We need to prepare a new Local Plan in light of new housing numbers from the Government, to support sustainable economic growth, and to ensure all our planning policies are based on up-to-date evidence.
National planning policies set out how we should seek opportunities to meet our development needs in full. The new Plan will therefore need to eansure that enough high-quality homes, offices, shops and supporting infrastructure come forward in the right places at the right time, to meet a broad spectrum of future needs, incomes and circumstances.
A new spatial strategy will need to balance this development growth with the need to protect local nature and heritage assets, whilst managing flood risk and constraints like the extent of the Green Belt. The spatial strategy will also need to ensure accessibility to community facilities and public services.
The new Local Plan will need to set out this spatial strategy for growth and other locally-specific planning policies for a period of no less than 10 years from the point of adoption of the Plan – we think a shorter 10-year period is more appropriate for our area.
The main issues that are likely to frame the approach to the spatial strategy are summarised below:
We think our initial approach should be to focus development within our main urban areas and other smaller centres - taking opportunities to intensify and densify those areas with good levels of connectivity, whilst contributing positively to local character. Our priority is the appropriate redevelopment of previously developed, ‘brownfield’ land.
We will also consider other sustainably located, previously developed land outside of our urban areas. However, as it is unlikely we will have enough brownfield land, so we will then need to look at potential areas of Green Belt and Grey Belt land informed by the outcomes of a Green/Grey Belt Review.
We currently do not know how much development will be directed to any area in particular, as further evidence is required to assess the suitability and appropriateness of potential locations. The draft spatial strategy and site allocations will make it clear where new development is proposed to take place, and this will be consulted on at future stages of plan-making.
We believe detailed development management policies which help determine planning applications for development sites in the Green Belt will be out of scope for the new Local Plan, as they are largely superseded by national planning policies in the new NPPF.
We recommend that you read a more detailed description of this matter in this topic paper before answering the following questions – which includes a summary of what we consider to be in and out of scope:
The following questions about this topic are included on the response form:
Q1: Do you agree that the new Local Plan should cover a period of 10 years from the point of adoption of the Plan? If not, please explain why a different time period would be more appropriate.
Q2. Do you have any views on where development should be directed in the Runnymede area, and how places should evolve to meet our identified development needs in full?
Q3. Do you agree with what the Council believes is in scope for this matter and which a new Local Plan should address? If not, please explain why.
Q4. Do you agree with what the Council believes is out of scope for this matter? If not, please explain why.
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