No apologies for absence were received.

At this point in the meeting, Members were invited to declare any relevant interests. 

•       Councillor Daniel Simpson declared an interest relating to Item 5 on the Agenda.

•       Councillor Roger Dawson asked it be noted that in relation to Item 5, he was Vice Chairman of Addlethorpe Parish Council and asked it be noted that there was an ongoing dispute with ELDC’s Planning Department with regards to the size category of the village. 

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 22 June 2023.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 22 June 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

Actions from the previous meeting.

The actions were noted as complete.

To receive a report from the Planning Policy and Research Manager.

The Planning Policy and Research Manager presented a report to Members on a number of housing topic areas that needed decisions to provide direction for the Local Plan review.

Members were further referred to each topic in more detail commencing with the Coastal Zone, pages 50 to 55 of the Report refer, and were invited to put their comments and questions forward.

Coastal Zone

• The Chairman considered that removing the coastal zone from the Local Plan would make little difference and would make the policies more difficult to write.  The Planning Policy and Research Manager agreed and advised that flood zones and flood hazard mapping would still be in place and there would be a set of more detailed policies with criteria, covering housing in flood zones, tourism policies in flood zones, employment policies in flood zones, all contained within that.

• A Member queried whether the inland flood policy was any different to the coastal flood risk policy.  The Planning Policy and Research Manager advised that it was the inland policy covered the river network that was feeding into the sea and added that the coastal flood risk policies were more supportive in some areas such as in terms of tourism. Members were further advised that new developments would still have to follow the exception and sequential tests.  The Planning Policy and Research Manager explained that it was not just a matter of looking at the inland flood risk policy, of which there was only one, but looking at all of the other policies and making sure that each one was supporting not only the developments inland, but that they were also supporting the development on the coast, where expected, along with the required mitigation and extra tests.

• A Member raised a concern with regards to the principles underlying the Inland and Coastal zones policies and commented that whilst they were consistent and in principle, the same, having a separate coastal zone would put focus on the differences and would create a misleading view.  The Planning Policy and Research Manager advised that they were different and treated so on purpose such as the tourism policy was more relaxed and allowed the coast to be approached differently.  The sequential test stated that housing should be inland.  The policy still needed to be re-written and the recommendation was to keep the coastal zone.

• A Member further commented that it would be more preferable for small communities and developments to be taken on their own merits rather than be included in the Coastal zone.

The Chairman pointed out that the mapping. was being updated.  As observed previously, parts of coastal East Lindsey were outside of Flood Zone 3 and although the settlement would be dry, all around it would be flooded and developments on those areas would not be suitable and any evacuation would be impeded.

The Planning Policy and Research Manager confirmed that the map would be reviewed and if continuing with the Coastal zone it would be more clearly defined.  Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

The date of the next Meeting was confirmed as Thursday 26 October 2023, commencing at 6.00pm.