REGIONAL PLANNING COMMITTEE - 31 JULY 2002

ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR
Cllr Keith Mitchell, the Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, was elected Chair of the Planning Committee for the next 12 months. Robert Hamlin, member of RAISE representing the voluntary/community sector in the South East, was elected Vice Chair for the same period.

ORBIT MULTI-MODAL STUDY
Members were updated on the progress of the ORBIT Multi-Modal Study, following attendance by Mike Gwilliam and Cllr Chapple at a formal presentation. The final report of the Study would be submitted to the Assembly for formal consideration before the end of this year. In the meanwhile, the Committee expressed concern about the uncertainty of the Study projections beyond 2016, and the lack of sufficient clarity in the package of interim proposals.

SOUTH EAST AND EAST OF ENGLAND REGIONAL AIRPORTS STUDY (SERAS)
The Committee received a brief presentation on the recently published SERAS report and was reassured about the work programme of the special Task Group and consultants appointed to help the Assembly formulate a response. A report would be coming to the next meeting of the Committee with recommendations on this controversial and complex topic.

HOUSING
The Committee received a presentation on the recent statements by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Deputy Prime Minister on resources for housing and the evolution of the planning system. The Committee also heard from Mike Gwilliam that a substantial and encouraging response to the Chair's letter to planning authorities on housing and planning problems, had been received.

Further responses were expected, and the Committee agreed that, following full analysis, development of an action programme by the Housing Advisory Group and additional discussions with the Government Office and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, a further report and actions should be considered at the October meeting.

THE LONDON PLAN
The Committee expressed disappointment that the draft London Plan had failed to convincingly address the balance between housing, population growth and employment in London. As a consequence, its implications for the South East in respect of housing needs, transport requirements and provisions for waste facilities, were unclear and inadequately addressed. The Committee therefore reluctantly concluded that formal objections would need to be made to the London Plan, although it was hoped that further information from London and subsequent discussions would allow the Assembly's concerns to be allayed.

REGIONAL PORTS STUDY (SEAPLAG)
The Committee considered a report on the potential for port development in the three regions of the South East, London and East of England. The report had only very recently been released, and therefore the Committee did not adopt the report's recommendations, but rather received them for the purposes of wider consultation, and in order to assist in the refinement of the draft Regional Transport Strategy. Further formal consideration of the SEAPLAG Study would occur later in the year, when the results of the consultation and analysis were complete.

DRAFT REGIONAL SPATIAL STRATEGY FOR TOURISM
The Committee received a draft set of policies and proposals which would form the basis of a new Tourism spatial planning strategy for the region. Members made a number of modifications to the draft, but agreed that in substance it should go forward to the Assembly Executive Committee, with a recommendation that it should be the basis of a programme of stakeholder and public consultation, starting in late October 2002.

DRAFT STRATEGY FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY
The draft set of policies and proposals to form the basis of a new Renewable Energy strategy for the region was outlined to the Committee. Members agreed some detailed modifications, but agreed that in substance this strategy should also go forward to the Executive Committee, with a similar programme of consultation.

NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the Regional Planning Committee will be on 15 October 2002 at 10.00 am at the Institute of Materials, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1.

NEWS! STOP PRESS

The new Chair of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) is to be Jim Brathwaite CBE.

Jim Brathwaite is Chief Executive and founder of XL Entertainment, a media rights company based in Chichester. Before becoming the first ethnic minority RDA Chair, Jim was also Britain's first black CEO of a publicly quoted company. Jim's commitment to the South East is demonstrated by the numerous posts he has held in the region. He is currently a member of the board of Sussex Enterprise and was formerly the founding Chair of Business Link Sussex and a member of the Council of the University of Sussex. Jim is also a member of the National Small Business Council, Treasurer of the Foreign Office's Caribbean Advisory Group and a member of the Government's Export Advisory Committee for the Americas.

He will take up his post at SEEDA in December 2002.

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Last updated: 21 August 2007