At its meeting on 18 September 2018, the City Executive Board will be asked to give its approval to the draft project and programme documents for the Oxfordshire Joint Statutory Spatial Plan (JSSP), the preparation of which is a requirement of the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal.  These documents comprise:

a) Draft Statement of Community Involvement 2018

b) Local Development Scheme

c) JSSP Scoping Document

This is an opportunity for the Scrutiny Committee to make recommendations to the Board beforehand.

Councillors Arshad and Djafari-Marbini arrived and joined the debate during this item.

The Committee considered the report on the Oxfordshire Joint Statutory Spatial Plan (JSSP) including the draft Local Development Scheme; the draft Statement of Community Involvement; and the draft Scoping Document.

Councillor Hollingsworth, Board Member for Planning and Transport, and Sarah Harrison, Planning Policy Team Leader explained the JSSP process and answered questions.

The Committee noted:

1.    The JSSP created a deliverable vision through an overarching long-term plan for the county, incorporating current and in-preparation Local Plans up to 2030 then a wider strategic view from 2030 to 2050. It also linked into the developing local industrial strategy, economic plans, and wider national infrastructure and growth plans and priorities.

2.    The JSSP had to be adopted by March 2021 to meet the agreed targets in the Oxfordshire Growth Deal.

3.    Once in place, district councils would refresh their Local Plans in line with the JSSP and without the need to consult with each other as comprehensively. The JSSP would set broad policies and strategies and then each Local Plan would set out how to deliver these in more detail.

4.    Councillors and residents could be involved through the different consultation and decision stages as set out in the Statement of Community Involvement.

5.    The JSSP and its associated work was managed through the Oxfordshire Growth Board, assisted by a working group of senior councillors from each local authority.

6.    Supporting evidence, both statutory and that required to underpin the JSSP, would be scoped, gathered, and published.

7.    Staff were seconded or recruited directly to work on the JSSP. Vacated posts were being filled so there should be enough staff to work on the Council’s own Local Plan. Planning Services had 4 new permanent planners and 3 or 4 new apprentice planners, and was not expecting a large-scale loss of senior staff to the JSSP project.

8.    Consultations on Local Plans attracted different levels of interest: Cherwell had approximately 30,000 responses. A huge number of responses presented its own challenges. For the JSSP face to face consultations were impractical, and bodies could contribute but may not be approached.

9.    Responses were evaluated on the basis of their content not their quantity or by taking a poll.

Councillors commented

·         It would be useful to have a list of all supporting and associated information and documents for the JSSP including where it could be found, what stage it had reached, and the date of the next refresh.

·         The consultation strategy needed to be coherent and allow engagement: it was good to have a definite timeframe.

The Chair commented that as these documents were to be adopted across the county, there was limited opportunity at this stage for each individual council to change these.

The Committee noted the documents and the points from the discussion.