Report of the Head of Economic Growth & Prosperity, is attached marked 13.

Contact Andrew Evans Tel 01743 252763.

It was proposed by Mr Malcolm Price, Portfolio Holder for Regulatory Services, Housing and Commissioning (Central) and seconded by Mr T Barker that the report, a copy of which is attached to the signed minutes, and recommendations contained therein be received and agreed.

In introducing the report, the Portfolio Holder said that the Inspector had endorsed the development strategy for Oswestry and had in particular supported the Council’s position that, subject to the incorporation of the design principles agreed between Historic England and the Council, that the development of site OSW004, north of Whittington Road would lead to less than substantial harm to the Old Oswestry Hillfort.

Regarding the correspondence from Richard Buxton Solicitors received earlier that week (dated 12 December 215) – Members had all received a copy – Mr Price read out the Council’s formal response as follows;

“The Council has received a letter dated 14 December 2015 from solicitors acting for HOOH (Hands off Old Oswestry Hillfort), which had been circulated to Members of Council directly.

The Council has taken Counsel’s advice in relation to the contents of the letter.

It is considered that the real concern contained in the letter relates to the view reached by English Heritage (now Historic England).  If it was thought that there was anything unlawful about how English Heritage reached its view, a judicial review application could have been made in respect of that but that was not done.

Having carefully considered the letter, it is not considered that there are any lawful grounds raised to suggest that site OSW004 should be removed from SAMDev prior to adoption or that SAMDev should not be adopted.

There does remain a risk that the threat to mount a challenge under s113 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 may be followed through. However that could realistically only be an application to quash the inclusion of site OSW004 rather than an application to quash SAMDev as a whole.”

Mr Price aIso explained that the Council was ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’ and was ‘damned if we do and damned if we don’t’:  If the code OSW004 were to be removed at this stage then the Council would be legally challenged by the landowner whose site had been through the formal process.  He therefore recommended to Council that the recommendations in the report be supported and agreed with the Inspector.

Mr Price said that in 5.4 of the report - the Inspector concluded that the SAMDev Plan was sound, positively prepared, effective and consistent with national policy and legally compliant and provides an appropriate basis for the planning of the County.  He also asked Members to note the other key findings in 5.6 which included …’ is consistent with the NPPF’ and that the Inspector had not added or deleted any additional sites.

Also that the Inspector has established a definite method for calculating the five year land supply standing at 5.53 years.

Mr Price also asked Members to note the other key findings in 5.6 which included   ‘… is consistent with the NPPF and to note that the Inspector had not added any additional sites or deleted any.’

The Portfolio Holder acknowledged the Planning Policy Officers for their excellent work in providing the Council with a sound SAMDev Plan where many other councils had failed; one of only 40 Councils in the Country to have a Core Strategy SAMDev in place.  He also thanked the members of the LDF cross-party working group for their challenge, support and questioning throughout the whole process, and also acknowledged thanks to Town and Parish Councils for their involvement in the process.

This was an extremely important document for Shropshire that had been a long time in the making and for that reason he stated he would like all of Council to support the recommendations.

Mr Price pointed out at Section 5.8, that once the Plan was adopted, there was a six week period for any legal challenge to be made.

          Mrs C Wild declared an interest and left the room whilst this matter was being considered.

          RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY:

a)    That Council adopts the draft SAMDev Plan in the form which was submitted to the Secretary of State on 1^st August 2014, as amended to reflect the Inspector’s recommended modifications (see pre-adoption Plan attached, together with the accompanying policy maps available on the Council’s planning policy web pages – a paper copy of these documents has also been placed in the Members’ library);

b)    That responsibility be delegated to the Head of Economic Growth and Prosperity in conjunction with the Portfolio Holder for Regulatory Services, Housing and Commissioning (Central) to make any additional minor editorial corrections prior to publication.