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MANSFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL
Report of Corporate Director Customer Services, Community Safety,
and Regulatory Services
To
Portfolio Holder for Regeneration
ADOPTED MANSFIELD DISTRICT LOCAL PLAN (1998) – REQUEST TO
CONTINUE TO ‘SAVE’ EXISTING LOCAL PLAN POLICIES
1. SUMMARY
1.1 The purpose of this report is to consider the continued ‘saving’ of the existing
planning policies of the Mansfield District Local Plan (November 1998) which
covers the whole of the District. It responds to the guidance issued from the
Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) that requires
requests to continue to ‘save’ existing local plan policies be made to the
Secretary State by 1st April 2007.
1.2 Key Decision - The report is produced in respect of a key decision identified
in the Council’s Forward Plan issued on 17th January 2007 because it affects
all communities within the whole of the district.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation to Council
That the Secretary of State issue a direction to save the policies in the
Mansfield District Local Plan 1996 – 2006 as set out in Appendix 1 to this
report, subject to the following provisos:-
a) The list may be varied at the discretion of the Portfolio Holder for
Regeneration in consultation with the Corporate Director for Customer
Services, Community Safety and Regulatory Services, if:-
i. Any existing policies or proposals are implemented or superseded in
the interim;
ii. Advised to do so by the Government Office for the East Midlands.
b) The reasoned justification supporting the list may be extended or amended
by the Corporate Director for Customer Services, Community Safety and
Regulatory Services (in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for
Regeneration) should circumstances change or new information become
available.
MANSFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL
3. BACKGROUND
3.1 The Government introduced a new development plans system through the
enactment of the 2004 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act on 28th
September 2004. Whilst the Act signalled the demise of existing local plans in
favour of new local development documents it allowed for local plans to retain
development plan status for a period of 3 years from the commencement of
the Act, and automatically ‘saved’ local plan policies until the 27th September
2007. It was envisaged by Government that existing local plans would be
progressively replaced with new local development documents within this
period thus avoiding the situation where LPA’s were faced with a gap in policy
in the interim period.
3.2 It is now widely recognised, in particular, by the Government, that the
transition from the old to the new system may take 5 or more years, and the
life of ‘saved’ policies for many existing local plans may need to be extended
beyond the 27th September 2007 deadline. In response the DCLG issued a
protocol for the handling of requests to extend saved policies beyond the 3
year period in August last year. It sets out steps local authorities must follow
together with criteria with which saved policies should comply, if the Secretary
of State is to extend them. The main criteria are as follows:-
i. where appropriate, there is clear central strategy;
ii. policies have regard to the Community Strategy for the area;
iii. policies are in general conformity with the regional spatial strategy or
spatial development strategy;
iv. policies are in conformity with the core strategy development plan
document (where the core strategy has been adopted);
v. there are effective policies for any parts of the authority’s area where
significant change in use or development of land or conservation of the
area is envisaged;
vi. policies are necessary and do not merely repeat national or regional
policy;
3.3 In addition, the protocol also says that the Secretary of State shall have
regard to the following;-
policies that support the delivery of housing, including unimplemented
site allocations, up to date affordable housing policies, policies relating
to the infrastructure to support housing;
policies on green belt general extent in structure plans and detailed
boundaries in local plans/UDP’s;
policies that support economic development and regeneration,
including policies for retailing and town centres;
policies for waste management, including unimplemented site
allocations;
policies that promote renewable energy; reduce impact on climate
change; and safeguard water resources.
MANSFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL
3.4 The deadline date for receipt of the list by the Government Office for the East
Midlands is Sunday 1st April 2007.
3.5 It is important to note that this process is not an opportunity to amend or add
in new policies to the existing Local Plan, but purely to ‘save’ existing policies
where they can be justified, so that they can be utilised after the 27 th
September 2007.
3.6 Members will be aware that the Council’s revised Local Development Scheme
approved for submission to the Government Office by Full Council at its
meeting on 14th November 2006 indicates that the existing local plan will not
be fully replaced by new local development documents until September 2010.
It is therefore recommended that appropriate ‘saved’ policies from the
Adopted Mansfield District Local Plan 1998 be extended for a further 3 years
to ensure the District has a sound basis for making decisions in the interim
period.
3.7 A comprehensive review of all the ‘saved’ policies in the Local Plan has taken
place against the Government’s criteria in order to ensure that the list of
policies we request to continue to be ‘saved’ have been rigorously considered.
3.8 The full list of the existing local plan policies together with the intentions for
them is set out in Appendix 1. It sets out assessment of each policy against
the government’s criteria together with reasons, ordered by local plan chapter,
with policies recommended to be saved first followed by policies
recommended not to be saved after. Discussion with the Government Office
for the East Midlands over the list has revealed some informal support for our
general approach to ‘saved’ policies but at the time of drafting this report no
formal response has been forthcoming. It is therefore requested that
Member’s delegate Officer’s to make any necessary amendments to the list
upon the advice of the Government Office, and in consultation with the
Portfolio Holder for Regeneration (Recommendation a)ii).
