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| Introduction |
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| 1.1 |
Bromsgrove District Council resolved in
July 1990 to prepare a local plan covering its entire administrative
area. The Bromsgrove District Local Plan provides detailed policies
and proposals to assist in guiding development and land use change
throughout the District. Together with the relevant policies of the
adopted Worcestershire County Structure Plan 2001 the District Local
Plan will establish planning policy for the area. Although now time
expired this plan establishes for the first time detailed Green Belt
boundaries and as the Local Plan Inspector (2002) states in para 1.2.3;
"It is vitally important to see the process through to the end". |
| 1.2 |
The Local Plan has been prepared under
the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as amended by the Planning
and Compensation Act 1991. It is the first statutory local plan to
cover all parts of Bromsgrove District including Bromsgrove town.
Relevant policies taken from the existing local plans for Wythall,
Belbroughton and Hagley/Clent have been incorporated as appropriate
into this Plan and these latter documents have been superseded by
the adoption of this Plan. |
| 1.3 |
The Local Plan seeks to enhance the strategic
planning framework established in the County Structure Plan by setting
out in detail the policies against which the District Council will
consider and examine proposals for development. |
| 1.4 |
The Local Plan forms the basis for decision
making on planning issues. In directing growth and investment the
Plan will assist in achieving a balance between necessary development
and the protection of the environment, in particular, areas of high
landscape value and the Green Belt. |
| 1.5 |
In most instances the implementation of
policy and proposals will be carried out through the development control
process with the private sector likely to generate a majority of schemes.
Providing proposals are compatible with the general provisions of
this Plan a planning consent will normally be forthcoming. |
| 1.6 |
In specific instances where a large or
difficult site is involved the District Council may wish for detailed
guidelines in the form of a development brief to be prepared in advance
of the submission of a planning application. The District Council
will also review and publish guidelines on a range of topics to inform
developers and landowners of the Council's requirements. |
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The District |
| 2.1 |
Bromsgrove District is one of three local
authorities in the north of Worcestershire. The District abuts the
West Midlands conurbation and this location has meant continued pressure
from the development industry for new sites to satisfy housing, employment
and associated land demands. |
| 2.2 |
In Bromsgrove development pressures have
become increasingly apparent in recent years with major improvements,
proposed or implemented, to the highway network. These have included
the extension and completion of the M42 and M40 motorways, the widening
of the M5 and the possibility of a further road link to the west of
the conurbation serving the Black Country and forming one of the last
links around the conurbation. |
| 2.3 |
The improvement in access, the position
of the District adjacent to one of the country's major manufacturing
centres and the inherent benefits of a central location in the UK
motorway network has meant that the District has become more attractive
to businesses considering expansion, relocation or establishing for
the first time. |
| 2.4 |
Although close to the centre of Birmingham
the District remains predominantly rural protected in large measure
by extensive Green Belt designation. Approximately 90% of the District
lies in the Green Belt. This forms part of the wider West Midlands
Green Belt which has existed for some 50 years. An attractive environment
makes it a popular location in which to live and there is a high level
of commuting to a variety of work locations. |
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The Planning and Environmental
Context |
| 3.1 |
The Draft Local Plan was prepared prior
to guidance on environmental appraisal becoming available through
PPG12. Consequently the District Council formulated draft Plan policies
using its own environmental criteria. Since the publication of the
previous PPG12 in February 1992 the District Council has undertaken
an environmental appraisal that has been systematically applied to
the environmental implications of all policies in the Local Plan.
