Results 2,501-2,520 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I do not understand, if the hierarchy of road users model is contained in DMURS, a document local engineers and roads designers must comply with, why we cannot reference it in another statutory document, which would be the planning Act. I take the point some people would consider TOD to be big development around high capacity - Adamstown and that type of thing - but we need to recognise how...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: We differentiate between urban and rural areas when we talk about sustainable settlements and sustainable transport strategies. Although transportation needs in rural areas are often different from those in high-density areas, we should not differentiate between them when we talk about sustainable settlement patterns. They should apply countrywide. A rural dweller has as much desire and...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: Are local transport plans defined? What is to stop anybody from saying, "There is the roads network. We are going to have nicely lined roads great for drivers and there is your local transport plan"? The purpose of my amendment is to include, after-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: The subsection states refers to the promotion of the development of local transport plans. I do not know what a local transport plan is. It comes back to this language. Twenty years ago, a local transport plan would have been about how we were going to get cars around a town. Is it understood that a local transport plan adheres to the hierarchy-of-road-users model?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: The purpose of my amendment is to-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: My amendment seeks to include the phrase "walking and cycling network plans".

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: That is earlier in the section, where reference is made to "the provision, or facilitation of the provision, of sustainable integrated transport" plans. However, in the context of the promotion of the development of a local transport plan, I want to know that a local transport plan also includes active travel. As matters stand, it is too vague.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I will leave it to the Minister of State to come up with a wording that fits with what I am trying to achieve, rather than his accepting my amendment and dealing with the knock-on effects of that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I will move on to amendment No. 350. I might have been a little cheeky with this one. I am not entirely sure this is where it should go. Section 43 relates to the obligation to prepare a strategy on economic development. In the context of the strategies to be contained in the development plan, I do not see a strategy that would meet what I am seeking in the amendment, which refers to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I am not entirely sure how this ended up in the section relating to transport. I think I had included something about there being access to the hierarchy-of-road-users model, but I do not see it. The reference may be missing.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: Under zoning, schools would come in under community and education. These are new ten-year development plans, and this is a good part of the Bill to in which to include these strategies. However, we should outline matters a little more clearly. The necessity for an educational capacity assessment should be part of one of these strategies. As stated earlier, we have had a lot of housing...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Minister of State.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I have been sitting in the Chair all day.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: Amendment No. 375 relates to expanding what are understood to be community facilities by including the term "sports and recreational". Although it could be for sporting or recreational purposes, a community facility does not necessarily have to be used for such purposes. I wonder if it would gave other implications. If not, it is something to be considered.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I am fine with the Minister of State assessing what the implications of that would be. Apart from school places, one of the other biggest issues that we, as public representatives, all hear about at local and national level is the lack of playing pitches and other facilities.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: On amendment No. 350, I understand that the Minister of State has agreed to return to that matter.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: It is okay. I will return to my amendments in order then.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: I will continue on amendment -----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Steven Matthews: To be helpful, I am not entirely confident that the wording I put forward in amendment No. 350 is absolutely correct and I want to give the Minister of State and the Department the opportunity to perfect that. It has not been not accepted. The position on amendment No. 350, as I understand it, is that I am offering it back to the Department to improve and provide what seems to be missing.