Decision details

To approve a draft version of the Site Allocations Development Plan Document for consultation.

1          That the proposed consultation approach and the accompanying consultation document be endorsed.

2          Minor changes to the consultation document be agreed with the Executive member for Planning and Transport and Economic Development in consultation with the Chief Officer Planning and Transport.

The SADPD is an important element in securing delivery of the vision set out in the Council’s adopted Core Strategy and ensuring that we meet our obligations to secure a robust and flexible supply of land to meet the Borough’s future development requirements. 

It is important that the local community and other stakeholders are properly engaged in the process of identifying locations for the Borough’s future development.  Production of the SADPD will also help the achievement of the Council’s medium-term objective 3 - ‘To promote sustainable housing and infrastructure development’ which includes ‘producing a Local Development Framework that protects the Green Belt and balances the demand for new housing with the need to protect the wider environment’.

It is a statutory requirement under the planning regulations to carry out proper consultation on Development Plan Documents.  There is an option of delaying production of the SADPD.  This was considered by the Executive and Officers, particularly in light of indications that a Conservative Government would abolish Regional Spatial Strategies.  However, in the absence of clarity on what would replace RSSs and the desire to maintain effective control over future development, it was agreed with the Executive that the Council should continue to plan for the quantum of development set out in the South East Plan to ensure that we are planning for change and not reacting to it. 

The option of not identifying sites for future development would leave the Council vulnerable to the pattern of development in the Borough being led by developers and land owners through planning applications and potentially costly planning appeals rather than through the plan-led system that forms the basis of the government’s approach to planning. 

None.