tax unfairly increases duty by 2% above inflation annually and today beer is taxed at a staggering 40%. This excessive tax year on year penalises those who work in the local pub industry and has a detrimental effect on employment, tourism and community cohesion. This e-petition is only the 12th out of over 16,000 submitted to have ever reached the 100,000 mark, thus sparking a Parliamentary debate, showing the strength of feeling both locally and nationally.”
Discussion ensued regarding sensible drinking, public houses as community centres and rural public houses.
Councillor Gould along with five other Members requested that voting on the motion be recorded. The vote was taken as follows:
Councillors Allen, Bessant, Bill, Bray, Camamile, Cartwright, Chastney, Cope, Crooks, Gould, Mrs Hall, Mr Hall, Hodgkins, Hulbert, Inman, Lynch, Morrell, Mullaney, Nichols, Sprason, Sutton, Taylor and Witherford voted FOR the motion (23);
Councillors Batty and Moore voted AGAINST the motion (2);
CouncillorsLadkin, Mayne, O’Shea, Richards, Smith and Ward abstained from voting.
It was therefore declared CARRIED and
RESOLVED – the motion be approved.
(c) Motion received from Councillor Crooks and seconded by Councillor Mullaney
“The Council acknowledges from the Parish Councils bordering the River Sence, their concerns regarding a possible increase in flood risk to their areas from new development within the catchment area. The Council requests that the Environment Agency and all relevant planning authorities ensure that all developments within the River Sence catchment are built in accordance with Government guidance on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems to minimise this perceived risk, and that the environment agency takes an overall view of these developments to ensure the existing drainage systems are able to cope given the recent increase in flooding”.
RESOLVED – the motion be approved.