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| FOREWORD | |||
| This Unitary Development Plan is a single document which for the first time includes all the City's land-use policies for the whole of the City's area, up to the year 2006. It replaces a collection of Structure and Local Plans, together with old style Development Plans which up to the present have formed the official development plan framework for the City of Sunderland. | |||
| The adoption of the City's Unitary Development Plan takes place at a particularly interesting time when there is considerable public concern about, and discussion of, environmental issues. The City Council is moving ahead with its Local Agenda 21 initiative and the Government's recent White Paper on Integrated Transport has stimulated debate on the way we travel in the future. | |||
| At the same time the level of development activity in the City is higher than it has been for many years, with major new building projects in the City Centre and the implementation of the Metro extension into Sunderland expected to commence soon. | |||
| The Unitary Development Plan plays an important role by setting out the policies and proposals which will guide the development of the City into the new millennium. The Plan strikes a balance between providing for growth - new homes, jobs and other facilities which are needed - and protecting the City's unique environment. | |||
| The completion of this Plan, however, although an important stage in itself, leads us to consider what happens next. Already, revised Regional Planning Guidance is about to be published for consultation. This will provide the context for reviewing the Plan and extending our forward planning up to 2016 | |||
| The City Council must retain the flexibility to respond to changing circumstances and to the challenges and opportunities which will inevitably arise. The Unitary Development Plan provides a basis for judging such opportunities and gives a vision for a City which provides an enhanced quality of life for all its citizens, through the enrichment of the economic, social, educational, leisure, health and housing opportunities available to them. This is matched by a concern for the well being of the City itself; of its physical and environmental character, its systems of communication and its art and culture. | |||
| Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the work of my predecessor as Chairman of the City's Environment Committee, the late Councillor Malcolm Qualie, who, during his term in office did so much to help carry this project forward. | |||
| Councillor Eric Holt JP. Chairman, Environment Committee |
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