Agenda item

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 October 2017 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Prior to consideration of the planning applications the Chairman informed the Committee that, due to discussions at previous meetings, Thomas Bennett, Senior Policy Officer in the Spatial Policy Team was in attendance to answer Members queries about the five-year housing land supply figure.

Councillor Shield asked whether the housing land supply figures could be identified by areas to match the areas used for the three Area Planning Committees.  The Senior Policy Officer replied that this would not be done because County Durham had been identified as one housing market area.  In response to a follow up question from Councillor Shield as to whether this could or could not be done, the Senior Policy Officer informed the Committee that County Durham had been identified as a self-contained housing market area with a countywide housing requirement and therefore the area on which to base the 5 year housing land supply figure.  The Senior Policy Officer offered to further discuss this with Councillor Shield outside of the meeting.

Councillor Robinson asked the Committee whether it had any further questions on five year housing land supply.  No further questions were forthcoming.