Agenda and draft minutes

To report any changes to the membership

1.1       Election of Deputy Chairman

1.2       The Chairmen proposed that Councillor Jim Glen be appointed as Deputy      Chairman for the duration of the Meeting.

            There being no other nominations it was

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Jim Glen be appointed as Deputy Chairmen for the duration of the Meeting.

To receive and record declarations of interest.

2.1       There were no declarations of Interests.

To sign the minutes of the last meeting as a correct record of

proceedings.

3.1       That the Minutes of the Planning and City Development Committee meeting      held on 18 March 2021 be approved.

3.2       Matters Arising from the Minutes

3.2.1    Minutes 3.2.1 Matter Arising Point 5.4 - Site Visits

            Members were advised that site visits were now fully resumed and noted that         the Planning (Major Applications) Sub-Committee had recently been on a site    visit.

3.2.2    Minutes 3.2.3 Matter Arising Point 5.9 / 5.9- Public Comments on Planning    Portals. 

Members were informed that software which enables public comments on the public access system to be moderated to avoid offensive comments being published on the Council’s website was now operational. Officers will identify planning applications which are likely to generate significant numbers of inappropriate comments and on these applications all comments will be moderated prior to publication on the Council’s website. Officers advised that the software has not yet been required for moderation prior to publication as no contentious planning applications have been received in recent months. 

3.3       Minutes 5 Draft Early Community Engagement Guidance

3.3.1    Members were informed that officers were still reviewing options on how community engagement could be supported. These include using existing community consultations systems and employing a ‘Planning Champion’. Support for communities responding to consultation may be procured from consultation bodies.

3.3.2    Officers advised that further consultation on the updated Early Community Engagement   Guidance would be undertaken later in 2021. The updated guidance would include how communities should be involved in the early in the development emerging development proposals. The Guidance is expected to be launched in autumn 2021.

4.1       The Committee received a report which provided an update on the adoption of the City Plan and other work being undertaken by the planning policy team. The City Plan was adopted on 21 April 2021 following the conclusion of its             Examination in Public and the publication of the Planning Inspectors’ Final        Report in March confirming the City Plan as legally compliant and ‘sound’.            The City Plan 2019-2040 replaces the previous 2016 iteration of the City Plan         and the ‘saved’ policies from the council’s 2007 Unitary Development Plan             (UDP). It will now be used alongside the 2021 London Plan, and any ‘made’   (adopted) neighbourhood plans when determining planning applications in             Westminster. The City Plan represents a significant step forward from the             previous policy framework in several policy areas.

·       The Spatial Strategy sets out where growth will happen, including within our Opportunity Areas, Housing Renewal Areas and the Central Activities Zone.

·       The Housing chapter sets our target of 20,685 new homes to 2040 and includes policies on affordable housing, housing for specific groups, innovative housing and housing quality.

·       The Economy chapter sets our target of 63,000 new jobs to 2040 and includes policies on offices, town centres and high streets, the visitor economy, community infrastructure, education and skills, and our Special Policy Areas.

·       The Connections chapter outlines our principles in relation to sustainable transport and contains policies on active travel, parking, freight and servicing, and water transport.

·       The Environment chapter has policies to address air quality, energy, flood risk, waste, green infrastructure and other local impacts such as noise and lighting.

·       The Design and Heritage chapter sets out the principles of sustainable design and has policies addressing heritage and townscape, building height, the public realm and basements

4.2       Members were advised that officers were working towards producing a range   of other planning policy documents alongside other workstream. The         Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) provide additional detail and             guidance to enable successful implementation of the City Plan’s new policies.             Whilst they don’t form part of the council’s statutory Development Plan, SPDs    hold significant weight in decision-making and are produced subject to a             statutory process including formal consultation. The first SPD to be produced         is the Environment SPD, which was consulted on between May and July 2021             and is now being finalised. There are four additional SPDs currently in   preparation which are Planning Obligations and Affordable Housing, Public Realm, Design, and Heritage.

4.3       Members were informed that following recent changes to permitted   development rights made by the government, the council has issued a new Article 4 Direction for public consultation. There will be a 6-week consultation   period between 21 July – 1 September and a 12-month period between           introduction and effectiveness of the Direction to ensure the council is not   subject to compensation claims. The Article 4 Direction will restrict the change             of use from commercial to residential uses in the Central Activities Zone (CAZ) without full planning permission.

4.4       The Committee was advised that the Planning Policy team continued to     support Westminster’s designated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.1       The Committee received a report which provided an annual update on the      performance of the Town Planning Service in terms of the timeliness and             quality of its planning application decision making and the success rate of         planning appeals. The performance of the department over the period    between April 2020 and March 2021 continues to exceed the required             performance thresholds set by the MHCLG.

