London Southend Airport and Environs Joint Area Action Plan

This consultation is now closed.

Southend Borough Council and Rochford District Council are preparing a Joint Area Action Plan (JAAP) to respond to the challenges and opportunities offered by London Southend Airport and its surrounding area.

Area Action Plans are a new style of planning document targeted at areas of significant change or conservation. The JAAP, once adopted, will form part of the Local Development Framework (LDF) for Rochford District. Further information on the LDF can be found by selecting ‘Local Development Framework’ under Related Links.

The JAAP will provide the basis for coordinating the actions of a range of partners with an interest in London Southend Airport and its surrounding area, and establish planning policies until 2021. It will:

• Manage growth and change in the area by setting out development and design principles
• Ensure the protection of areas and places sensitive to change
• Direct investment and form the basis for regeneration in the area
• Be deliverable

Southend Borough Council and Rochford District Council have produced three versions of the JAAP as follows:

• An 'Issues and Options' report was produced in 2008 which sets out the initial issues and opportunities identified for the study area and potential options for the development of the area in the period up to 2021.
• Following extensive consultation, a 'Preferred Options' version of the plan was published in early 2009, which sets out the preferred vision for the future of the airport and its surrounding area, and provides details of the preferred policy framework that will be required to deliver this vision.
• The ‘Submission’ version of the Plan is now out to consultation until 26 April 2013.  This is the version of the Plan which the Council intends to submit to the Secretary of State responsible for planning.  The results of the consultation, together with the Plan and other background documents, will be submitted to the Secretary of State who will arrange for the Planning Inspectorate to ‘soundness’ and legal compliance of the Plan.  For further information, including how to have your say on the Submission version of the Plan, please see under Related Links below

Further information on the two versions of the JAAP can be found by selecting the links at the bottom of the page. Full details of all the responses to the issues and options and preferred options consultations can be viewed through our online consultation system - follow the ‘View representations received during the Issues and Options and Preferred Options stages of the JAAP’ link at the bottom of this page.

The feedback received from this consultation has been analysed and has played an important role in the preparation of the Submission version of the JAAP.

Following the period of consultation of the Submission version of the JAAP, a report on the consultation results will be produced and, together with other background documents and the plan itself, submitted for examination.

The Planning Inspectorate will conduct an examination into the ‘soundness’ and legal compliance of the JAAP.  The examination will include consideration of the issues raised in the consultation.

Subject to the outcome of the examination, the Councils may then adopt the Plan and it will form part of the Development Plan for the area – meaning that planning decisions must be made in accordance with the Plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

The JAAP is scheduled to be adopted in December 2013, but this is dependent on the examination.

If you require further advice on the JAAP, please contact your respective Council’s Planning Policy team as follows:

• Rochford on 01702 318191 or planning.policy@rochford.gov.uk
• Southend on 01702 215004 or ldf@southend.gov.uk