Hello everybody. I attended a neighbourhood forum meeting yesterday evening which had Stella Scrivener from Planning Aid England present. This was a very useful meeting and therefore thought it would be beneficial to pass some of this information on to the Town Council and members of the community. Some of you may know this already but I felt it was important to begin a new thread to help understanding. · As I have mentioned on a few occasions, this is a neighbourhood development plan which is abbreviated to NDP. I have noticed the use of the term NHP by people, and on the website. Try not to use this abbreviation as it is important to emphasise the word ‘development’ so people understand what the Plan is really about. · There has been considerable concern about the need for community assets such as doctor’s surgeries. I must stress that this is not necessarily the purpose of the NDP. The Town Council will not be funding a new doctor’s surgery as will the service provider not be building it because the local community request it. There needs to be strong evidence that a facility is needed which should be completed by the working group. In this instance, it would be worth speaking with the Cheshire East Clinical Commissioning Group and asking them if they have any intentions of building or extending primary care facilities in Sandbach. If the Clinical Commissioning Group were wanting to build a facility, they would require planning permission. The NDP could make a policy that makes it very easy to ensure that this facility comes forward. This is really the only way the NDP can facilitate these types of community facilities that are out of the Town Council’s control. · Stella also stressed the importance of evidence gathering. You can not create policies without robust evidence. If you look closely at other NDPs and local planning authority Local Plans, you will notice that there is general ‘waffle’ around the policy. This is the evidence that helps to support the policy. Without this, the examiner is unlikely to find policies sound. Evidence must be proportionate. By identifying through consultations what people like and don’t like in Sandbach, the working groups can begin to identify what evidence is needed to begin writing policies that help to meet local requirements. · It is also important to ensure you are not repeating policies as written in the National Planning Policy Framework or by Cheshire East Council. Instead, the Town Council should be preparing policies that conform to national policy but that are adding detail or doing something different as to what is written by CEC. o For example, CEC may have a very general policy concerning urban design. In this instance, the working group(s) may identify that this policy does not help Sandbach as the town may be very different in character in certain parts. It may therefore be useful to write a policy that specifies what design should be like in certain parts of the town. In order to gather your evidence, the use of a ‘built up area character appraisal’ would be sufficient evidence to justify why certain areas should be designed/built in certain ways. · Plan positively. An NDP is about pro-development. It is not about restricting development. The Plan will not be found ‘sound’ if it is not positively prepared. You can retain areas but you will need to provide sufficient evidence as to why it should be. · Policy wording is absolutely vital to ensuring the policy is robust and that loopholes can not arise. Using words such as ‘this policy could help development’ will not wash. You must use strong and powerful words such as this policy will do such a thing. Clarity and certainty is therefore key. Also remember that the purpose of this plan is to direct planning applications. Remember that these policies will be interpreted by developers, Planning Officers and Members of the Planning Committee to form planning applications, make recommendations and decisions on planning applications within Sandbach. · It may be very useful for the Town Council and members of the community to look at existing planning applications and appeals to identify the trends. What do you not like about them? What could you change about them? Bearing in mind, you must think and plan positively! · My final point is that your Plan can contain as little or as many policies as possible, and can concern anything that is important to the community. The Examiner is not particularly bothered about the context of the plan as such, he/she is bothered about whether it is sound. The Plan must have regard to: o the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) (Overarching need to conform to sustainable development); o Current strategic planning policies (or in Sandbach’s case, the emerging Local Plan policies); and, o European Union obligations and human right requirements. I hope these points help with some understanding. Ross
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 10:12:21 +0000
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