MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CRANBROOK & SISSINGHURST NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT PLAN STEERING GROUP HELD ON 22ND FEBRUARY 2021
PRESENT: Cllr. Warne (in the Chair), Cllr. Pethurst and Annie Hopper, Marion Cranmer, Liz Daley, June Bell, Jeremy Boxall and Matt Warne.
APOLOGIES: Cllr. Hatcher
Cllr. Warne read out the following statement:
Members are required to declare any interests, dispensations, predetermination on items on this agenda in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct. Members are reminded that changes to the Register of Interests should be notified to the Clerk.
Cllr. Warne declared an interest under the site assessments regarding site 122 which had been put forward by a relative. Cllrs. Warne, June Bell, Matt Warne and Annie Hopper declared a personal interest as members of the CVLT (Crane Valley Land Trust). Annie Hopper, June Bell and Liz Daley declared an interest as members of Hartley Save Our Fields Action Group. Members of the various Advisory Groups declared an interest as necessary.
1. Liaison with Tunbridge Wells Borough Council:
Cllr. Warne reported on a meeting with Deborah Dixon from TWBC and their pre submission plan had now been agreed. The NDP will now need to update some policies to reflect these changes. TWBC had also informed her that the document did not meet the accessibility requirement. Jeremy Boxall had forwarded a link to the Government web page on this topic. Cllr. Warne agreed to speak with Lee Hatcher regarding this matter. The Clerk informed the meeting that there were funds available from the budget to cover this cost.
2. Consultation Responses:
The groups were making excellent progress and the comments received had been logged on to the excel sheets provided by Richard Eastham with the NDP responses.
June Bell shared her screen regarding the Design & Heritage Chapter with a summary of the findings, the comments received and the responses. Percentage figures of comments in support/against etc were detailed at the beginning and Marion Cranmer offered to help other groups if they wished to include this data. Graphs were also to be used depicting this information, colours to be decided at a later date. It was agreed to change the name of this Chapter to Heritage & Design. The changes which the group had made to the Chapter had been highlighted in red so that they were easily identifiable. It was agreed that the other groups should use this system. It was hoped that this word document would be ready to be circulated in the next few days.
Cllr. Warne reported that some of the Chapters needed to be cross referenced to make sure there were no conflicting policies.
In answer to a question from Jeremy Boxall, once all the comments and responses had been collated and amendments made to the Chapters these would then be sent to Richard Eastham.
Cllr. Warne informed the meeting that she had made a start with the Landscape & Natural Environment Chapter, however there were a considerable number of questions which need discussion by the group. Liz Daley, Matt Warne and Garry Pethurst kindly offered to assist her with this Chapter.
Matt Warne shared his screen regarding the Infrastructure Chapter which detailed the comments received and the proposed responses. Members spent some time going through the Chapter updates and further amendments were agreed which will be incorporated and shown in red as previously agreed and then circulated.
In order to keep up the momentum of amending the policies it had been agreed to hold working group meetings on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month. The meeting to be held on the 8th March would discuss Heritage & Design, Housing and the Access & Movement Chapters. The meeting on 22nd March would deal with Landscape & Natural Environment and Business & Employment Chapters.
3. Project Timetable: No update.
4. Stakeholder Engagement: Nothing to report.
NDP Working Group Meeting: Monday 8th March 2021 (please note this will not be Clerked)
