Minutes:
(Councillor Campbell declared an interest in this item, in relation to the Hillview site in the north of the city. She explained that she had previously expressed a view regarding a previous application for the site and that she would withdraw from any future discussion in relation to the site)
The Chairperson welcomed Ms. S. Aidros, Mr. R. McQuillian, Ms. E. Seymour and Ms. N. Timperley, representatives from the Build Homes Now group, to the meeting.
In accordance with the Committee’s decision of 13th November, the Members watched the film which had been made by Build Homes Now, entitled “Waiting for a Childhood to Call Their Own: The Plight of Children on the Housing Waiting List”.
On behalf of the Committee, the Chairperson thanked the representatives for attending the meeting and congratulated them on their film which highlighted the high number of young people who were on the waiting list for social housing across Northern Ireland.
In response to a number of questions from the group to the Members of the Committee, the Chairperson advised the group that Members of the Planning Committee could not express an opinion on land use of particular sites across the city as they were required to judge each planning application on its individual merits in accordance with planning policy.
The Divisional Solicitor reiterated to the group that Members of the Planning Committee were not to express a view on any planning application in advance of its consideration by the Committee, as doing so would exclude a Member from participating in the discussion and from voting on the application.
A Member advised the group that the Planning Committee could only consider planning applications which had been submitted through the Planning Service and that the Council did not have the responsibility for building social housing.
In relation to the ongoing masterplanning work for the Gasworks site, the Director of Planning and Building Control provided the Committee with an update. He advised the Members that Council officers were working with a housing association to acquire a piece of vacant land in the area, which, in addition to Council owned-land, the housing association then hoped to be able to bring forward plans for build social housing.
The Chairperson advised the group that the Council’s Local Development Plan (LDP), when it was completed, would address issues relating to housing such as the zoning of land throughout the City, aspirations for the City’s growth and the number of homes which would be required to attain the targets within the Plan.
During discussion, Ms. Seymour stated that they had missed the deadline for submitting comments to the draft Plan Strategy (dPS), the first part of two documents which would comprise the new Local Development Plan. The Director explained that public comments would be invited on the responses which had been received during the dPS at the end of February, and that the group could submit counter comments to the published responses at that stage.
The Chairperson thanked the representatives for their attendance and they retired from the meeting.
The Committee agreed that, given that there had been a number of questions raised which the Committee could not discuss, a request be submitted to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee that it would consider receiving a future presentation from the Build Homes Now group.