Core Strategy Submitted to Secretary of State
The Core Strategy has been submitted to the Secretary of State
for independent examination. Rochford’s Core Strategy is the main,
overarching document of the Rochford District Local Development
Framework - a collection of documents that will determine how the
District develops in the future. It sets out the overall strategy
for the District until 2025.
In addition to the Core Strategy document, the Council has
submitted a number of supporting documents to the Secretary of
State. These include the representations submitted during
pre-submission consultation, as well as the results of previous
community involvement and other evidence.
The examination process includes a number of hearing sessions to
discuss various elements of the Core Strategy.
The majority of these hearings have taken place. However, the
date for the suspended section of the Core Strategy relating to
affordable housing has now been fixed for Tuesday, 7 September, at
10.00a.m. at the Civic Suite, Hockley Road Rayleigh.
Since the start of the Core Strategy examination there have been
a number of changes to government policy following the election of
the coalition government. In particular:
- Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) have been revoked. RSS set
regional policy which local authorities were required to adhere to
in developing their own strategies. For example, the East of
England Plan (the relevant RSS for Rochford District) stated how
many new homes must be built in the District. Please see East of
England Plan revoked under Related Links at the bottom of this page
for further details.
- PPS3 (the government planning policy statement on housing) has
been reissued with the following amendments:
The government has announced that, in the longer term, the
“Localism Bill” will be introduced which will provide the legal
basis for the abolition of Regional Strategies, and new ways for
local authorities to address strategic planning and infrastructure
will be introduced. The government has stated, however, that it is
important for local planning authorities to carry on delivering
Local Development Frameworks (of which Core Strategies are a
critical part) and has provided local authorities with guidance on
how they should continue to do so during the transitional period. A
link to this guidance on the Planning Inspectorate’s website is
provided at the bottom of this page under Related Links, entitled
Guidance for Local Authorities following the revocation of Regional
Strategies.
Following the recent changes in government policy, the Inspector
carrying out the examination into Rochford District’s Core Strategy
wrote to participants in the examination process, including the
Council, asking for their views on how these changes may impact on
the Core Strategy.
The Council has issued its response. To view this, and those of
other participants, please see Responses to Government Statement
under Related Links at the bottom of this page.
Following our response to the Inspector’s letter, we will now
produce additional Topic Papers on issues resulting from changes to
government policy; a schedule of proposed changes to the Core
Strategy; and a Sustainability Appraisal of these changes (an
assessment of the social, economic and environmental impacts of the
amendments to the strategy). These documents will then be subject
to a period of consultation, before being submitted to the
Inspector for consideration as part of the Core Strategy
examination.
A timetable for the publication of these additional documents
and consultation will be published in due course, along with the
dates of any additional hearing sessions if and when these are
required by the Inspector.
Any queries on the Core Strategy examination should directed to
the Programme Officer, Lissa Higby, on programme.officer@rochford.gov.uk
Core Strategy and the Allocations Development Plan
Document
The Hearings that commenced on May 11th relate to the Rochford
Core Strategy and not to the Allocations Development Plan
Document.
The Rochford Core Strategy is the over-arching policy document
intended to guide future development in the District. The
Allocations Development Plan Document is a separate planning
document which looks at specific sites and is at a much earlier
stage than the Core Strategy. Community involvement on allocation
options has recently taken place and a pre-submission version of
the Allocations Development Plan Document will be prepared.
A further six week period of public consultation will then take
place before a final version of the document is agreed.
The results of this consultation and other evidence, including a
sustainability appraisal will be submitted to the government in
mid-2011.
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