West Berkshire Local Plan - An Update

West Berkshire Council sent this bulletin at 17-06-2022 03:45 PM BST

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Welcome to the first newsletter keeping you up-to-date with the West Berkshire Local Plan.

You're receiving this newsletter either because you've signed up to receive them via www.westberks.gov.uk/signup or you have previously indicated you would like us to keep you informed about the Local Plan. We hope you will find these updates useful, but you can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time.

The West Berkshire Local Plan

The West Berkshire Local Plan is a long-term strategic document used by West Berkshire Council to set out its vision and a framework for the future development of the area.

West Berkshire is a great place to live, work and visit – and we want to keep it that way for future generations. The Local Plan will help us to achieve this.

The Local Plan helps us to:

Deliver enough homes to satisfy our housing targets, meeting local needs and ensuring there is a housing mix with something for everyone
Provide sustainable developments which have good quality design, construction and efficiency
Support a strong and sustainable economy by providing land for employment, and with it a range of local job opportunities
Protect our environment by mitigating the effects of climate change, minimising demand for energy and other resources and promoting sustainable and low-emission travel options
Enhance the vitality and viability of town and village centres as places for shopping, leisure and community activities
Conserving and enhancing the distinctive character and identity in our towns, villages and countryside as well as historic and natural environments

New Local Plan Webpages

To tell you more about the local plan, where we are with the review and how you can be involved we've given our Local Plan webpages a refresh.

The new webpages are easier to navigate and will get you to the information you need quickly and easily. We're also working on some new features including an FAQ section and jargon-buster to explain what some of the different stages and pieces of legislation means.

Local Plan webpages

Update to West Berkshire’s Local Development Scheme timetable

West Berkshire Council’s Local Development Scheme (LDS), which sets out how and when West Berkshire Council (the “Council”) will produce, and consult on, the documents required to produce a new Local Plan, is to be updated. This technical update to the timetable will not impact the submission of the new Draft Local Plan to the Planning Inspectorate in March 2023.

Following an operational review, West Berkshire’s Service Director for Development & Regulation has updated timetable meaning the new Draft Local Plan will go to full Council in December rather than July for decision, with submission to the Planning Inspectorate expected to follow in March 2023.

The change to the timetable allows a number of technical matters to be resolved. Importantly, there is a need to identify more commercial and industrial space in West Berkshire. This change to the timetable allows the Council time to consult with other local authorities under its ‘Duty to Cooperate’. This is a legal requirement to consult with our neighbouring councils. The implications of the recent nutrient neutrality designation in the Lambourn Catchment Area will also be considered.

Councillor Richard Somner (Portfolio Holder for Planning, Transport & Countryside) responded to the updated timetable say that:

“The decision taken by the Service Director for Development & Regulation is based on an operational review and is necessary to ensure that the Council submits the most robust Local Plan to the Planning Inspectorate in March 2023.

I am pleased that this decision doesn’t have a wider impact on the timetable and that we are on course for Councillors to review the Local Plan in December and for it to go the Planning Inspectorate on time in March 2023”.

The updated LDS is now available to read online.

Nutrient Neutrality

In March, new legislation was introduced requiring all Council’s to ensure that new developments on protected sites achieve Nutrient Neutrality. The Council is currently producing a Nutrient Neutrality Strategy which sets out how we will tackle Nutrient Neutrality including potential mitigation measures and an action plan on how to implement the mitigation. This strategy will also form an integral part in the new Local Plan.

West Berkshire and the River Lambourn Special Area of Conservation has been identified as having a problem with phosphate pollution; the legislation requires us to be tackle and reduce this pollution.

Nutrient Neutrality is a complex area and the Council will be updating the website shortly.

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