3.9 In summary, the report recommends that request be made to retain all the
existing policies that can be justified as set out in Appendix 1. There are,
however, the following exceptions:-
a) where a proposal for development has been implemented, for example,
policy M1(a) which relates to the safeguarded route for the Rainworth
By-pass;
b) the employment and housing land provision figures in Policies E1 and
H1 which have been overtaken by more up to date employment and
housing requirements set out in the Adopted Nottinghamshire and
Nottingham Joint Structure Plan 2006 (JSP) and the Draft East
Midlands Regional Plan 2006 (RSS8);
c) the Policy M2(G) relating to the local highway improvement scheme to
the Hermitage Lane Railway Bridge which has since been identified as
neither feasible nor desirable by the County Council now that
MANSFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL
alternative routes are available via the Hamilton Road/Quarry Lane link
and the MARR;
d) the Policy H5(W) that allocates land off Wood Street at Market Warsop
for housing within a zone of high probability of flood risk as defined by
the Environment Agency where more vulnerable development such as
housing should now be avoided unless the exceptional test can be met;
e) the Policies H8 and H9 which are now out of step with the
government’s approach to planning for open space, sport and
recreation in PPG17 (2002), and the local need to take a more refined
approach that considers both the quality and the quantity of open
space provision within the district; and
f) the Policy U6 which is at odds with the government’s approach to flood
risk in PPS25 which sets out a more stringent approach to avoid
inappropriate development in areas at risk from flooding, and to direct
development away from areas at highest risk.
4. OPTIONS AVAILABLE
4.1 It is a statutory requirement for a Local Planning Authority to produce a
development plan setting out local policies to manage the spatial development
of its area. The Council currently meets this requirement through the Adopted
Mansfield Local Plan which is ‘saved’ in its entirety under the Planning and
Compulsory Purchase Act for a period of 3 years from the 28 th September
2004. In the reformed planning system the policies of the local plan would
lose their development plan status on this date unless the Secretary of State
makes a direction to extend specified policies beyond the 3 year period.
4.2 Whilst the Council has embarked on review of the local plan through the
preparation of the Mansfield Local Development Framework the raft of new
policies to replace the existing Local Plan is unlikely to be fully in place until
September 2010. Unless the saved period for certain local plan policies is
extended the Council will be left with no local development plan for its area
and no effective planning policies for decision making on individual planning
proposals.
4.3 Although it would be possible for the Council to ‘do nothing’ and not to ask the
Secretary of State to expressly save certain of the existing policies this option
would either see the plan as a whole lose its development plan status or it
may mean that important decisions regarding the retention of our policies are
taken without the full knowledge of changes in local circumstances, and which
are not in the best interests of the area. In regard to which policies should be
recommended to the Government Office for saving, the list at Appendix 1 is
mindful of the assessment criteria for handling such requests set out by the
Government in the protocol.
MANSFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL
5. BUDGET/RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS
5.1 The existing ‘saved’ local plan policies are the established policies of the
Council and the costs involved in preparing them through the development
plan preparation process have already been expended. As such there are no
budgetary/resource implications with this decision which seeks to retain
certain of the existing local plan policies as part of the development plan for a
further 3 years until September 2010.
6. RISK ASSESSMENT OF RECOMMENDATIONS AND OPTIONS
6.1 The Table below sets out the risks associated with the recommendations and
the option together with the actions proposed to lessen the risk.
Risk Risk Risk Risk
Assessment Level Management
Recommendation – make request to the Secretary of State to extend the ‘saved’ period
of certain of the existing local plan policies
The Secretary This scenario would be in accordance Low By making request to
of State issues with the Council’s aims and objectives. extend the ‘saved’
direction to not period of certain of
save/save the existing local plan
certain of the policies using the
policies in criteria in the Protocol
accordance with and including a clear
the request as reasoned justification
set out in the list the Council is making
of policies. the best of the
opportunity to
influence the decision
of the Secretary of
State and lessen the
risks involved.
Option – Do nothing
The Secretary The existing policies will lose their Medium By not making a
th
of State issues development plan status on 27 request to extend the
direction to not September unless they are ‘saved’ for ‘saved’ period of
save/save a further period by the Secretary of certain of the existing
certain of the State. If none of the existing plan local plan policies the
policies without policies are ‘saved’ for a further period Council would reduce
the benefit of this would create a policy vacuum in its ability to positively
local knowledge the period before new local influence the
in relation to our development plan documents are development of the
aspirations for adopted as part of the LDF process. district.
the district. This would increase the risk of
successful challenge against the
Council’s planning decisions at appeal,
and would result in no statutory policy
backing for a number of major
unimplemented development proposals
in the District. If certain of the important
policies are lost whilst other less
important ones retained the Council’s
existing planning policies would not
serve the best interests of the area.
MANSFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL
7. ALIGNMENT TO COUNCIL PRIORITIES
7.1 The Adopted Mansfield District Local Plan sets out the Council’s land-use
policies for the development of the district. It aligns with the Council’s priority
of revitalising our district, town centres and neighbourhoods, ensuring decent
homes for all, and developing a high quality, clean and pleasant environment
through various policies relating to homes, jobs and shops amongst others.
8. IMPLICATIONS RELATING TO RELEVANT LEGISLATION
8.1 The development plan status for the existing ‘saved’ policies of the Adopted
Mansfield District Local Plan lasts until 27th September 2007 unless extended
by the Secretary of State.
9. COMMENTS OF STATUTORY OFFICERS
a) Head of Paid Service – None
b) Monitoring Officer – None
c) Head of Financial Services – None
10. CONSULTATION
10.1 The approach to the ‘saving’ of the existing local plan policies has been the
subject of discussion with relevant officer’s within Planning and Regulatory
Services and Operational Services, and with the Corporate Director for
Customer Services, Community Safety and Regulatory Services. The list and
reasoned justification attached at Appendix 1 is the culmination of these
consultations. In addition, a draft list was forwarded to the Government Office
for the East Midlands for their comment prior to any formal submission.
Although informal support has been received to our general approach as yet
no formal response on the detail has been received.
11. BACKGROUND PAPERS
Letter to the Government Office for the East Midlands dated 9 th January 2007
(File Ref: LDS/01)
Report Author: Phil Delaney
Designation: Principal Planning Policy Officer
Telephone: 01623 463182
E-mail: pdelaney@mansfield.gov.uk
