Agenda item

Context:

A report was presented to members with an overview of tourism related planning policies to enable consideration of the extent to which the Local Development Plan (LDP) supports the Council’s objectives for growing our tourism economy.

Key Issues:

To aid consideration of this topic, this report is divided into two sections.  Firstly, the table in the report sets out the various types of tourism-related development and shows how they would be considered under the LDP.  The table is traffic-light rated to show where policies are supportive (green), supportive only in certain circumstances (amber), or prohibitive/no relevant policy (red).  The second section of the report looks at tourism-related planning applications determined since the LDP was adopted.  This section utilises details from the LDP Annual Monitoring Report to investigate planning approvals, and a separate analysis of applications refused, to identify any issues arising. 

Member Scrutiny:

A Member asked for clarification on yurt/tepees qualification for tourist use. The Officer answered that discussions had taken place on control of use, the thought was that the yurts could be in place for 10 months of the year. The issue then being that taking the yurts down for 2 months causes challenges, as some of these were significant structures to dismantle. Controls over occupation with conditions set would be more prudent in this case.

It was questioned by Members what approach other authorities take. The Officer answered that various issues and appeals had been researched.

A Member commented that tourism is changing rapidly and we should be leading authorities with best practice.

Enforcement and retrospective planning persimmon was discussed and will be addressed at the annual performance review.

A Member commented that we need to be mindful of the funding opportunities coming forward for the RDP and leader programme for further funding for things such as agricultural diversification. If the funding is there but our planning policy does not support it, these projects will not come forward.

The Committee were presented with information on tourist related developments.

There was discussion regarding visitor accommodation and whether there should be more sites specifically listed for hotel type accommodation. The plan allocates four for accommodation, Hendre Mansion, Piercefield House, Croft-Y-Bwla and a Premier Inn, Portal Road Monmouth. A Member commented that Piercefield House had been granted planning permission for a hotel previously, the Head of Planning advised he would check on the status of this and report back to the Committee (ACTION M.H).

Members were advised by the Strategic Food and Tourism Manager that it was important to monitor the type of accommodation offered, and to address the current imbalance of bed stock.  The Head of Planning advised that the LDP Annual Monitoring Report would seek to capture this information in the future.