Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence and notification of substitutions.

Apologies were received from Councillor Edric Hobbs, who was substituted by Councillor Henry Hobhouse, Councillor Wes Read, who was substituted by Councillor Mike Rigby and Councillor Matt Martin, who would be attending the meeting online.

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

Resolved that the minutes of the Strategic Planning Committees held on 20 November 2024 and 6 February 2025 be confirmed as a correct record.

To receive and note any declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023 )

Councillors present at the meeting declared the following interests in their capacity as a Councillor of a Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, please see details under ‘click here to join online meeting’

Public questions were received from:-

·       David Orr – Phosphate Progress Report

·       Andrew Clegg – Phosphate Progress Report

The questions and responses provided are attached to the minutes in Annex A.

The Committee are asked to consider and note the update report.

Councillor Mike Rigby proposed the recommendations, which were seconded by Councillor Henry Hobhouse.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Strategic Planning Committee resolved to:-

a)    Note the content of the report and the activity across the three affected river catchments that fed into the Somerset Levels and Moors (Tone, Parrett, and Brue) which continued to unlock the delivery of housing to ensure development achieved nutrient neutrality.

b)    Note the spend to date in 2024/25 from the Local Nutrient Mitigation Capital Funding to deliver nutrient mitigation schemes in line with grant conditions.

c)    Note the commitment of spend of the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund, as detailed in the Financial and Risk section of the report.

d)    Note that in order to demonstrate progress on phosphate related matters a further up-date report to be provided to the Committee in September 2025.

e)    Agree to delegate authority to the Head of Planning / Chief Planning Officer in consultation with the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee to:

                        i.         Agree minor amendments to the contents of the revised delivery strategy, enclosed as Appendix 1.

                       ii.         Oversee the delivery to include approval of any documents (e.g. Section 106 agreements) needed to support implementation of the revised delivery strategy, enclosed as Appendix 1.

                      iii.         Remove the covenant between the owner of the site and the Council for planning applications that used River Tone P-Credits to commence development within a 3-month period. Removal of the 3-month commencement period was to apply to existing and completed S106 Agreements. The 3-month commencement period was no longer necessary given the establishment of 3rd party credit schemes in Somerset.

f)      Agree to instruct officers to develop a new policy to address nutrient neutrality in accordance with the new Counsel’s Opinion.

Ahead of the presentation of the report, the Executive Director for Community, Place and Economy, Chris Hall, provided an update to advise the Committee that the awaited King’s Counsel opinion, which had been jointly commissioned by Somerset Council and Councillor Hobhouse, had arrived last week.

Councillor Hobhouse had further supported officers request to attach the opinion to minutes of the meeting and in doing so, make it public.

The whole matter of nutrient neutrality was a complex one and officers were working through the next steps, focusing particularly on collating the evidence as required in the opinion.

As a result, officers were not in a position to answer the numerous likely questions that the opinion might create but wanted the Committee to be aware of the opinion at the earliest opportunity and have access to it.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Council and Councillor Hobhouse had accepted the opinion and would work to collate the evidence required.

The Lead Member for Economic Development, Planning and Assets, Councillor Mike Rigby, spoke on the item and highlighted: the mitigation measures; Wessex Water and the treatment works; Counsel Opinion and the conclusions highlighted in the Opinion; the need for a new approach to nutrient neutrality and proposed an additional recommendation, which was seconded by Councillor Henry Hobhouse: that the Committee instructed officers to develop a new policy to address nutrient neutrality in accordance with the new Counsel’s Opinion.

Councillor Hobhouse also spoke on the item and highlighted: Counsel’s Opinion; gave thanks to the Lead Member and Executive Director; the new advice now reversed that given by Natural England; no action could be taken if evidence was given to prove that the Council was not damaging the Levels and Moors; mitigation measures; Section 106 agreement requirements; the new advice did not take the Council out of habitat regulations; and the lack of data collected over the past three years.

The Principal Planning Policy Officer, Paul Browning and the Service Manager for Planning Policy and Implementation, Kate Murdoch, introduced the report and gave a presentation which detailed the work undertaken across the Authority area to achieve nutrient neutral development whilst supporting housing growth. It also provided an update on recent Government announcements and matters that related to the Nutrient Mitigation Fund.

During the discussion, the following points were raised:

·       Councillor Rigby spoke on several matters contained within the report: mitigation measures; Wessex Water and treatment works; the Counsel Opinion and the conclusions highlighted within their feedback; and a new approach to nutrient neutrality.  He proposed an amendment to the recommendations, which was seconded by Councillor Henry Hobhouse:-

In addition to recommendations a-e, the following recommendation be added as recommendation f – To agree to instruct officers to develop a new policy to address nutrient neutrality in accordance with the new Counsel’s Opinion.

·       Councillor Hobhouse spoke in support of the amendment and highlighted the following: the Counsel Opinion and how it had reversed Natural England’s advice; mitigation measures; Section 106 Agreements; assurance that the new  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

The Committee are asked to consider and note the update report.

Councillor Simon Coles proposed the recommendations, which were seconded by Councillor Andy Soughton.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Strategic Planning Committee resolved to note the contents of the report.

The Head of Planning, Alison Blom-Cooper, introduced the report and gave a short presentation on the performance figures for Quarter 3 2024-25, which included the national statistics provided to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government in February 2025.

The presentation included information on the following:-

Ø  Planning applications received.

Ø  Major, minor and other applications determined within national targets.

Ø  Two year rolling figures for Minerals and Waste.

Ø  Pre-application enquiries.

Ø  Appeal decisions.

Ø  Enforcement cases on hand and resolved/closed.

During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

·       Councillors raised concern on how Somerset Council salaries compared against our neighbouring councils and the impact that would have on recruitment.

·       Councillors highlighted that there was no historic data from the former councils contained within the report to use to compare the impact on delegated authority.

The Head of Planning advised that those details could be included in future reports.

·       Councillors raised concern on the level of enforcement cases and the feedback given by the Parish Councils.

The Head of Planning advised that officers tried to triage all the cases through the Enforcement Policy.

·       Councillors requested whether the Parish Councils could be sent the Regulation Reports on Section 106 Agreements, as they had found those to be very useful in the past and no longer received them.

·       Councillors queried how many applications had gone to appeal and how many the Council were representing.

The Head of Planning advised that those were decided by the Monitoring Officer and advised councillors on the process followed for representation.

Councillor Simon Coles proposed the recommendations, which were seconded by Councillor Andy Soughton.

Having been duly proposed and seconded, the Strategic Planning Committee resolved to note the contents of the report.