This has been done using the advice given in the Department of the
Environment's "Guide to Policy Appraisal" published in 1991. |
| 3.2 |
Environmental considerations include the
traditional subjects such as Green Belts, landscape quality, nature
conservation, the built heritage and pollution control together with
newer environmental concerns such as global warming, recycling and
energy efficiency. PPG12 advises that conservation and development
should not be seen as necessarily in conflict and that it is the role
of land use policies to weigh and reconcile priorities in the public
interest. |
| 3.3 |
The provision of housing and employment
land and a safe and efficient transport system are just as important
to enhancing the quality of life as preserving the Green Belt, conserving
our cultural heritage and making provisions for recreation and tourism. |
| 3.4 |
The District Council therefore has a key
role to play in environmental protection and provision of sustainable
development in co-ordination with those managing public utilities,
agencies promoting development and voluntary organisations. The District
Council will therefore apply the policies of the Local Plan, through
the planning system, having specific regard to the protection of the
physical environment. It will have the objective of working towards
sustainable development, and will seek significant environmental improvements
for this and future generations. This will be achieved chiefly through
the implementation of policies for land-use allocation, energy efficiency,
pollution control, recycling, urban renewal, rivers and drainage. |
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Land Demand versus Environment |
| 4.1 |
This Deposit Plan has been prepared in
general conformity with the Hereford and Worcester County Structure
Plan 1986 - 2001, which is reflected on the policy base throughout
this Plan. However as a result of the Proposed Modifications (July
2000) and Further Modifications (April 2003), some of the policy base
has been modified to reflect the Worcestershire County Structure Plan
(WCSP) 1996-2011. Reference in this Plan to the County Structure Plan
relates solely to the Hereford and Worcester County Structure Plan
(HWCSP) June 1993. Policies of this Plan and the current Worcestershire
Structure Plan (1996-2011) form the Development Plan for the area. |
| 4.2 |
The Structure Plan identifies the general
scale of new housing and employment land required for the Local Plan
period and this level of growth is not a matter to be reappraised
in terms of environmental consequences. Nevertheless such growth has
had to be reconciled with the conservation, protection and improvement
of the physical environment. The balance between these objectives
is reflected by the range of policies introduced in this Plan. |
| 4.3 |
Since the vast majority of the District
is designated Green Belt, it has been necessary to identify some areas
for release from the Green Belt in order to accommodate the main land
use requirements of the County Structure Plan. Wherever possible new
development has been directed to areas not in the Green Belt or of
the highest agricultural land quality but inevitably some provision
has been made for new development in the Green Belt where in strategic
and environmental terms, harm is not considered significant. |
| 4.4 |
Details of the environmental assessment
methodology are contained in Appendix 1. |
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Planning Context |
| 5.1 |
The Hereford and Worcester County Structure
Plan (1990) makes provision for 50,750 dwellings in the County between
1986 and 2001 of which about 6,200 new dwellings are to be found in
Bromsgrove District. Employment land provision equivalent to at least
335 hectares [828 acres] is to be supplied within the County including
a minimum of 75 hectares [185.3 acres] in Bromsgrove of which a maximum
of 30 hectares [74 acres] is to be found for the general employment
land requirements of Redditch Borough. In addition there is a further
requirement within the County Structure Plan to consider proposals
to satisfy the high technology site needs of the Birmingham/Solihull
sector of the West Midlands Metropolitan Authorities. This element
was first raised in Regional Planning Guidance for the West Midlands
issued by the Secretary of State for the Environment in September
1988, and the need continued in the Regional Planning Guidance for
the West Midlands Region (RPG11) issued in September 1995 and reissued
in April 1998. |
| 5.2 |
The District is expected to witness pressure
for growth stimulated by the completion of the M42 and M40 motorways.
It is important that the District Council achieves a satisfactory
balance between legitimate demands for new homes and jobs with the
corresponding requirement to conserve the many natural attributes
of the area most notably the fine landscape and pleasant villages
which are prime features of the District. |
| 5.3 |
The County Structure Plan envisages that
the majority of new housing development will be located in or adjacent
to Bromsgrove town. Since 1986, the start of the Plan period, a substantial
number of permissions have been obtained for new residential development.
The majority of these permissions are located at Bromsgrove town with
the remainder distributed elsewhere in the District. Considerable
numbers of barns have been converted to residential use and there
has been an insidious change to the character of some areas through
incremental development lacking any clear framework to guide the development
process. |
| 5.4 |
This Local Plan provides an opportunity
to establish such a framework; to inform businesses, developers and
the general public of the aims and objectives of the District Council
and to provide a realistic strategy against which development decisions
can be made to safeguard the quality and character of the local environment. |
| 5.5 |
The District Council believes that land
use issues and proposals should be contemplated against an overall
strategy for the District. The key components of this strategy are
to be: |
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- severe restraint to development in open areas of the countryside
where development proposals do not comply with Green Belt policy
or would be detrimental to areas of high landscape quality;
- restraint to development in villages in the Green Belt where
development proposals do not adhere to Green Belt policy or otherwise
compromise conservation or landscape policies;
- the identification of key locations within the District meeting
the majority of housing and employment needs;
- the identification of sites in other locations excluded from
the Green Belt for limited development purposes but recognising
the limits to future growth;
- the provision of housing, employment, shopping, community and
recreational facilities having regard to social factors and so
ensuring maximum benefit and access to the more disadvantaged
groups in the District's communities;
- the provision of new, additional or improved facilities associated
with new developments to the benefit of the community at large
through negotiated agreements with developers;
- the protection and enhancement of conservation areas, listed
buildings and other historic and architecturally valuable buildings;
- the designation of areas of special landscape quality and the
protection and enhancement of the environment.
