Agenda item

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 Wednesday 01 November 2023.

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 pre-submitted Public Question:

Given significant incidents of flooding (3 in last year) at the junction of Ham Road, Eastern Avenue, junction with A259 at Eastern Avenue/Humphrey’s Gap in Shoreham, what do the members and officers assess to be the threat from SURFACE RUNOFF, GROUNDWATER and FOUL WATER to the new developments in that area of Shoreham and will they commission an independent engineering inquiry into this threat prior to granting permission to the next phases of construction on the surrounding sites? I ask this question in the light of the increasing likelihood of extreme weather incidents in the future during the lifetime of these developments and the un-reliability of advice from a discredited Southern Water Company.

The Planning Services Manager replied:

The threat to any new development, be it surface, ground or foul water, is normally assessed at the time the planning application is considered. In the future phasing of those developments all those issues would be considered with the relevant consultees. If it is judged that there is inadequate capacity in existing systems the developer would be expected to make provision for it. Consultation always takes place, not only with Southern Water, but also with the lead local flood authority, which is West Sussex County Council, and with our own engineers internally, although currently we are using independent consultants to assess those planning applications.

There is a considerable amount of consultation but a cause of frustration is at the end of the questions which mentions unreliable advice from a ‘discredited Southern Water company’. Generally water companies are not allowed to object to any planning applications, they can only say what the situation is, as per capacity, and then instruct the developers to increase that capacity if necessary. This can be a rather difficult position because residents may think that Southern Water is likely to object to an application when in fact they can’t and the planning system doesn’t allow for that.

Another difficulty is that an applicant can make a planning application this year and make allowances for a certain amount of infrastructure provision but then we get events such as last week's heavy rain. It depends on the consultee as to whether they can take action about that. The Environment Agency does predict 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 flood events so that aspect should be covered but it can be questionable in terms of whether the infrastructure has been put in adequately initially. We may have instances when we have to check if what a developer has said would be built, has actually been built. Unexpected flooding events can occur after a development has been constructed and the planning system in which we operate will not normally allow objections on that basis.

There was one non-pre-submitted question on behalf of Adur Residents Environmental Action Group:

Adur and Worthing Council are currently consulting on a draft revised joint Statement of Community Involvement which closes on 6th December. The Council wants people to actively engage with the planning process in their areas but unfortunately, so far, this doesn’t seem to be working. The consultation principles were set out in 2018, that’s 5 years ago, but most local residents appear not to be aware of any development until they see construction starting and by then it is too late. The consultation document is going to be on public view in libraries, the Shoreham Centre and Worthing Town Hall. One of my questions is can hard copies of all major planning applications that come to committee also be available to view in these public places? I was recently at the first day of the Howard Kent appeal where even the Planning Inspector said she had found it hard to read the planning application on line. We need more visibility and more things such as public notice boards because not enough people look at the Council Website or read the local papers. My last point is the accessibility of the Planning Committee meetings themselves. Live audio streaming with no visuals is absolutely hopeless when trying to follow the meeting at home. I would like to ask when the video live streaming will be restored?

The Planning Services Manager replied:

The first question is pertinent to the consultation that is going on now - the Statement of Community Involvement. I would encourage you to submit those comments. It is a draft document and those are perfectly valid points to make and can be taken into account during the consultation exercise. The matter of hard copies being available is difficult as there is a cost involved. The printing that we currently undertake does exceed the printing budget that we have but, regarding the bigger applications with wider public interest, it may well be worth making the point that different arrangements to allow community involvement would be favourable in those cases.

Regarding the video streaming of meetings, with meetings such as tonight’s, which has only one planning application on the agenda, I can’t see the justification for the extra cost of video streaming. However, we have some quite big developments coming up in the future and this may also be a good point to raise at the consultation. If we are going to fill a meeting room up with people it may be better if they could watch it live by video streaming? I can understand that, as when I have not been present at a meeting, I listen to the audio livestream and it doesn’t really tell you much as to what is going on. I would certainly encourage you to submit that comment to the Statement of Community Involvement as a consultation response so that it can be taken into account.