Service Manager together with the Head of Developer Services & Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) to report regarding to the consultation process undertaken with water companies in relation to developments and the capacity of existing infrastructure.

 

NOTE: The Head of Place, Property and Regeneration together with officers from the Planning Policy team and the Lead Member for Regeneration, Economic Development and Planning have also been invited to attend the meeting.

At its meeting on the 7^th March 2024, the Committee were discussing the work programme for 2024/25 and its ongoing work in relation to water quality and resolved to invite the Service Manager to the next meeting of the Committee on 11th April 2024 to discuss the consultation process with stakeholders from water companies in regards to planning applications particularly around developments and the capacity of existing infrastructure for sewage and waste water.

 

Following the meeting, the Clerk approached the Service Manager who suggested that it would be beneficial to also have a representative in attendance from South West Water (SWW) and so it was agreed that they would attend this meeting together to answer questions from the Committee.

 

The Chair welcomed officers from the Council together with the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) to the Committee.

 

She invited the Service Manager to address the Committee and explain the consultation process that the planning officers undertook with water companies in relation to proposed developments and the capacity of existing infrastructure for sewage and waste water.

 

The Service Manager advised that every planning application submitted for new build to the Council had SWW listed as statutory consultee whether that be for one or one hundred dwellings.

 

Since the end of 2023, the planning team had held regular meetings with SWW to discuss the sewage capacity of the existing infrastructure when an application had been proposed.

 

She explained that previously responses from SWW were listed on planning application documents as “no objections”. However, she acknowledged that there needed to be further information together with an explanation to show that they had looked at the capacity of the existing infrastructure and explain how they had reached their conclusion.

 

The Chair invited the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) to address the Committee.

 

The Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) highlighted the following:

 

·       To put the situation into context, SWW assessed 30,000 planning applications per year, which ranged from small to large scale schemes.

·       They used a tool called “Supply and demand” where they entered the details of the planning application and the system then flags up any issues as a result of the proposed application.

·       They also used flow monitors to assess the characteristics of rainfall.

·       SWW had already held two workshops with North Devon Council and there was a third workshop planned for July 2024.

·       There was greater definition and detail contained within the consultation responses for larger applications.

 

In response to a question regarding how surface water runoff and flood risks were managed and addressed as part of the Local Plan and whether it might be beneficial to undertake a water cycle study to identify specific areas where sewage and waste water infrastructure was under pressure, the Senior Planning Policy Officer advised that the officers were in the early stages of preparing a new Local Plan.

 

She took the Committee through the process with regards to the preparation of the new joint North Devon and Torridge Local Plan:

 

·       One of the first stages was the preparation of the Housing Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) panel which assessed the suitability of potential sites for housing and economic uses.

·       Officers were currently assessing the sites and then sending the information out to the statutory consultees including Devon County Council and SWW.

·       The identified sites would then be considered by the recently established HELAA panel, to which all statutory consultees would be invited to attend, and where the proposed sites and any additional information provided by the consultees would be taken into account. The final assessment used a RAG methodology (Red, Amber, Green) depending on any issues which had been identified.

·       Following on from the HELAA, a sustainability appraisal would then be prepared as part of the Local Plan evidence base, which would explore the different site alternatives together with the best options for the proposed sites. Based on this and other information including local community preferences, the Council would then decide which sites would be allocated within the Local Plan.

·       The draft Local Plan would then be prepared and circulated to the statutory consultees and the wider community for consultation.

 

She added that the water study was an interesting point, which could potentially be explored as part of the local plan evidence base.

 

She explained that the Local Plan looked 20+ years ahead and advised that as part of preparing a new local plan, the Joint Planning Policy Committee had established thematic working groups for councillors to explore particular areas such as climate change etc. 

 

In response to a number of questions, the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW), the Head of Place, Property and Regeneration and Senior Planning Policy Officer advised the following:

 

·       Regarding at what point SWW would change or improve its infrastructure to allow for any proposals as part of the Local Plan, the company now had far more information regarding areas and their existing capacity to enable them to determine any upgrades that would need to be put into place to facilitate identified sites within the Local Plan. This process would involve a timeframe of about 18 months to allow SWW to build any upgrades into their work programme to enable improvements to be made. There was further information available on the SWW web site together with a presentation, which contained additional links that he was happy to share with the Committee following the meeting.

·       As a company SWW had an obligation to build in growth for development within its network and the company acknowledged that growth was required.

·       With regards to overflow spills into water courses and the potential utilisation of alternative methods such as reed beds or willow plantations, SWW faced big challenges re. discharge and had recently sent their business plan to Ofwat. The government had set a target of 2050 for a reduction of overflow spills and the target set for that by SWW was 2040 as a priority with the current focus being bathing water.

·       SWW acknowledged that climate change had a huge impact upon water levels, which had increased significantly following a winter of heavy rainfall, which was preceded by two very dry summers. Investment infrastructure was a key element to address capacity and supply issues.

