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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  • Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) have been revoked.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 definition of previously developed land (in Annex B) now excludes private residential gardens; 

    • The national indicative minimum density of 30 dwellings per hectare is deleted from paragraph 47

 

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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Rochford District Council, Council Offices, South Street, Rochford, Essex SS4 1BW - Tel: 01702 546366 - Out of Hours: 01268 527317 - information@rochford.gov.uk

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