Agenda and minutes

Any substitute members should declare their substitution.

Cllr Andy McGregor substituted for Cllr Vee Barton

Cllr Paul Mansfield substituted for Cllr Mandy Buxton

Members and Officers must declare any disclosable pecuniary interests in relation to any business on the agenda.  Declarations should also be made at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting.

If in doubt contact the Legal or Democratic Services representative for this meeting.

Members and Officers may seek advice upon any relevant interest from the Monitoring Officer prior to the meeting.

Cllr Carol O’Neal declared that, in relation to application two, she had attended a consultation meeting but had no pecuniary interest.

So as to provide the best opportunity for the Committee to provide the public with the fullest answer, questions from the public should be submitted by midday on Thursday 1 September 2022.

Where relevant notice of a question has not been given, the person presiding may either choose to give a response at the meeting or respond by undertaking to provide a written response within three working days.

Questions should be submitted to Democratic Services –

democratic.services@adur-worthing.gov.uk

(Note:  Public Question Time will last for a maximum of 30 minutes)

There was one question raised under Public Question Time.

Christine Gunter asked -

Recent research by Rightmove shows Adur to be the least affordable place in the UK for first time buyers.

First time buyers will struggle in Shoreham, Lancing and Worthing where salaries are being outpaced by strong house growth.

The average asking price for a first time buyer’s home in Adur is now 11.6 times the average local salary whereas the national figure is 7.2 of the average local salary.

This is a truly shocking and for most an unattainable figure.

Therefore what help will the majority of developments along the A259 and Old Shoreham Road – highly priced and some marketed as second homes- going to be for local first time buyers.?

Head of Planning and Development, James Appleton answered -

This is an important matter for many councils in the SE and there is a similar situation in Worthing in terms of the affordability gap between average earnings and the average house prices. The key issue for many councils, particularly along the coast, is the lack of land, which has meant that Adur, in promoting its Local Plan in 2017, was not able to meet its objectively assessed future housing needs. The Local Plan Inspector back in 2017 made it clear that any allocation of sites should be minimum with an expectation to look at maximising the ability to bring forward housing on brownfield sites and on allocated sites and, through the actions of the Planning Committee, trying to ensure wherever possible the delivery of the Local Plan policy compliant 30% affordable housing.

The main issue is that many of our residents cannot afford rented accommodation let alone afford a deposit for a house or apartment.  However, it is not just through the planning process that additional affordable housing can be provided.  We have been very fortunate that Registered Providers like Hyde and Southern Housing have purchased sites and are using Government funding to provide more social rent and shared ownership properties than required by adopted Local Plan policies. The Council’s intended disposal of the Civic Centre site is to Hyde Housing will deliver all 150 apartments as affordable homes on the site (60% of the dwellings would be shared ownership and 40% social rent). Similarly, the Kingston Wharf site will be delivering 255 affordable dwellings.

These shared ownership properties will give the ability to people to get a foot on the housing ladder whilst the social rent apartments will reduce the Council's Housing waiting lists helping to meet those in greatest housing need.

There are a number of things therefore that the Council can and is doing to address the affordability gap.  In addition, the Council is looking to redevelop its own land to bring forward additional Council housing and we have various developments being built at the moment at Albion Street, Cecil Norris and at Mash Barn, Lancing. 

We are also reviewing the 2017 Local Plan and we will be looking at the  ...  view the full minutes text for item ADC-PC/24/22-23

To approve the minutes of the Planning Committee meetings of the Committee held on  8 August 2022, which have been emailed to Members.

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on 08 August 2022 be confirmed as a correct record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

To consider any items the Chair of the meeting considers urgent.

There were no items raised under urgency provisions.

To consider the reports by the Director for the Economy, attached as Item 6.

The planning applications were considered, see attached appendix.

To note a report by the Director for the Economy, attached as Item 7.

The Head of Planning and Development presented the report which focused particularly on the redevelopment of the Mannings and a line of conifer trees that had been felled. The report explored where it may be possible to tighten up procedures in relation to trees that are to be retained. It also looked at validation requirements and suggested that more detail would be required to demonstrate that indicative tree planting could be delivered and would not be affected by services particularly drainage.

The members agreed to note the report.