Agenda and minutes

A webcast of the meeting can be viewed at http://council.webcast.vualto.com/leicestershire-county-council/home/?EventId=22551

Mr N J Rushton CC, Leader of the Council

Mr J B Rhodes CC, Deputy Leader of the Council and County Council representative on the Members’ Advisory Group

Grant Butterworth, Head of Planning, Leicester City Council

Tim Sacks, Chief Operating Officer, East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group

Pat Willoughby, Joint Strategic Planning Manager

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 January were taken as read, confirmed and signed.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 35.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5).

There were no urgent items for consideration.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

All Members who were also members of a District Council declared a personal interest in the draft Strategic Growth Plan, as the Plan was a partnership Plan developed by the City Council, County Council, District Councils and Leicester and Leicestershire Economic Partnership (LLEP) (minute 69 refers).

There were no declarations of the party whip.

The Chief Executive reported that no petitions had been received under Standing Order 36.

The following have been invited to the meeting for this item:-

Mr N J Rushton CC, Leader of the Council;

Mr J B Rhodes CC, Deputy Leader and County Council MAG Representative;

Tom Purnell, Assistant Chief Executive;

Pat Willoughby, Joint Strategic Planning Manager;

Ann Carruthers, Director of Environment and Transport;

Tim Sacks, Chief Operating Officer, East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group;

Grant Butterworth, Head of Planning, Leicester City Council.

Written Representations have been submitted by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Shelter Housing Aid and Research Project and the Public Health Department.  These are attached as Appendices C – E of the Report.

The Commission considered a report of the Chief Executive which provided an opportunity to consider and comment on the draft Strategic Growth Plan for Leicester and Leicestershire.  A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 8’ is filed with these minutes.

The Commission also considered the following:-

·       A presentation setting out how the Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (HEDNA) had informed the Plan; how the overall figures for growth had been determined and justification for the level of growth in the Plan; and how the distribution of growth had been determined and how developments on the borders of Leicestershire have been taken into account;

·       A presentation setting out the transport infrastructure delivery and further transport assessment work needed to support the Strategic Growth Plan;

·       A presentation setting out housing capacity in Leicester City;

·       Written representations from the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Shelter Housing Aid and Research Project and the County Council’s Public Health Department, copies of which are appended to the report.

A copy of the slides forming the presentations is filed with these minutes.

Mr N J Rushton CC, Leader of the Council, advised the Commission that he was proud of the draft Strategic Growth Plan as Leicester and Leicestershire were one of a very few county and city areas with such a Plan.  He thanked the Members’ Advisory Group (MAG) for their work in developing the Plan, recognising that they had had to make tough decisions.  He noted that the Plan would be welcomed by the Government as Ministers would see the area’s potential to deliver economic growth.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Tim Sacks, Chief Operating Officer for East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), explained that the level of detail in the Strategic Growth Plan would be important to support the local CCGs to plan for the future and identify which GP practices required development.  He expected that the level of growth set out in the draft Plan would require between 10 and 20 new large health centres.  Consideration of the draft Strategic Growth Plan across the local health and care system was needed in order to evaluate the expected impact of population growth on acute and community hospital beds.

Mr J B Rhodes CC, Deputy Leader of the Council and the Council’s representative on the MAG, reminded the Commission that there was little opportunity for significant growth in Leicester City.  It was inevitable that the level of growth set out in the Plan had been estimated, but it was felt to be as accurate as possible.  It was therefore important to plan for that level of growth and to focus largely on developing a few strategic sites rather than significantly expanding villages and changing their character.  Nationally, the concept of an expressway from Exeter to Hull, based on the A46, had been proposed.  This would improve east-west connectivity in Leicestershire and would bring significant strategic benefits for growth.  The route had not been identified yet but the MAG supported the concept and had included it in the draft Strategic Growth Plan.  Mr Rhodes also made reference to the importance of technology and how changes to technology such as vehicles which could be controlled electronically could change transport infrastructure requirements.  The Strategic Growth Plan would be flexible in its ability to respond to new technology.

Arising from discussion the following points were raised:-

The Four Priorities in the Strategic Growth Plan

(i)          Members welcomed the principle of the Strategic Growth Plan, to prevent unplanned growth which damaged the character of local areas and lacked infrastructure.  The proposals in the Plan were generally  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

The next meeting of the Commission is scheduled to take place on 7 March 2018 at 2.00pm

There will be a workshop for Commission Members only at 10.30am on 7 March.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Commission would be held on 7 March 2018 at 2.00pm.

A workshop for Commission members only would take place at 10.30am on 7 March.