Agenda item

[Report of the Director of Housing, Regeneration and Planning.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Planning and Corporate Services]

The existing Local Plan site allocation for the site requires a SPD to be produced to guide future planning applications.  The School intends to submit planning applications in 2021 for rationalisation, enhancement and accessibility improvements for the site and this SPD provides guidance for that.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Corporate Services introduced the report which sought approval for the adoption of the Highgate School Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) following the consultation process.  The Cabinet Member advised that the Regulatory Committee had been consulted at its meeting on 25 February and their comments had been included in the report and the SPD prior to publication.

Rob Krzyszowski, Interim Assistant Director for Planning, Building Services and Sustainability, responded to Councillor Emery’s question regarding sustainability standards on site.  Mr Krzyszowski advised that at planning applications must be determined using the planning policy in place at the point of determination so it would not be possible to future fit for when works may begin on site.  The Council used the highest standards and was confident that a good standard would be achieved on this site.

RESOLVED to

1.         Note the representations received in response to the consultation on the Draft SPD, the Council’s responses to these set out in Appendix A of the report, and the consequent changes proposed to the Draft SPD before adoption.

2.         Note the comments and recommendations of Regulatory Committee of 25 February 2021 regarding the changes proposed to the SPD

3.         Adopt the Highgate School SPD attached at Appendix B of the report.

Reasons for decision

Public consultation took place on the Draft SPD for 8 weeks from 26 October 2020 to 21 December 2020. The responses to the consultation have been considered and it is recommended that a series of changes are made to the SPD before it is adopted. Once adopted the SPD will be a material consideration in the determination of planning applications relating to the School, a series of which are expected to come forward in the near future. The SPD will provide guidance to help preserve the special character, heritage and amenity of the local area in line with the adopted Local Plan’s Site Allocation for the School and will discharge the Council’s commitment in the Local Plan to prepare an SPD for the site.

Alternative options considered

The alternative options considered are:

Option 1 – Not to adopt the SPD. The disadvantages of this are that the Council would not meet the commitment in the Site Allocations Local Plan document to bring forward an SPD for the School, it would not have specific adopted guidance to inform the submission and determination of future planning applications relating to the School, there would be no agreed strategic approach to the School’s development as a whole, and an ad-hoc way of dealing with estate wide issues would not give the local community the overall picture of the School’s development intentions and it would not enable the community to comment and input into the School’s long-term development in a meaningful way. Rather residents and businesses would only be able to comment on individual applications without this wider context.

Option 2: To adopt the SPD without any changes to the SPD following public consultation. This option would be contrary to legislation which requires the Council to take into account all consultation responses received before adopting the SPD. This would mean that not taking account of important feedback from the community and the stakeholders and would not allow changes to be made to the Draft SPD which would improve the robustness of the guidance within, including in relation to key land use principles. 

Option 3: To adopt the SPD incorporating changes arising from responses to the public consultation on the Draft SPD. This would enable feedback from the community and other stakeholders to be incorporated within the adopted SPD. 

Option 3 is being recommended as it will ensure that there is an agreed strategic approach in place for the future development of the School and that robust guidance is in place to support the making of future planning decisions for the School.