New Planning System Comes Underfire
It could not be worse publicity for the reformed plan-making system. The first two local development frameworks (LDFs) have fallen at the first hurdle. Lucy Williscroft, Assistant Planner at Fisher German’s Ashby office explains in more detail some of the issues:
Planners at Lichfield District Council and Stafford Borough Council face having to start work on their LDFs from scratch after their Core Strategies were pronounced ‘unsound’. The respective Inspectors, John Mattocks and David Fenton, believe that the defects are so severe that rewording will not suffice.
The Core Strategy document acts as an ‘umbrella’ to all the other documents which will be adopted by the Council to create the Local Development Framework. This document sets the parameters within which all other documents, such as Site Allocations, should conform.
Both core strategies were criticised on a number of grounds. The inspectors concede that both local authorities were in a difficult position amid unfamiliar procedures and ongoing revisions to the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), but feel that their response left much to be desired.
Lichfield and Stafford have issued a joint statement lamenting that they ‘have found themselves at the very forefront in pioneering the new system and have paid the price’. Both Councils feel let down by the Government’s failure to provide more information on how the core strategy should be created. The statement goes on to highlight that ‘although general guidance has been produced as to what a Core Strategy should look like, we have very much been left on our own to work out what issues should be included’.
However, a spokesman for the Government Office for the West Midlands is satisfied that the Councils were offered enough guidance, but admits that the problem is more to do with the interpretation of the guidance, which is not tested until the end of the process.
Each document that is produced by a Council to be included in the LDF has to satisfy nine tests of ‘soundness’, which the Inspector analyses at the Public Examination. Lichfield and Stafford Councils have both failed on more than one of the soundness tests.
It is now unclear as to how these Councils will progress with their LDF’s, and more importantly, their Core Strategies. Work on any other Development Plan Documents, such as Site Allocations, will now have to cease until the issues surrounding the Core Strategies have been resolved. This will obviously have a negative impact on the timescale on adopting the LDF, which was scheduled for 2009.
What is clear is that this is a considerable setback for the new system, which has already undergone major criticisms since is introduction. It will now be a case of waiting for further Government guidance as to how these Council’s will proceed. We are already experiencing a delay as other Council’s fear their documents being rejected, producing a knock on effect to the new planning system.
The Fisher German planning team have their ear to the ground with regard to any changes that this set back produces, but are confident that representations made to other Councils will be positively received. If anyone has any queries regarding the above or the new system in general, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the planning team at the Ashby office.
The nine tests of soundness, which all of the LDF documents must conform to, are outlined below:
Test 1 – The document has been prepared in accordance with the authority’s local development scheme.
Test 2 – The document has been prepared in compliance with the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) and in accordance with the minimum requirements of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) Regulations 2004.
Test 3 – The plan and its policies have been subject to a sustainability appraisal.
Test 4 – It is a spatial plan which is consistent with national planning policy and in general conformity with the Regional Spatial Strategy and it has properly had regard to any other relevant plans, policies and strategies relating to the area or to adjoining areas.
Test 5 – It has had regard to the authority's community strategy.
Test 6 – The strategies/policies/allocations in the plan are coherent and consistent within and between development plan documents prepared by the authority and by neighbouring authorities, where cross boundary issues are relevant.
Test 7 – The strategies/policies/allocations represent the most appropriate in all the circumstances, having considered the relevant alternatives, and they are founded on a robust and credible evidence base.
Test 8 – There are clear mechanisms for implementation and monitoring of the documents.
Test 9 – The plan is reasonably flexible to enable it to deal with changing circumstances.
- Ashby de la Zouch
- 01530 412821
- Banbury
- 01295 271 555
- Knutsford
- 01565 757970
- Market Harborough
- 01858 410 200
- Newark
- 01949 851815
- Southampton
- 02380 883150
- Stafford
- 01785 220 044
- Worcester
- 01905 453275
