Agenda item

To consider the findings from this year’s annual Authority Monitoring Report 2019/20 (20 minutes)

Consideration was given to a report of the Head of Planning Policy which provided a summary of the Council’s latest Authority’s Monitoring Report (AMR). The AMR reviews the effectiveness of the Council’s planning policies and helps to ensure that progress is being made towards achieving the objectives set out in the Local Plan. The AMR is a statistical document, it is not for the AMR to provide commentary or solutions to issues, but to help guide the direction of travel for future corporate and planning policy.

The AMR reporting year covers the previous financial year, with a requirement to be published by December. There is a delay between publication and the end of the reporting year, due to the period for data collection, as well as waiting on data gathering and reporting from other external bodies.  To help keep the information up to date, the AMR also aims to highlight any recent further developments that have happened since the end of the reporting period. 

The latest AMR covers the reporting period of the financial year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.  This report is the sixteenth monitoring report for the Borough. The latest AMR will be published on the Council’s website prior to Christmas.  

The Authority’s Monitoring Report has been prepared in line with section 35 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004) (as amended). Local Authorities are no longer required to submit their monitoring reports to the Secretary of State. However, the Council has a duty to continue monitoring and collecting data.

Part 8, Town and Country Planning Regulations 2012 sets out the content of what must be covered within an AMR.  AMR’s are designed to monitor the performance of planning policies on the area in which they apply.  The AMR is formed of two elements: a) monitoring the progress of the Local Development Scheme (LDS) and b) monitoring the performance of the Local Plan planning policies in the Borough.  

At the time of writing, there are currently two pieces of data that are outstanding. This is dataon planning applications where the Environment Agency has commented on, or objected to, applications due to flood risk being an issue. The other set of data is the figure for the number of Employment and Skill Plans obtained during the reporting period. This information will be included within the final published AMR. 

The Borough is continuing to perform well in a number of areas, in context of Output Indicators as shown in Appendix 1 of the AMR. Affordable housing completions in 2019/20 are higher than the annual Corporate Plan target compared to completions in 2018/19. Housing completions overall, have increased compared to the previous year and surpassed the Local Plan housing requirement. The amount of employment land being lost to residential development has decreased.There has been a recent increase in the number of vacant units in the town centres, this is considered due to the popularity of online shopping and the economic impact of Covid 19. Actions on the future of our town centres will be taken forward through both the Andover and Romsey Masterplans.

The Head of Planning Policy answered a question about solar installations on industrial units and public buildings . The AMR is a planning document however there needs to be some synergy with the climate emergency action plan.  This could be added if the information is available.

Resolved:

That OSCOM notes and endorses Test Valley Borough Council’s Authority Monitoring Report for 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.