Agenda item

The Joint Committee considered areport (copies of which had been circulated) by the Acting Strategic Development Plan (SDP) Manager seeking:

·                approval of the Strategic Development Plan Authority’s response to the representations received on the second Proposed Strategic Development Plan (the Proposed Plan);

·                agreement that no modifications should be made to the Proposed Plan in response to these representations;  and

·                approval of the Proposed Plan for submission to Scottish Ministers for examination.

Issue 14 – Strategic Transport Improvements

The Acting SDP Manager advised that SESPlan disagreed with the representation on Strategic Transport Improvements and highlighted that the issue was largely to do with the Cross Boundary Study (CBS) falling significantly behind schedule.  SESplan could not have undertaken a more detailed appraisal as the CBS was not available.  However, the current appraisal was still sufficient to allow the Joint Committee to submit the Proposed Plan for examination as the appraisal indicated that the additional transport impacts as a result of Proposed Plan content would be minimal at a regional scale in comparison to previous plans. There would be more acute impacts within Edinburgh but these could not be identified in detail until sites for housing were identified in the subsequent Edinburgh LDP preparation process.  Further analysis of mitigation options could be undertaken when the CBS is available.

Members expressed concerns that the Joint Committeee were being asked to sign off the Proposed Plan at this meeting when the relevant information had not been received from Transport Scotland to allow a full appraisal to be undertaken.

Decision

1)        To approve, in principle, the summary of unresolved issues and note the representations received set out within the Schedule 4s referred to in Section 2 of the report and detailed in Appendix 1 of the report.

2)        To agree, in principle, that no modifications were made to the Proposed Plan published in October 2016.

3)        To delegate authority, in principle, to the Acting SDP Manager and Chair of the Project Board to undertake editorial changes and finalise the Schedule 4s and related material for submission to Scottish Ministers for examination as set out in Section 3 of the report.

4)        To approve, in principle, the report of conformity with the Participation Statement as detailed in Appendix 2 of the report.

5)        To approve, in principle, the unmodified Proposed Plan for submission to Scottish Ministers by no later than 27 June 2017.

6)        To agree, in principle, Issues 1-13 and 15-17.

7)        To note the representation from Transport Scotland as summarised in paragraph 2.29 of the report that the draft cross boundary study was reviewed by SESPlan on 8 March 2017.

8)        To request Transport Scotland to submit the final study to SESPlan by 30 April 2017.

9)        To note that officers would review Issue 14 (Strategic Transport Improvements) and report on the outcome of that review to the next SESPlan Joint Committee meeting.