Decision details

Date of Decision:

7-12 February

Decision Maker:

(Including Job Title)

Simon Moss, Assistant Director, Planning, Regeneration and Transport

Specific Delegation:

(If any)

Brief Description of Decision:

That the Council be a signatory to the Doncaster Local Plan Statement of Common Ground.

Reasons for the Decision:

In preparing their Local Plan Doncaster Council has identified a number of strategic and cross boundary issues on which agreement is sought. Rotherham officers have input to the draft Statement at various stages and are content with the wording. The majority of these agreements have no significant implications for Rotherham, and focus on continued engagement and sharing of information.

Details of alternative options considered and rejected:

An alternative option is that the Council does not sign the Statement of Common Ground. This may be detrimental to ongoing co-operation with Doncaster Council, including the ability for the Council to negotiate and prepare its own Statement of Common Ground to support the partial update of the Core Strategy. Being a signatory to the Statement would be of significant benefit to the Council in demonstrating to the planning inspector an active engagement in strategic planning across the city region. Meeting the duty to cooperate is a statutory requirement, if the inspector deems it has not been met a local plan examination cannot continue. The duty cannot be met retrospectively. It is therefore advisable that the Council does all it can to meet the duty in the preliminary stages of the Local Plan Core Strategy partial update prior to submitting the plan for examination.

Conflicts of interest declared by any Executive Member consulted by the decision maker which relates to the decision:

Dispensations Granted:

(If any)

Reports or parts of reports considered