The Corporate Director – Communities submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to advise Council of the necessity to revise the LDP Delivery Agreement (DA); to seek approval of the extension to the LDP Timetable and to the submission of the revised DA to Welsh Government for agreement.

The Strategic Planning Policy Team Leader, advised that DA was a mandatory requirement of the LDP process and considered to be a key tool for the speedier production of land use plans. It comprised of the following two elements:

• The Timetable – this sets out how the Council will manage the programme for preparing the LDP. 
• The Community Involvement Scheme (CIS) – this sets out who, when and how the Council will consult and engage with various stakeholders, including the general public.

An extension to the timetable of the LDP was the subject of the report, he added.

Public consultation on the Council’s Draft DA was undertaken during April and May 2018 and Council approved the document for submission to WG, which subsequently approved the initial final DA on the 25 June 2018.

WG advised all Local Planning Authorities that DA’s should be adjusted to account for any necessary changes to the LDP timetable in light of delays caused by the pandemic.

As a result, the Council approved a revised DA on 16 September 2020, which was subsequently approved by WG on 5 October 2020.

Since that date, Bridgend County Borough Council had prepared the LDP Deposit Draft (LDPDD), which Cabinet approved for consultation on 18 May 2021. Public consultation was held for 8 weeks between 1 June and 27 July 2021.

Progress towards the next key stage of the replacement LDP, submission of the LDPDD to WG and the Planning Inspectorate, had been delayed and this was the subject of the necessary changes to the DA, set out in the next section of the report.

The Strategic Planning Policy Team Leader continued by stating, that Council now needed to prepare a new DA with WG following the LDPDD consultation. The reason for this, was that the LDP’s supporting evidence base needed reviewing and refining as a result of the representations received from our communities and key stakeholders. In approving the Deposit Draft for consultation Council made a commitment to those communities. This was that the Authority would consider, formulating and publishing a response to each of the representations received to the LDPDD. The Council had been in receipt of over 1,200 representations, which proved to be a considerable administrative exercise.

In addition to responding to the individual representations, the LDP evidence base needs to be reviewed and refined as a result of new information coming to light, as a result of changes to legislation, updated national planning guidance and the completion of supporting technical information.

These strands of work were set out in paragraph 4.3 of the report and expanded upon for the benefit of Council, by the Strategic Planning Policy Team Leader.

The proposed extension to the Timetable was illustrated in Table 1 (paragraph 4.4 of the report) and showed that Stage 4, which is the stage the Council were currently at, needs to be extended to June 2022 to enable submission of the Plan to WG next Summer.

Prior to submission, amendments to the LDPDD can be made as a result of the issues raised during the public consultation and prior to being reported to Council to seek approval to submit the plan for independent examination in public.

Finally, he confirmed that Members will be aware that the existing LDP expires this year, which places the Council in an increasingly tenuous position and open to challenge from the development industry. It is therefore imperative that the Local Planning Authority continues to progress with the statutory review of the LDP.

Of equal importance he finalised, was the need to ensure that the plan is robust and fit for purpose and supported by all the necessary evidence. As such the issues raised in the report, required additional time to resolve to reduce the potential for challenge further on in the LDP process. 

The Corporate Director – Communities and the Strategic Planning Policy Team Leader responded to a couple of questions from Members, following which it was

RESOLVED:                       (1) That Council approved the revisions to the timetable and authorised the Group Manager Planning & Development Services to submit the revised Delivery Agreement (attached at Appendix 1 to the report) to Welsh Government.

(2)  That Council provided delegated authority to the Group Manager Planning & Development Services to make any factual corrections or minor amendments to the Delivery Agreement as considered necessary.