KALC Planning Conference

Join us for this year's KALC Annual Planning Conference 2024

 A common theme when speaking to local councillors is the absence of or overstretched infrastructure in our villages, towns and parishes. How can more development take place if the existing infrastructure can barely cope?

Our Planning Conference this year will focus on planning and infrastructure. The National Planning Policy Framework is centred on the achievement of sustainable development, including the provision of homes, commercial development, and supporting infrastructure in a sustainable manner. However, delivering the full suite of infrastructure to support development - particularly major development - is not always straightforward. There is a myriad of organisations, each having responsibility for different parts of the infrastructure and how this is planned for and delivered. In a two-tier county such as Kent, for instance, education, transport, flooding and some community facilities fall within the remit of Kent County Council. Planning for health falls to the NHS and Primary Care Trusts, while issues such as drainage and sewerage are picked up by private water companies.

The Districts and Boroughs are responsible for land-use planning, including housing, but how are the services and facilities operated by other bodies integrated into the planning system? How are facilities planned for? How is this considered in local planning? Can we rely on planning applications to bring forward the infrastructure promised? And what influence to we, as local councils, have in this?

The conference will bring together speakers from some of the major infrastructure organisations to talk about how they forward plan for need and how they contribute to local planning. Importantly, we will be exploring how town and Parish councils, representing their parishioners, can get involved in ensuring that adequate infrastructure is delivered in a timely and appropriate way.

As always, we will be providing an update on key planning issues and notably, in a General Election Year, some horizon scanning as to what we might see in the planning world going into 2025.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME (Agenda to be confirmed and is subject to change):

9:30am - Registration

1 0am Welcome (Chair of KALC Planning Subcommittee) and introduction to the day

1 0:10 - 10:30 Transport planning (KCC speaker confirmed)

1 0:30 - 10:50 Planning for health

1 0:50 - 11:10 Planning for education (KCC contacted)

11:10 - 11:30 Break

1 1:30 - 11:50 Drainage and sewerage (Southern Water speaker confirmed)

1 1:50 - 12:10 Local Authority Planner (contacted)

12 :10 - 12:30 Panel session for Q&A

12:30 - 13:10 Lunch

13:10 - 13:30 Latest on planning and horizon scanning (Alison Eardley, KALC Planning Consultant)

13 :30 - 14:30 Local case study and walkabout (East Peckham Councillor contacted)

14:30 - 15:00 Finish and close