5.2       The performance of local planning authorities (LPAs) in determining major         and non-major development is assessed by the MHCLG over a 24-month       rolling period after every quarter. The assessment of performance is judged             by the MHCLG against two separate measures of performance, as set out in             ‘Improving Planning Performance Criteria for Designation (revised 2020),          which are:

·       the speed with which applications are dealt with measured by the proportion of applications that are dealt with within the statutory time or an agreed extended period and:

,

·       the quality of decisions made by local planning authorities measured by the

proportion of decisions on applications that are subsequently overturned at appeal.

·       For major applications the MHCLG sets a threshold of at least 60% of all decisions being made within 13 weeks or within an alternative timeframe agreed with the applicant.

·       For non-major development the MHCLG threshold is 70%. The MHCLG measures the quality of decision making by LPAs by monitoring their success rate at appeal.

·       For both major and non-major development, the MHCLG sets a threshold of not more than 10% of the total number of decisions made by an LPA being subsequently overturned at appeal.

5.3       Members held discussions and noted the following: -

·       That the Council met and exceeded the MHCLG performance threshold for speed of decisions for both Major and Non-Major Applications. The Major Applications exceeded the threshold by 14% and the Non-Major Applicants met the requirements.

·       That the timeliness of decision making for Non-Major Applications had dropped by 3.9% since June 2020 and this was due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and vacant posts within the Place Shaping & Town Planning Service. The Committee was advised that measures were being put in place to reverse the trend which included improved data and case monitoring, increased staff focus on improving the speed of decision making, such as utilising ‘extensions of times’ where appropriate. There is also an ongoing recruitment drive to fill vacant posts.

·       Members noted that staffing numbers and the deployment of resources would continue to be monitored. Officers advised that a large proportion of the department’s resources are deployed to deal with applications which are not featured in the statistics monitored by the MHCLG, such as Listed Building Consents. Members were informed that the recently introduced new departmental structures would be used to ensure that performance statistics are improved and maintained above thresholds and that a good service is delivered to applicants.

·       That only 0.9% of Non-Major Applications Appeals during the 24 Month Period to September 2019 determined in that period were overturned. These statistics are one of the lowest in all the inner London Boroughs.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1       The Committee received a report which provided a review of planning            committee processes over the last 18 months. Members were reminded that     prior to the start of the Coronavirus pandemic the Council had already begun to review and take appropriate steps to enhance and digitise its planning       committee format to enhance the accessibility of the meetings and improve            the transparency of decision making on high profile and contentious             applications. In advance of the pandemic the ability for interested parties to      address the planning committees directly had been introduced in February      2019 and the live streaming of committee meetings, with additional functionality to ‘catch up’ on previous committee meeting recordings, was          introduced in February 2020.

6.2       In light of the initial coronavirus lockdown period, it was necessary to     incorporate ‘Covid Secure’ measures when hosting public meetings.             Consequently, following the coming into force of temporary enabling    legislation to allow virtual public meetings on 2 April 2020, the Council            switched from the use of the Civico system to use of Microsoft (MS) Teams        from 14 April 2020 onwards. Fully virtual meetings using MS Teams         commenced on 9 April and public speaking for Ward Councillors was             reintroduced at the Sub-Committee meeting on 12 May, with other speakers       able to make verbal representations from 26 May onwards.

6.3       Following the Government’s decision not to extend the temporary legislation    that enabled fully virtual committee meetings. From 7 May 2021 the Council         moved to a hybrid committee meeting format, which is compliant with the           requirements of the Local Government Act 1972 by ensuring that the             committee meets in a single location (the City Hall committee rooms) and that the meeting is publicly accessible for those members of the public who wish          to attend the meeting in person. Initially hybrid meetings are being held using   MS Teams, but the longer-term intension is to transition to use of Civico           software once the Civico remote app, which enables the use of the in-office      Civico equipment to be used in combination with remote attendees, has been    fully tested and demonstrated to be fully functional and compatible with the     Council’s corporate IT systems

6.4       Members held discussions and noted the following: -

·       That Planning Applications Sub-Committee viewing figures were extremely high in April 2020 and this was reported to be due to the unique format of these meetings and the attraction of interests from both the public and the private sectors at the time. The viewing figures have now transitioned to levels which are usually expected for these meetings and again peak when there are either large scale or contentious planning applications.

·       That there had been an increase in the number of speakers since the introduction of hybrid Planning Applications Sub-Committees and this was attributed to interested parties having better access to these meetings.

·       That the length of virtual and hybrid Planning Applications Sub-Committees had a longer duration in comparison to the physical meetings that were held prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Members were informed that the increase in the length  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1       Members were informed that their training scheduled would be resumed in         September and were requested to forward future topics to be included in their          programme and Agenda Items for the Committee.

7.2       The Chair thanked the Committee and Officers for their contribution towards            the Planning Applications Sub-Committees and commented that these bodies            were robust and were admired by other Planning Authorities which onsidered          Westminster City Council as an examplar Council.

7.3       The Cabinet Member for Business, Licensing and Planning also thanked the             Committee and Officers for their work on the Sub-Committees.

• 25 October 2021

·       25 October 2021