Attendees: Cllr Roy Hawkesford (Chair), Carol Lloyd, Cllr Jo Willmer, Maz Woolley (Notetaker)

Location: Cllr Hawkesford’s house

1. Meeting started at c.13:30
2. Discussion of a scheme in Cambridgeshire where occupation of affordable housing was limited to 5 years and 20% of rent paid is saved for tenant to assist them finding a new residence at end of lease. (BBC You and Yours Friday 31^st May). Generally agreed that working with developers to put in creative and permanent affordable schemes would be desirable, though we need advice from our consultant on what can be done at a policy level.
3. Discussion of implications of recent Rotherthorpe planning appeal discussed: The 12 year land supply of SNC was challenged by developer and under new National Planning rules inspector ruled that much of the 12 years supply does not meet the Government’s latest criteria as some big schemes are a considerable way of having committed development in place. This could affect us as the extensions to Northampton are way behind being built so developers may seek to suggest that land in our area should be developed quickly to meet that need. However, the Inspector ruled that a lack of public transport and roads to Northampton unsuited to walking or cycling meant it was not appropriate development – a situation which applies to our parish to and which we hope we could use to ward of developments.
4. RH fed back that he had not had any more contact with our Consultant or Jennie Johnson at SNC.
5. It was confirmed that CL had sent work on historic buildings etc to our Consultant
6. RH showed his maps marking green spaces. These will be passed to our Consultant. It was agreed that small areas identified by the Parish Council green spaces working party may be incorporated as ‘community ambitions’ but would not qualify under definition of green spaces in planning terms. Again, an area where our consultant can advise. Village Separation areas will be marked up on maps again and the views work updated and sent to our Consultant. These will probably need to be treated slightly differently in plan to public open spaces but if we provide information our consultant can incorporate the material appropriately in the draft plan.
7. MW showed the maps he had done showing buildings around the three villages marked in period bandings. It was agreed that the maps supported the view that the villages grew hugely at specific periods and that the historic cores, even allowing for some demolition, were small until after the Second World War.
8. MW informed meeting that to extract further information to support the housing characteristics work he had first to type all the survey forms into spreadsheets for each village. He is aiming to get this input by June 10^th though analysis will continue beyond that date and others may wish to take part in that.
9. The SNC Building guidelines were discussed and it was agreed that key features on building materials, window types, building height etc. needs to be built into our plan as policies to make it mandatory and not advisory. This was not allocated at this point and Consultant advice may be needed.
10. A discussion on environmentally important features for new dwellings took place. The following were identified as key: Swales for water management, permeable surfaces not just for drives but for footpaths and other surfaces. The low level of solar panels on our street walks was noted and we need to discuss with consultant how policies encouraging environmentally friendly and low carbon use can be incorporated into the plan.
11. A timetable for our work was discussed and we are aiming to get outstanding evidence etc to our Consultant by June 10^th , next full meeting, which will hopefully allow him to get a revised and reworked draft plan to us by the following full meeting which needs to incorporate our work to date and clearly identify any supporting evidence that needs to be further developed before draft can start regulation consultation. Once we have this we can review document, and comment on any issues or questions we have, as well as putting the work in hand to address any missing evidence.

Meeting ended at 16:00