Minutes:
Prior to consideration of the agenda business, the Solicitor took the opportunity to advise the Committee on the current status of the County Durham Plan and to clarify the situation further to a request to call in referrals.
In relation to the County Durham Plan the Committee was advised that following the conclusion of Part 1 of the Examination in Public of the County Durham Plan, the Council was now in receipt of the Inspectors Interim Report.
The Inspector had indicated that at present, he considered the draft County Durham Plan to be unsound. As such, officers were currently considering a range of options, however a firm decision was yet to be made.
The Committee was advised that for the present time the Council was taking the view that no weight should be afforded to the County Durham Plan in the assessment of planning applications. There were indeed competing opinions as to how much weight should be afforded to the Plan and it would not be legally wrong for Members to afford limited weight to certain policies of the Plan, however the official view remained that no weight should be given to the County Durham Plan.
The Committee was aware that a request had been made to the Secretary of State to call in the applications on the meeting agenda. The Solicitor advised that this was a matter for the Secretary of State to decide on. Officers had spoken with the National Planning Casework Unit which had advised that the Authority should continue with the meeting and report the Committee’s decisions after the meeting. Officers would then delay in issuing any decision notices until the National Planning Casework Unit had the opportunity to consider the decisions.