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Agenda and minutes

Venue: This meeting was held remotely via Microsoft Teams.

Contact: Stephanie Davis
020 8726 6000 x84384  Email: stephanie.davis@croydon.gov.uk

Note: Webcast link: https://webcasting.croydon.gov.uk/meetings/11815 

Items
No. Item

6/21

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

There were none.

7/21

Disclosure of Interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

Minutes:

There were none.

8/21

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

9/21

SECTION 106 AND COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE LEVY (CIL) pdf icon PDF 363 KB

To receive details on the background to the collection and assignment of the borough’s Section 106 income Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Culture and Regeneration introduced the item and outlined details in a Presentation

Following the Presentation, Members had the opportunity to ask questions.

Points of Clarification

A Member asked for further details and composition of the infrastructure finance group

Officers said that it was an officer group led by the Spatial Planning Service, with officers from the Council’s finance and legal services. The group undertakes legislative checks and it was bound by the Council’s finance levels in terms of authority. All decisions made was reported in the Annual Infrastructure Funding Statement.

The Cabinet Member when asked if there was a potential for Councillors to be part of the group, whether it be portfolio members or ward members, said this was a discussion that would take place with officers.

Following points of clarification, the Chair opened discussions for questions and answers.

A Member asked what the difference was between the Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). The Cabinet Member said that S106 was specifically designed to mitigate the impact of a particular development by addressing various challenges pertinent to the geography around the development. CIL paid for things such as school improvement which benefitted the wider community and borough. CIL levied for a particular development may be spent elsewhere to address challenges or priorities that were Borough wide.  The whole basis of CIL which was introduced in 2010 was to allow for LA’s to collect funding on a Borough wide basis to enable strategic infrastructure investment decisions to be made.

A Member asked how local people were listened to across the whole borough and their voice taken into account within the strategic decision around allocation of funds. The Cabinet Member said that the administration was tasked with delivery of government programmes that were set out strategically through manifesto pledges with programmes to be delivered locally which could be funded by CIL and this was done as expected. Councillors work actively in their Wards to encourage community involvement in decision making.

A Member asked if minutes of the community infrastructure group were in the public domain.  Officers said that in terms of transparency of the work of the infrastructure finance group, since inception they published the S106 tracker on the Council website, which details all the decisions made by the group on a quarterly basis. In accordance with CIL regulations, they published the Infrastructure Funding Statement on an annual basis on what had been received, assigned and balances carried over.

A Member commented that the total amount of CIL collected from the Cane Hill development was extensive and very little had been spent in the area where a large scale development had taken place to alleviate the strain on current resources that a development of this type would cause on local community infrastructure. The Cabinet Member said that CIL was designed to be spent across the borough and not necessarily in the area that it was collected in and that there was competing priorities across the Borough  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9/21

10/21

CROYDON LOCAL PLAN REVIEW pdf icon PDF 236 KB

To consider the work done on the Council’s review of the Local Plan 2018 and provide feedback that will be fed into the consultation document.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Culture and Regeneration introduced the item and outlined details of the report in a Presentation

Following the Presentation, Members had the opportunity to ask questions.

The Chair reminded the public that there were inks imbedded in the report which could be found in the report which gave detailed background information to the Local Plan.

In response to a question on community involvement and how officers engaged with the public, The Cabinet Member said that the principles of community engagement was important and this was done diligently. There was recognition of the importance of involving the community in all steps of the process, especially as there would be a lot of change for Croydon on the coming months. Officers added that there was strong dialogue in the organisation about the Local Plan which was a corporate expression about the future of the Borough. Engagement took place with partners such as the GLA and NHS to ensure there was understanding of direction for the Borough. There was also engagement with neighbouring Boroughs which was a legal and statutory requirement to ensure they were kept up to date, discuss issues and shared vision. The Council had a strong relationship of working practice with other Local Authorities (LA). In engaging with the community and other developers a wide range of exhibitions took place including the Urban Room which was a mobile room used widely to present the vision for the Borough which was taken across the Borough and was also static in the Whitgift centre. They reached out to youth services, schools and community groups to engage with the Urban Room. It was realised that arriving at spatial option would be difficult and put the challenge back to community groups about planning through a Planning for Real exercise, to convey the balances that had to be taken into consideration in producing a Strategy.

In response to a question on how the gathered feedback from the events would be fed back to residents on how they were used or not used in shaping decision, Officers said that when the paper was presented at Cabinet, they would bring alongside it a consultation statement which would detail the themes gathered and the Councils’ response. The documents would also form part of the submission to the Secretary of State.

A Member asked if the experience of Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) and the learning from that process had helped shape the Local Plan process development. The Cabinet Member said that there was a lot of lessons learnt across the organisation around LTN and community reaction to them. Work on the Local Plan had not been taking place in the last six month and when that started again a lot of learning from different experiences would be applied. Officers added that learning took place all the time from corporate processes and consultations and that the main challenge was with communications. The responses from the next stage of the consultation was for examination by the planning inspectorate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10/21

11/21

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

Minutes:

This was not required.