Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director for Planning, Regeneration and Development. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration.]This report seeks approval for the Council to use its Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) powers to acquire the land required for the Wards Corner development, following on from the 14th July 2014 Cabinet Report which approved in principle the CPO.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration introduced the report which sought approval from Cabinet for the Council to use its Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) powers to acquire the land required for the Wards Corner development.  The report further included the rationale and reasons for Cabinet authorising the CPO of this key regeneration site in Tottenham.

Cabinet had already agreed, in July 2014, to the principal of the CPO, subject to pre – conditions being met. The Cabinet Member reiterated that this was a critical development for Tottenham delivering housing and employment.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration further drew Cabinet’s attention to an addendum to be considered with this report. This included an updated Statement of Reasons and corresponding updated recommendations, following the recent DCLG guidance on CPO’s produced in late October. This had been produced after the report was finalised and it was necessary to now consider the updated statement of reasons to ensure the Council were complying with the latest government guidance.

A deputation request from the Wards Corner Coalition had been received after the constitutional deadline and therefore not been accepted .They had put forward further written representations which were tabled for Cabinet member’s consideration. 

Councillor Strickland continued to respond to the issues raised in the deputation letter.

• The Wards Corner Coalition contended that they had not been communicated with about the likelihood of a CPO decision going forward to Cabinet in November. In response to this, the Cabinet Member advised that there had been a previous indication of the CPO decision in the earlier report to Cabinet in July 2014 and this key decision had been notified on the 1^st of October in the Council’s published Forward Plan.

• The public benefit of the CPO, the case was made within the report and the Statement of Reasons and would be tested at a public enquiry, if necessary.

• Lack of engagement with them about this process - Cllr Strickland explained that at this stage of the process the Council were not required to engage with the Collation. There would be stakeholder engagement as part of the CPO process.

• The CPO process was a statutory process and people were free to oppose this through the set statutory process.Councillor Strickland outlined that  the EQIA at Appendix 5 of the report pack also identified the existing social and economic value of the site in relation to protected characteristics. It concluded that any negative equality impacts of the CPO will be mitigated by the measures outlined in the S106 Agreement, including further engagement with the affected stakeholders.

• Representation of the Ward’s Corner Coalition community plan in the report, there was a clear reference to the plan and objective assessment made in section 8. This was clear that the Coalition’s community plan does not deliver the regeneration needed in this area.

• Community value – ASV was not dismissed and dealt with in the draft Statement of Reasons.

• Cabinet was not required to consider likelihood that CPO will be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 113