·       With regards to the consultation process in relation to discussions around sewage capacity, there were further high level consultee responses when potential sites had been selected and more detailed conversations were held to ensure that the Council could demonstrate that the proposed sites could be delivered.

·       As part of the consultation process the Council had to be dynamic and forward thinking and both North Devon and Torridge District Councils were involved in a recently launched a pilot project, which was being funded by DEFRA called the Devon Resilience Innovation Project (DRIP), which was looking at flooding issues across Devon. The North Devon and Torridge pilot project was to look at preparing polices in relation to Fluvial Change Risk Management Areas, which would look  at how activities up stream could be contributing to flooding issues elsewhere and how the local plan could influence those issues and what policies the Council could put in place to address these matters.

·       The DRIP project work would be considered through the thematic working group.

·       Sites in the new local plan would only be brought forward if they were deemed to be deliverable during the plan period, and any consultation with SWW should be testing that.

·       With regards to action that was taken to mitigate issues with a lack of capacity via an alternative means for proposed larger sites, the preparation of the new local plan would include establishing if the existing infrastructure could cope with the growth that was being proposed and if additional infrastructure was required the Council would need to understand how that impacted the viability and delivery of the proposed site and if the infrastructure required was too costly then the site would not be able to be brought forward or be deliverable.

·       SWW utilised tankers to remove sludge form sewage treatment works, which was a bi-product of the sewage treatment process. There were occasions where the system or sewage network couldn’t cope and there was a potential overflow situation. However, there was capacity within the sewage plants and they were monitored to reduce the risk of an overflow situation.

·       As a statutory undertaker SWW’s role was to facilitate and understand growth needs of an area and to accommodate those growth needs accordingly.

·       As an organisation SWW did not have the power to decline planning applications and always worked closely with developers to address any issues that had been identified as part of the planning application process.

 

In response to a question regarding the consultation process leading up to the adoption of the future Local Plan and the differences to what has happened in the future compared to what was predicted in the past. The Lead Member for Regeneration, Economic Development and Planning advised the adoption of the new local plan was following a completely different process and that Members should seize the opportunity to be involved in the process through the thematic working groups, which were being established to focus on specific areas of the Local Plan.

 

He added that as the Chair of the HELAA panel, the next stage was to identify and assess potential new sites to ensure that the Council could secure their five year land supply to avoid the risk of challenge if not delivered. The Local Plan process allowed for local communities to be involved in the site selection process.

 

The proposed new sites to be included in the local plan would be shared with the communities affected and Members would be encouraged to provide their input into the process.

 

In response to a question regarding flow information and how it was obtained, the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) advised that if SWW did not have the relevant flow information they would install a temporary flow monitor at the site or obtain the required information through connectivity surveys.

 

In response to a further question regarding that the Council ensured that it kept its five year land supply and what could be done to secure it, the Head of Place, Property and Regeneration advised that this would be addressed as part of the Local Plan review process.

 

The Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) welcomed engagement regarding proposed or allocated areas together with the importance of working together to make a difference.

 

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive advised that the process had been changed with the introduction of thematic groups to focus on each part of the Local Plan and ensure that all options were considered.

 

He added that the special meeting held at Petroc was a really good example of the willingness of all partners to work together and that it was important to get the message out around collaboration.

 

In response to a question regarding the difference between the SHLAA and HELAA processes, the Senior Planning Policy Officer advised that the SHLAA preceded the HELAA as a piece of evidence that fed into the site allocation process.

 

The Local Plan was not purely for building houses and that the HELAA process also involved the allocation of employment land for consideration as part of the new Local Plan (and the SHLAA did not). The HELAA would be published later in the year.

 

In response to a question regarding water capture and its utilisation for the supply chain, the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) advised that there were two new water resources in Cornwall and that SWW were always looking at additional water resources.

 

He explained that there was now a greater demand on supply that as a company they wanted to help customers to manage their water usage more efficiently together with also providing additional water supplies. There were currently no plans to increase water supply in the North Devon area as there was no issues with supply at the present time and the problem at Roadford reservoir had been addressed.

 

He added that if such a situation occurred within the North Devon area then it would be addressed.

 

The Senior Planning Policy Officer advised that water efficiency matters could be addressed via a policy within the new Local Plan and the Head of Place, Property and Regeneration confirmed that this would be considered as part of the Local Plan review through the thematic groups.

 

The Service Manager thanked the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) for his attendance at the meeting and the strong working relationship that the Council had developed with SWW over the previous 12 months.

 

The Chair thanked the Service Manager and the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) for their attendance at the meeting.

 

The Committee agreed the following:

 

Ø  That the positive working relationship between the Council’s planning department and SWW with regards to consultation on planning applications be promoted by the Service Manager via the Council’s Communications team; and

 

Ø  That the Service Manager provides feedback to the Planning Committee following her meetings with SWW for any applications which were due to be considered by the Committee.