Agenda item

Agenda item

Places for Everyone - A Proposed Joint Development Plan Document of Nine GM Districts

Report of the Director of Planning, Building Control and Licensing and  Director of City Centre Growth and Infrastructure attached

Minutes:

The Executive considered a report of the Director of Planning, Building Control and Licensing and Director of City Centre Growth and Infrastructure, which set out a proposal for a Joint Development Plan Document (DPD) of Nine Greater Manchester Local Authorities.

 

Up until December 2020 a joint development plan document of the ten Greater Manchester local authorities was being prepared, Greater Manchester’s Plan for Jobs, Homes & the Environment (known as the “GMSF”). However, the decision at Stockport Council’s meeting on 3 December 2020 to not submit the GMSF 2020 following the consultation period and the subsequent resolution at its Cabinet meeting on 4 December not to publish the GMSF 2020 for consultation in effect signalled the end of the GMSF as a joint plan of the 10.  Consequently, at its meeting on the 11 December 2020, Members of the AGMA Executive Committee asked for a report to be drafted on the implications and process of producing a joint Development Plan Document of the nine remaining Greater Manchester (GM) districts.

 

The preparation of the former GMSF was undertaken by the AGMA Executive Board on behalf of the ten GM authorities. The withdrawal of Stockport Council from that process in December 2020 meant that it was no longer appropriate for the AGMA Executive Board to continue with the oversight of the new plan.  It therefore required a new joint committee to be established consisting of the remaining nine local authorities (Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan).

 

The purpose of the Joint Committee would be to formulate and prepare the joint DPD.  In the event that the draft joint DPD was considered to have substantially the same effect on the nine districts as the GMSF 2020, the next stage would be a consultation on a publication version of the joint DPD

 

The AGMA report highlighted that membership of the joint committee was a

matter for individual local authorities to determine. However, it was suggested, for  continuity purposes, that Leaders from each of the nine local authorities formed the membership of the committee, with the ability for a nominated deputy to attend as necessary. It would also be the responsibility of the joint committee to agree its terms of reference and the operational arrangements, including the appointing of the chair and the voting arrangements. 

 

The report explained that once the joint committee was established, there would be a need to update Manchester’s Local Development Scheme (LDS) which previously set out the timetable for the production of the GMSF alongside next steps for the Council’s emerging Local Plan. The LDS would be updated at the appropriate time in advance of the next round of consultation on the new joint DPD – Places for Everyone.

 

Furthermore, it was clarified that the function of scrutiny in the production of the joint DPD would remain with the individual districts as the relevant decisions will rest with the districts, not AGMA or the GMCA.

 

Decisions

 

The Executive:-

 

(1)      Approve the making of an agreement with the other 8 Greater Manchester councils [Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan] to prepare a joint development plan document to cover strategic policies including housing and employment land requirements and, as appropriate, strategic site allocations and Green Belt boundary amendments and associated infrastructure across the nine districts.

 

(2)      Agree the Council’s lead member for the joint committee is the leader of the Council and a nominate the Executive member for Environment, Planning and Transport as deputy to attend and vote as necessary.

 

(3)      Delegate to the joint committee of the nine Greater Manchester councils the formulation and preparation of the joint development plan document to cover housing and employment land requirements including, as appropriate, strategic site allocations and Green Belt boundary amendments and associated infrastructure across the nine Greater Manchester districts insofar as such matters are executive functions.

 

(4)      Note that the following are the sole responsibility of full Council:

 

·                Responsibility for giving of instructions to the executive to reconsider the draft plan submitted by the executive for the authority’s consideration.

·                The amendment of the draft joint development plan document submitted by the executive for the full Council’s consideration.

·                The approval of the joint development plan document for the purposes of submission to the Secretary of State for independent examination.

·                The adoption of the joint development plan document.

Supporting documents: