Local Plan - Publication Draft Local Plan

NOTE: Links are underlined but the text is black rather than blue.

Go to the top level Northumberland Local Plan page.

Summary of Comments

The key question is:

Do you consider that this part of the Local Plan is:

a. Legally compliant

b. Sound

c. Complies with Duty to Cooperate

The consultation ended on March 13th.

It looks like all the comments have now been processed.

There were 1,628 comments from 446 people with about 88% of the comments saying the Local Plan is not sound.

The final number of comments about the Core Strategy Pre-Submission Draft was 1,848 from 390 people with 73% saying the Core Strategy was not sound.

This chart shows the policy specific comments and general comments.

What is Happening

See the NCC news item Final consultation on Local Plan gets underway

Local Plan Consultations

In April 2018 the initial Local Plan consultation was an “Online Spatial Survey”.

The second consultation was in July 2018 and concerned the "Draft Local Plan".

The results of that consultation have fed into this "Publication Draft Local Plan".

Some changes have been made to cover the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) guidance (July 2018).

Prior to the consultation the Publication Draft Local Plan was approved by Cabinet (December 19th 2018) and full Council (January 9th 2019).

The draft documents presented to Council are available in the Documents section.

The Publication Draft Local Plan consultation will run from January 30th 2019 to March 13th 2019.

Comments must be limited to ‘Tests of Soundness’ - see Reading and Commenting on the Publication Draft Local Plan below.

Drop-in Sessions

There are be 23 drop-in events - see full list here.

Our local drop-in events are:

Alnwick, St James Church Centre, Saturday February 9th 10am-3pm

Morpeth, Morpeth Town Hall, Monday February 25th 2pm-7pm

Rothbury , Jubilee Hall, Thursday February 28th 2pm-7pm

Timetable

The withdrawn Core Strategy plan period started from April 2011 and covered the 20-year period 2011-2031.

The original adoption date for the Core Strategy was winter 2013.

The new Local Plan period starts from April 2016 and covers the 20-year period 2016-2036.

The adoption date is as it was in the Draft Local Plan.

Longhorsley Leaflet

The Longhorsley Parish Council leaflet summarising this consultation is available to view here.

Since there is nothing open for consultation that affects Longhorsley this leaflet will not be distributed as a supplement to the newsletter.

Summary of Publication Draft Local Plan

We have only identified one significant change to the Local Plan.

In line with revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) guidance (July 2018) the proportion of affordable homes required on a new housing development now depends on the value of houses in the area.

In Longhorsley developments of 10-or-more units will be expected to provide 25% affordable housing of which 60% are expected to be homes to rent and 40% affordable home ownership.

The Draft Local Plan had set a minimum of 20% of homes to be provided as affordable housing products split 50/50 rent/buy.

Growth Scenarios

The Publication Draft Local Plan is based on the same ‘Ambitious jobs-led’ scenario as the Draft Local Plan, with a strategy to create 15,000 new jobs and build at least 17,700 new houses.

The overall housing numbers for the county (17,700), central area (4,450) and rural central (890) remain unchanged.

For more details see the Growth Scenarios section on the Draft Local Plan webpage.

Distribution of Housing

'Table 7.1 Indicative Distribution of Housing Requirements 2016-2036' shows how the 17,700 target is distributed across the county.

The distribution across delivery areas remains as it was in the Draft Local Plan but there are changes to the distribution of housing in some sub- areas.

'Policy HOU 3 Housing requirements for neighbourhood plan areas' shows the minimum housing requirement from each Neighbourhood Plan area.

It shows a total of 9,533 houses in Neighbourhood Plan areas including 40 houses for Longhorsley.

The Draft Local Plan had shown an indicative housing requirement of 96 houses for Longhorsley.

There were 26 houses completed in 2016-2017 (25 in Wilding Place) and there are a further 67 shown in Appendix A of the Publication Draft Local Plan (12 in Normandy Terrace and 55 in South Road).

Green Belt and Longhorsley Inset Boundary

The Publication Draft Local Plan proposes the same northern boundary of the Green Belt and the same Longhorsley inset boundary as the Draft Local Plan.

Screen shots of the Publication Draft Local Plan Policies Map for Green Belt and Inset Boundary

“Minded to Approve” Developments in the Green Belt

Table 7.2 shows 2,043 ‘minded to approve’ applications in Central Area with the comment that this comprises two 'minded to approve' applications in the Green Belt on the edges of Hexham and Ponteland.

The ‘minded to approve' application to build 2,000 houses at Dissington Garden Village near Ponteland has since been withdrawn.

See the Morpeth Herald article Controversial garden village application withdrawn - but legal action continues

Forecast Housing Delivery

‘Appendix B: Housing Trajectory’ compares the required number of dwellings to the forecast future delivery of about 21,500 houses over the plan period based upon the latest evidence.

The equivalent forecast in the Draft Local Plan was about 23,600 houses.

Onshore Wind Turbine Development

Policies in the Publication Draft Local Plan are essentially the same as in the Draft Local Plan.

Reading and Commenting on the Publication Draft Local Plan

It is a formal, statutory stage in the production of the Local Plan, as set out in Regulations.

The key question is:

Do you consider that this part of the Local Plan is:

a. Legally compliant

b. Sound

c. Complies with Duty to Cooperate

The consultation document and the Policies Map showing the proposed land allocations and area-based designations will be available to view on the NCC’s Consultation Portal page: northumberland.limehouse.co.uk/portal

The Publication Draft Local Plan version of the Policies Map is available at here

PDF versions of the Polices Map and the Insets Map are available in the Documents section.

You can will be able to view the plan in local libraries and information centres.

You can comment direct to NCC between Wednesday January 30th and Wednesday March 13th 2019.

Online

This is the recommended route.

You can view without registering but you need to register to comment.

If you are already registered you should not need to register again.

If you need to register, click on the Local Plan Consultation Registration link on NCC’s Northumberland Local Plan webpage.

By email or Paper

If you are commenting by email or post you need complete a response form which is available from libraries and County Hall or can be downloaded from NCC’s website at www.northumberland.gov.uk/localplan.

email the response form to:

PlanningStrategy@northumberland.gov.uk

or post the response form to:

Planning Policy, NCC, County Hall, Morpeth NE61 2EF.