Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD)

One of the key planning documents the Council has prepared is the Joint Core Strategy and Development Management Development Plan Document (the 'Joint DPD').

The Joint DPD sets out a long-term spatial vision for the borough, objectives and the planning and development strategy for the borough up to 2026, core policies and development management policies and a monitoring and implementation framework.

The Joint DPD was adopted as part of the borough’s development plan at the Council meeting on 9 November 2011.

The Site Allocations Development Plan Document (the 'Site Allocations DPD') will support the Joint DPD and will form part of the suite of documents that make up the Council's Local Plan. It will allocate land for development or protection to meet the borough’s economic, environmental and social objectives.

The timeline for preparing the Site Allocations DPD as set out in the council's LDS (issue 8) is:

Scoping Report - May/June 2012
Consultation on publication DPD (for six weeks) - February/March 2015
Submission to the Planning Inspectorate - April 2015
Examination Hearing Sessions - Summer 2015
Inspector's Report - September 2015

The council are currently revising the timetable and will update the LDS in due course.

Preparation phases

Phase 1: Scoping Report and Call for Sites

The Call for Sites survey was carried out from 7 May to 22 June 2012 and was an opportunity for individuals, neighbourhoods, developers and the business community to put forward their views on which specific sites should be considered for either development or protection in the Site Allocations DPD. The comments received during these consultations have been fed into the preparation of the Options Report for the Site Allocations DPD and can be found in the Consultation Statement below.

The Council has prepared a 'Sustainability Appraisal' to consider the social, environmental and economic effects of the Site Allocations DPD. The first stage of the Sustainability Appraisal was a Scoping Report which was completed in March 2012. This sets out baseline information, identifies issues and problems and sets out the framework for assessing the Site Allocations DPD.

Scoping Report

The Council has agreed with the Government's key environmental bodies that we will assess the effects of the Site Allocations DPD. This is in order to meet our responsibilities under the European Union's Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive and the Habitat Directive.