Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director - Environment, which outlined the Secretary of State’s proposed changes to the draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) and sought retrospective approval of Halton’s response that had been submitted to the Government Office for the North West.

It was reported that due to the new status of Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) as part of the “development plan”, as set out in the new Planning and Compulsory Act, 2004, the issues arising in the new RSS were of importance to Halton Borough Council in the production of the new Halton Borough Local Development Framework (LDF) and in decisions on planning applications.

It was advised the Secretary of State’s response to the Draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) represented the latest, and an advanced stage, in the production of a new regional plan for the North West. The Secretary of State’s Proposed Changes were issued for public consultation in March 2008 with the period for comments running until 23^rd May 2008. The Secretary of State’s Proposed Changes were issued in response to the publication of the Panel Report into Draft RSS (March 2007), which was itself issued subsequent to the Examination in Public (EiP) into the draft document that was held between 31^st October 2006 and 15^th February 2007. The EiP considered the content of the submitted draft RSS (January 2006).

It was further advised Halton had played a full and active role at all stages of RSS production and had had some notable successes in influencing re-drafting of the emerging document to reflect the Council’s priorities. It was noted that this had occurred in co-ordination with the Merseyside Policy Unit (MPU) who had also submitted comments regarding emerging RSS on behalf of the Merseyside authorities including Halton.

Detailed within the report was the 6 key areas that the RSS was broadly divided into as follows:-

§         Spatial Development Principles and the Regional Spatial Framework;

§         Working in the North West;

§         Living in the North West

§         Transport;

§         Environment Minerals and Waste; and

§         Sub Regional strategies.

It was advised that the RSS was expected to be adopted in mid 2008 once adopted, it would form part of the “Development Plan” and would be used in the making of decisions on planning applications.

It was noted that the next interim draft of the RSS was due October/November 2008 and would provide opportunities for stakeholders to make comments. The document would be taken to the UDP Working Party and would be considered before coming back to the Executive Board.

It was noted that the emerging RSS also had implications for the production of the Local Development Framework (LDF) and in particular for the Halton Core Strategy. As the key document within the LDF the Core Strategy was currently being produced and covered the period to 2026. Each of the recommendations detailed within the report would have to be considered within the Core Strategy and, where appropriate, changes would have to be made. This would need to be carried out to ensure that the Core Strategy remained in general conformity with the RSS as required by PPS 12.

RESOLVED: That

(1)       the importance of the contents of the Regional Spatial Strategy       was noted in relation to the development of the emerging Halton       Local Development Framework; and

(2)       Halton’s response to the Secretary of State’s Proposed       Changes, detailed at Appendix are endorsed.