Agenda item

The Leader of the Council congratulated Hart staff for the showcase that had happened that afternoon in the Harlington Centre. He also informed the meeting that he would shortly be meeting with the leader of Hampshire County Council to discuss the next wave of funding.

The Cabinet Member for Finance thanked Ms Isabel Brittain for all her help and work as Section 151 Officer.

The Cabinet Member for Place made the following announcement:-

“Our Planning Policy team is currently working on a number of projects, and I can update Members on some of them:

• Hart’s Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan or “LCWIP” has been jointly commissioned with Hampshire County Council.  Sustrans were the successful consultants.  We expect that the LCWIP will take about 12 months to finalise.  Once complete, and endorsed by the Council, it will be used as a major part of the evidence base for the Green Grid. By encouraging modal shift to cycling and walking for shorter, local journeys, we will be helping the district towards being net carbon zero. We have also provided consultation responses to our Basingstoke & Deane and Rushmoor on their LCWIPs.
• The Odiham and North Warnborough Conservation Area Appraisal will be reported to Cabinet in November, where we will seek to endorse it and use it as a material consideration in the determination of planning applications.
• Winchfield Parish Council has started a review of the 'made' Neighbourhood Plan and we will be providing our comments on that as it progresses.
• One of our ‘business as usual’ tasks is to complete and publish our Annual Monitoring Statement by 31^st December. The Overview & Scrutiny panel have asked to see a draft of this report and that will be with them for their December meeting.
• Our Housing Land Position Statement and Housing Trajectory were both published in August and demonstrated a 10-year housing land supply. This means that we can continue to use our Local Plan policies to robustly defend areas from inappropriate and unsustainable development.
• Members will recall that the Cycle and Car Parking standards Technical Advice Note was published in August which updates our previous standards. This is a prelude to a full supplementary planning document.

Finally, as a result of the changes in the Council’s senior management team, responsibility for Flooding and Emergency Planning are both moving into the Place service and the responsibility for the administration and monitoring of S106 developer contributions will come into the Place service as well.

The Cabinet Member for Regulatory told the meeting that some of the newer councillors had been invited to go on some licencing visits. They had all enjoyed the experience and gave their thanks.

The Cabinet Member for Environment thanked John Elson, who is retiring at the end of October, for all his work during the many years he has been at Hart District Council; stating that he couldn’t have asked for better help from an officer and that John exhibited the values that the council should exhibit to residents.

The Cabinet Member for Commercialisation and Corporate Services made the following statement, "I announce that Hart District Council have agreed terms for a lease with Age Concern to take over the operation of the Care and Wellbeing centre on the Frogmore campus in Yateley.  We have been working extensively with the new tenants to provide a modern, well-equipped facility that will continue to provide day care and support services to residents, and it is great news for the District that we have been able to secure such a mutually beneficial deal. The new centre will formally open on Friday 4th November 2022”.