The development of land can be a controversial issue, depending upon what the proposed development is and where it is to take place. It can affect anyone in the Borough either directly or indirectly, for example by providing new homes or jobs for residents, changing the face of a neighbourhood or village, or changing how people may make some journeys.
Decisions about whether to allow proposals to build on land or change its use are usually made by the Council as local planning authority. To guide these decisions, the Council has a Unitary Development Plan (UDP) that sets out its policies and proposals for the development and use of land in the area over a ten year period. The Unitary Development Plan identifies the sites in the Borough where it is proposed to permit housing, employment and shopping developments, amongst others, to take place.
The Unitary Development Plan is simply about land use in the Borough so has limited scope to directly influence other matters, such as the frequency of bus services or the provision of many community facilities or services. Its parameters, in terms of what it is expected or allowed to contain policies about and broadly what they should be, are set by:
National planning policy contained in Planning Policy Guidance Notes, which number 25 and cover topics ranging from housing to renewable energy; and
Regional policy as contained in Regional Planning Guidance Note 13 for the North West, March 2003.
This means that the Council does not have a completely free hand in preparing or changing the plan. It is our job to interpret the national and regional guidance and, with the help of the community, to translate it into something which fits our local circumstances. The explanation of the policies in the Plan indicates how this wider planning framework has been taken into account in its preparation.