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| 5.6 |
Schemes will be judged against this overall
strategy and every proposal will be assessed against all relevant
Policies of the Local Plan, whether or not there are specific cross-references
between these Policies. |
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Local Plan: Format and
Process |
| 6.1 |
The Bromsgrove District Local Plan is
a statutory local plan prepared within the legislative framework of
the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, Planning and Compensation
Act 1991 and supporting literature. |
| 6.2 |
The Local Plan consists of a Written Statement
and Proposal Maps. Inset Maps show proposals for some areas in greater
detail. The residential notation on the Proposal Map is only broadly
indicative of the land use. It does not of itself imply that any particular
site is necessarily allocated for further housing development. |
| 6.3 |
A draft of the Local Plan was published
in November 1991. The Deposit Draft Local Plan was published in November
1993 and reflects the views of the District Council in the light of
representations made to the draft document. The County Council certified
on 2nd December 1993 the Plan as generally being in conformity with
the County Structure Plan and the Plan was then placed "on deposit"
for a further period of public consultation when formal objections
or representations could be made. This deposit period ran from 17th
January to 28th February 1994. The District Council published a set
of pre-Inquiry changes to resolve objections submitted during the
deposit period to the Local Plan, and these were made available for
public consultation from 20th December 1994 to 20th January 1995.
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| 6.4 |
To resolve the remaining outstanding and
valid objections from both consultation periods, a public inquiry
was held between 11th April 1995 and 23rd January 1996. An independent
Inspector appointed by the Department of the Environment examined
each objection to the Local Plan and then prepared a report containing
recommendations to the local authority. The Inspector's Report was
received by the District Council on 17th January 1997. The District
Council considered the Inspector's views and indicated what action
it intended to take on each of the Inspector's recommendations. |
| 6.5 |
The District Council considered the first
Inspector's recommendations at three meetings. The first held on 25th
June 1997, dealt with the majority of changes to the policy base.
The second and third on 12th January 2000 and 5th July 2000, considered
outstanding policy issues and the Council's response to the Inspector's
recommendations to identify land to remove from the Green Belt to
satisfy possible future development needs. The Inspector noted that
the Council needed to identify land for longer-term development and
that it was for the Council to decide on the most appropriate sites
to identify. |
| 6.6 |
The BDLPPM was published in June 2000,
with two formal deposit periods (18th August to 29th September 2000
and 7th March to 12th April 2001). A second deposit period for the
purposes of public consultation was held following concerns expressed
by the Inquiry Inspector over a potential problem with the statutory
6 weeks period of consultation for the 1st deposit period. |
| 6.7 |
The District Council published a set of
pre-modification Inquiry changes to resolve objections submitted during
the deposit period to the Local Plan and these were made available
for public consultation from 14th March 2001 to 11th April 2001. To
resolve the remaining outstanding and valid objections from the consultation
periods a public inquiry was held between 22nd May to 3rd August 2001.
An Independent Inspector appointed by the DTLR examined each of the
objections and counter objections into the Local Plan and prepared
his report containing recommendations to the local authority. The
Inspector's Report was received by the District Council on 7th March
2002, together with a corrigendum dated 21st May 2002. The District
Council considered the Inspector's Report at the Executive Cabinet
meetings on 20th November 2002 and 18th December 2002 and Full Council
on 26th November 2002 and 18th December 2002. |
| 6.8 |
Whilst the Council has accepted the majority
of the Inspector's recommendations, there are some matters where changes
were not fully in accordance with his recommendations or where new
policies have been introduced. These alterations formed further changes
to the plan so a period of public consultation was necessary. This
took place between 7th April and 19th May 2003. As the Council considered
that representations received did not raise any new significant issues
they moved to adopt the Plan. The ODPM did not intervene in the process
and the Plan was adopted on 13th January 2004. |
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Implementation |
| 7.1 |
In most instances the implementation of
policy and proposals will be carried out through the development control
process with the private sector undertaking the majority of schemes.
However, some policies do identify projects that could be undertaken
by the District Council or other statutory undertakers and agencies. |
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