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Within the context of local planning there has been significant changes and updates since our last newsletter and this is an opportunity to bring you up to date with our progress.
There are three public consultations which you may wish to be aware of that start today - Monday 8th February. Further details of these are provided in this newsletter and relate to the following planning documents:
- Draft Bradford District Local Plan
- Call for Sites
- South Pennine Moors Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)
Bradford District Local Plan - Shaping the future of the District
The Bradford District Local Plan is changing and simplifying. The Council is combining work on the Core Strategy review and emerging site allocations together with other local plan documents, including a review of the adopted Area Action plans (City Centre and Canal Road Corridor), plus the Waste Management Development Plan Document into a single plan format.
Nationally it is clear that Government, through its White Paper consultation in 2020 (Planning for our Future), is concerned with simplifying plan making.
The new integrated Local Plan sets out a clear spatial direction for the District and an opportunity to align with new national planning directions as they arise. The work has been challenging but has also been driven by the need to:
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Refocus our direction at the strategic level to embed growth and development within the context of the climate emergency.
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Identify clear local area strategies, which take into consideration not just new sites for housing and employment, but also what makes places special.
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Refresh our planning focus for Bradford City Centre linked to infrastructure investment opportunities and new master planning.
The structure of the draft Local Plan is wide ranging but divided into four broad areas:
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strategic policies on issues such as sustainable development, housing and employment land requirements and strategic policies to shape the District including climate change;
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thematic policies on topics such as housing, employment and the environment;
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site allocations for the Regional City areas and settlements within the district; and
- policies on delivery, infrastructure and viability.
Public consultation
The Draft Bradford District Local Plan (Regulation 18) is published for public consultation today (Monday 8th February), with consultation running to Wednesday 24th March 2021.
Due to the current restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Council’s consultation activity and events will be online only with all consultation material being available on the Council’s OpusConsult consultation website. This is in line with the Governments updated regulations relating to the availability of documents.
The provision of paper copies will not generally be available, although exceptions will be considered by the Council on a special order request basis. Special requests should be made to the Planning Policy Team directly using the contact details below.
The Council has issued a temporary suspension notice in relation to the Revised Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) (2018) to take account of these temporary changes to consultation arrangements. This is available to view on the SCI webpage.
Notifications
If you have received this e-newsletter to your inbox, you will receive further updates on the consultation including on-line events to discuss the planning policies and sites contained within the new plan.
If you have received this from a third party or viewed it on our website and would like to receive your own updates, please register your email address to receive Planning Policy e-bulletins on our Stay Connected system.
Call for Sites Consultation
Alongside consultation on the Local Plan, the Council is issuing a Call for Sites process – this relates to site submissions at this stage for:-
- Residential sites particularly within the Regional City of Bradford
- Sites for minerals extraction.
- Sites for waste disposal / recycling.
- Sites for Gypsy and Traveller Pitches.
- Sites for Renewable Energy (solar and wind primarily).
- Custom and Self Build Housing Sites.
- Specialist Housing and Accommodation Sites.
The Call for Sites submission form is available via the OpusConsult consultation website.
We are encouraging forms to be filled in and submitted online along with any plans or evidence which you may wish us to considered. Mapping software (OpusMaps) will be available to produce your own site boundary for submission.
Further details regarding the Call for Sites is available on the Planning Policy webpages.
Please note that we are only looking for new site suggestions, so if you have already submitted a site to us, the outcome of our assessment will be published as part of the Local Plan consultation. You will not need to re-submit the site to us.
South Pennine Moors Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)
Bradford Council has produced a new South Pennine Moors Supplementary Planning Document (SPD). The SPD relates to the South Pennine Moors, which are internationally protected, being classified as a Special Protection Area (SPA) and designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
The purpose of the guidance will be to provide the information necessary to enable planning officers and developers to understand necessary steps to ensure compliance with the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (as amended by The Conservation of Habitats and Species (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019) ('the Habitats Regulations').
This SPD also sets out a recommended developer contribution that would contribute to the avoidance or mitigation of adverse impacts on internationally protected species and habitats that arise from development within the Bradford District.
Public consultation on this document also starts today (Monday 8th February) and runs to Wednesday 24th March 2021. We would like to hear your opinions and views on the new SPD. The consultation document is also published on our new OpusConsult website where you can view and submit your comments.
 The Local Plan Team has launched a new consultation website in time for the Local Plan consultation.
OpusConsult will make the process of commenting on a document a lot simpler and more efficient. Comments can be made against each major part of the plan whilst reading it and are stored within your profile as a record.
The system is fully GDPR compliant and your personal data will only be used by the Council for the purposes of producing the Local Plan.
We recommend that you use OpusConsult to view and comment on the Local Plan.
Local Development Scheme
The Local Development Scheme (LDS) is in the process of being revised and formally agreed to reflect the new direction and timetable for plan production. A technical note setting out the key directions will be available on the Council's website shortly with the revised LDS on the Council's Executive work programme for later this year.
Neighbourhood Planning Update
Within the Bradford District there are 12 designated Neighbourhood Areas producing Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDP). Each Town, Parish or Village Council are working with their local community to produce a Neighbourhood Plan.
In recent months two Neighbourhood Plans have passed the Examination stage and are now awaiting a local Referendum to allow the local communities to decide if these plans should be approved; these are:
- Steeton-with-Eastburn & Silsden; and
- Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury.
All Neighbourhood Planning Referendums have been suspended until after May 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Council will make steps to ensure that these local referendums can take place as soon as it is possible to carry these out. Read more
Evidence Base Update
It is essential that the Local Plan is based upon up-to-date and robust evidence to underpin the approach and policies within the Plan.
The Council has produced and/or commissioned the following evidence documents which will be published as part of the Local Plan consultation and will be available for comment: -
- Bradford District Local Infrastructure Plan
- Bradford District Open Space Needs and Demand Audit
- Bradford District Open Space Assessment
- Bradford District Selective Green Belt Review
- Bradford District Site Assessment Methodology and Report
- Bradford District Strategic Land Assessment
- Bradford District Updated Demographic Evidence
- Duty to Cooperate Action Plan
- Employment Needs Assessment and Land Review (ENALR)
- Flood Risk Technical Note
- Future Employment Analysis (ENALR) Addendum
- Five Year Housing Land Supply Statement
- Gypsy and Traveller Needs Assessment
- Heritage Impact Assessments Note and Assessments
- Local Insights - Area and settlements guides
- Local Plan and CIL Financial Viability Assessment
- Minerals Background Paper
- Retail and Leisure Study (2019)
- Strategic Housing Market Assessment - Update
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