Scrutiny Committee report to follow

The Scrutiny report was considered alongside the substantive item minute 91 Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) 2015/16.

The Head of Planning and Regulatory has submitted a report which outlines the Annual Monitoring Report for approval.

Recommendations: That the City Executive Board resolves to:

1.    Approve the Annual Monitoring Report 2015/16 for publication.

2.    Authorise the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services to make any necessary additional minor corrections not materially affecting the document prior to publication.

Cllr Hollingsworth arrived at the meeting.

The Head of Planning and Regulatory submitted a report which detailed the Annual Monitoring Report for approval.

The Planning Policy& Specialist Services Manager presented the report.  He explained that the report was produced every year and showed which planning policies are working well and which may need a review. This report would help inform the policies in the new Oxford Local Plan 2036.

Highlights of the monitoring report are:

·         Overall housing numbers are looking good, with 383 homes completed.  In the 10 years since the start of the Core Strategy 3,843 homes have been built, which is 157 less that the target, which is very good especially considering the recession in the middle of the period.  We expect a spike in the next few years with new developments such as Barton Park Littlemore and Northern Gateway coming forward.

·         Affordable housing numbers are looking good , with 164 homes completed, which includes 107 homes provided in through the City Council’s own house building programme

·         In terms of students living outside of university provided accommodation.  The University of Oxford is below the 3,000 student target but Oxford Brookes University is above it at 3,747. Representatives of Oxford Brookes University came to the Scrutiny Housing Panel last week and explained their position and have issued a strategy to resolve the issue.

Cllr Gant, Chair of the Scrutiny Committee presented the Scrutiny report. He said the Scrutiny Committee had discussed the matter of the number of student living outside provided accommodation and the range of options that officers and the universities were considering to reduce the number of students living outside of student accommodation in the city.

Cllr Hollingsworth, Board Member for Planning and Regulatory explained his draft responds to the Scrutiny recommendations. He felt that in light of his current traffic woes at getting to the meeting, that indicator 33 Traffic Growth at Inner and Outer Cordons was definitely worth retaining to inform the Council on where the pinch points in the city are.

The Planning Policy& Specialist Services Manager said that since the report was published, officers have calculated the city’s housing land supply.  Oxford has 6.3 years supply of housing sites which is above the national target of 5 years.  It is proposed to add the relevant table into the Annual Monitoring Report when it is published.

Cllr Turner noted that the Council’s affordable housing figures were in complete contrast to many others local authorities.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

1.    Approve the Annual Monitoring Report 2015/16 for publication.

2.    Authorise the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services to make any necessary additional minor corrections not materially affecting the document prior to publication.

3.    Add the Oxford Housing Land supply table to the Annual Monitoring Report before it is published.

Cllr Price arrived at the meeting

Cllr Hollingsworth, Board member for Planning and Regulatory Services presented the report. The Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) covers a wide range of indicators, the interesting ones have been highlighted in the officer’s report.  The AMR is a statutory requirement and will influence the local plan review by determining whether policies need to be revised or retained.

The Committee discussed student numbers and student build accommodation.

·         The Council’s policy is to allow only 3,000 students from each university living outside of student accommodation. Brookes currently has 3,700 students living outside of student accommodation.

·         Student accommodation is defined in the Local Plan as being accommodation fully owned and run by Brookes or Oxford universities. It also includes long leased properties which are managed by the universities.

·         The policy does not extend to language schools or other education institutes in the city. The Council attempted to include these at the last review of the Local Plan but it was blocked by the inspector.

·         The penalty for exceeding this policy is that the Council will add a Grampian condition on all University planning applications that specify that the new academic buildings can’t be occupied until the number of students living in private accommodation are down. 

·         The growth in university numbers means that the Council will have to refine its policy. It might not be appropriate to continue to group graduate and post graduate students together.

·         Brookes University’s proposal to differentiate students into type is interesting and needs to be considered as we need a policy that is fit for the next 20 years.

·         Student accommodation needs at other academic institutions in the city will  also be considered during the review of the Local Plan.

·         The Council has commissioned work with Cambridge City Council to review the growth of academic institutes which will help inform future policies.

Cllr Wilkinson asked if indicator 33: Traffic growth at inner and outer cordons was relevant? The Planning Policy Officer explained that the data comes from Oxfordshire County Council and the City Council can’t influence it but it does provide context for other policies. The Committee decided to query the need of this indicator with the City Executive Board.

Cllr Wilkinson asked whether the Council record the numbers of pubs that have shut and been subject to a change of use. The Planning Policy Manager explained that the Council doesn’t keep a list of pubs lost but if members want us to record this, the current policy is that we would stop monitoring one of the other indicators as the fewer indicators the more useful the document.

Cllr Wilkinson asked about the promotion of self-build in the city. Self-build is promoted on the Council’s website but there is not a lot of interest in the city as there are few sites available.

Cllr Simmons asked why the Council had failed to meet retail targets. Cllr Hollingsworth explained that the Government has made a number of changes to how we manage retail in the local plan. It is now very  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56