Current position on Examination

I held a public hearing on the 29th October. At the close of that I asked two of the parties, representing Persimmon and Gladman, to prepare a succinct summary of the legal arguments they made to me. That (joint) Opinion was duly sent to me and all the other parties (at the hearing) on 8th November, giving them till the 22nd November to respond. Two parties duly did - Oundle Town Council (OTC) and those representing Rose & Sons Properties. The OTC letter was subsequently corrected (omission of a word); it also contained an appendix (3) with material which appears to be new and so I have not taken that into account.

East Northamptonshire Council sent me a Position Statement dated 19th November in relation to planning applications in the plan area.

I have asked that all these documents be available on the websites.

I will now proceed to complete an Interim Report into the Examination in the next week. A draft copy will be sent to the two Councils for fact-checking (only) before it made public.

John Parmiter FRICS FRSA MRTPI

Examiner

Position Statement –Oundle Neighbourhood Plan Examination.

Following the public hearing into the Oundle Neighbourhood Plan, which took place on 29^th October I wish to formally update you of matters of interest that have occurred since the hearing.

Planning Applications proposing residential development at Cotterstock Road (130 dwellings) and St Christopher's Drive (65 dwellings and 65 extra care units) were considered at the meeting of the Planning Management Committee held on 13 November 2019.

In respect of the Cotterstock Drive planning application, whilst the relevant statutory undertakers were satisfied with the planning application and did not object, it was moved and seconded that the application be deferred in order to obtain:

1. A road safety audit of the access proposals as set out on drawing ITM14114-SK-006 Rev B;

2. An independent assessment of the Transport Assessment and highway impacts of the proposed development;

3. An independent odour assessment of the impact of the proposed development on potential future residents; and

4. A review of the proposed drainage conditions to ensure that they are suitably robust

In respect of the St Christopher's Drive planning application officers advised that due to additional information being received from the applicant following publication of the committee report, it was recommended that the application be deferred to allow time to consider the information.

The Planning Management Committee agreed to defer the application to a subsequent meeting to allow officers time to consider additional information received about securing the provision of the extra care facility as well as information to address public transport matters. In order to defer the application, the applicant has agreed to an extension of time until 20 January 2020.

Also for information, the recording of the minutes for the Planning Policy Committee held on 29 July 2019,which considered the Local Plan representations in respect of the proposed Oundle Housing site allocations, although accurate at the time Policy Officers reviewed them, were subsequently incorrectly published by Democratic Services. This led to ambiguity in their interpretation, relevant correspondence is attached.

These will now be corrected at the next PPC meeting, which has been rescheduled to 17 December 2019.However, the Council's legal opinion informs that the incorrect recording of the PPC minutes has no material bearing on the officer recommendations set out in respect of these 2 planning applications.

A public hearing was held on 29th October 2019, to consider a range of issues that were raised since submission of the Oundle Neighbourhood Plan (May 2019).

At the close of the public hearing yesterday the Examiner asked the lawyers for two of the representors (Gladman and Persimmon) to summarise the legal points they made during the hearing - which they agreed to do in a succinct joint legal submission. That should be available by midday on Friday 8th November; The Examiner has asked East Northamptonshire Council (ENC) to circulate it to all the other participants at the hearing and to allow other parties a period of 2 weeks to respond; so till 5 pm on 22nd November.Responses should be sent to:
planningpolicy@east-northamptonshire.gov.uk