Sites and Policies Plan Consultation Draft
View the Responses
The consultation is now closed. To view the responses please click on the relevant draft policy listed below. This will take you to the section of the document which contains the draft policy and the submitted comments.
Introduction
North Somerset Council is consulting on the proposed set of detailed planning policies to guide sustainable development within the district to 2026.
Each local planning authority is required to prepare a local plan for its area. In North Somerset's case this will comprise two principal documents - the Core Strategy (2012) which sets out the higher level strategic policies and detailed guidance which will be contained in the emerging Sites and Policies Plan (or Development Plan Document to give it its formal title). The Sites and Policies Plan must be consistent with the policies of the Core Strategy as well as the government's National Planning Policy Framework (2012). Separate documents known as Supplementary Planning Documents will also be prepared, where necessary, to provide additional guidance for specific policies and explain how they will be implemented.
Once adopted, the Sites and Policies Plan will supersede the remaining saved policies of the Replacement Local Plan, the Waste Local Plan and the Mineral Working in Avon Local Plan.
Timetable
This Consultation Draft Sites and Policies Plan is the first step in a plan-making process which will, in consultation with the local community, identify the new policy framework against which future development proposals will be assessed.
Sites and Policies Plan: Plan preparation
|
Stage |
Date |
Event |
|
Plan Preparation
|
February - April 2013 |
Six week consultation on this Consultation Draft. |
|
Spring - Summer 2013 |
Assessment of responses; preparation of revised document. |
|
|
Autumn 2013 |
Approval of Publication Version; public consultation on 'soundness' prior to submission. |
|
|
Examination
|
Early 2014 |
Submission to government. |
|
Spring 2014 |
Examination conducted by independent Inspector including hearings. |
|
|
Mid 2014 |
Inspector's report issued. |
|
|
Adoption |
Summer 2014 |
Formal adoption by the council. |
Composition of the document
As the name suggests, the draft plan covers two broad areas:
Sites - policies allocating sites for specific uses, or defining areas within which a particular policy approach will be taken. These are given a suffix related to the area to which they relate (eg WSM for Weston-super-Mare or BL for Bleadon).
Policies - generic guidance in respect of how different types of development or issues will be treated. These are given the suffix DM for development management. The exception is the first policy which is based on a national Planning Inspectorate model policy and is numbered SP1 (for Sites and Policies). It is intended that all policies will be given a SP prefix at submission stage.
Where appropriate, the proposals are defined on the Proposals Map:
Proposals Map - the map of the district defining the detailed boundaries of the proposed allocations or areas where specific policies will apply. This can be viewed electronically at http://map.n-somerset.gov.uk/EmergingProposals.html and allows users to zoom in to see more detail.
Some of the site allocations or policies have been rolled forward from existing documents, notably the Replacement Local Plan with little alteration. Others are new. Some have been subject to previous consultation, for example, some of the Weston policies were consulted upon as part of the Weston Town Centre Area Action Plan, while for others, this is the first round of consultation.
This consultation document seeks your views on all the Council's draft policies. At this stage you may comment on the approach being put forward, suggest alternative options, or raise issues that you feel warrant a policy approach which is not included.
Format of the policies
Each of the policies, or set of related policies, is preceded by a box which summarises the context. As well as setting out the title and policy number, this identifies the relevant Core Strategy policies as well as other extant development plan policies.
The main section of the box identifies the policy intentions. This is a summary of what the policy is seeking to achieve. It provides a useful check in relation to what the overall intent is, and whether the proposed approach is likely to be effective.
Later versions of the plan will include a reasoned justification to follow each policy or set of related policies.
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