Newcastle Borough Council - ‘Saved’ Policies

‘Saved’ Policies

Newcastle-under-Lyme Local Plan 2011 ‘saved’ policies

Background

In August 2006 the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) issued a 'Protocol for handling proposals to save adopted... policies...' to advise all Local Planning Authorities in England about how they would assess any requests to save policies in their 'saved' Local Plans beyond 28 September 2007 (the date 3 years from commencement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004). DCLG wished to ensure that only relevant and up to date policies remained after 28 September 2007 and only remain until they are replaced by policies that are adopted as part of the new Local Development Framework.

The Protocol

To extend the relevant policies beyond 27 September 2007, the Council sought the Secretary of State's agreement to issue a direction to save them. The criteria for saving policies are set out below:

Where appropriate, there is a clear central strategy;
Policies have regard to the community strategy for the area;
Policies are in general conformity with the regional spatial strategy or spatial development strategy;
Policies are in conformity with the core strategy development plan document (where the core strategy has been adopted);
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; and
Policies are necessary and do not merely repeat national or regional policy.

The Council undertook a comprehensive review exercise. The document below sets out the rationale behind recommendations for each local plan policy.

Those policies that it was proposed to save are listed first. A direction from the Secretary of State was sought to achieve this. Reasons for extending these policies were given, based on the criteria above.

The remaining policies that it was proposed not to save are listed together with a brief explanation.

List of policies including those not to be saved. (PDF 88Kb)

On the 7th September 2007 we received 'direction letters from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) c/o the Government Office for the West Midlands (GOWM) to confirm which policies in the adopted Local Plan had been 'saved' and remain our adopted planning policies from 28 September 2007.

The direction letter dated 7 September 2007 from GOWM is as follows:

Newcastle-under-Lyme Local Plan Direction Letter (PDF 27Kb)

As a consequence, the adopted and 'saved' Newcastle-under-Lyme Local Plan (adopted 2003), changed with effect from 28 September 2007. Essentially this means that the number of policies making up the Development Plan have been reduced and more reliance is now placed on National Planning Policy Statements and the Regional Spatial Strategy to help determine planning applications until such time as replacement Development Plan Documents are adopted.

What policies were saved?

A schedule has been prepared containing all those policies saved from the Local Plan:

Schedule of saved Local Plan policies (PDF 164Kb)

Local Plan Appendix 3: Transport Assessments and Parking Standards (PDF 28 Kb)

Saved Supplementary Planning Guidance

Prior to the reforms of the 2004 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act, local authorities could produce Supplementary Planning Guidance to support or expand on policies within the Development Plan. The following Supplementary Planning Guidance links to saved policies in the Local Plan, and as such are material considerations when determining planning applications.

Space about Dwellings (PDF 904Kb)

Lymedale West Design Brief (PDF 4111Kb)

Security Shutters for Shops and Businesses in Conservation Areas (PDF 21Kb)

Since the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act, Supplementary Planning Documents take a similar form to Supplementary Planning Guidance. However, these link to the Local Development Framework rather than the Local Plan.

Other Material Considerations

The borough council has also adopted a number of documents that do not have Supplementary Planning Guidance status, but have been through public consultation and remain material considerations. These are:

Hot Food Takeaways SPG (PDF 46Kb)

Madeley Village Design Statement (adopted October 1998)

Whitmore Village Design Statement (adopted September 2002)

NB. The Hot Food Takeaways SPG no longer has the status of Supplementary Planning Guidance as it is not linked to a saved Local Plan Policy.

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Structure Plan ‘saved policies’

The Structure Plan policies ‘saved’ beyond September 2007 can be accessed via the following link – Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Structure Plan