Contact: Nick Richardson, ext 5429

1. Summary

1.1 Work on the Local Plan Review has been progressing over the past year in preparation for the agreement of the First Deposit Plan in July 2002 and its publication for consultation in autumn 2002. This report brings Members up to date on progress, outlines the Borough Council's approach to the Plan, and sets out the future timetable.

2. Work to Date

2.1 The Adopted Local Plan for the period 1991-2001 is in the process of being reviewed to bring the Plan into line with the more recent guidance set out in the Hampshire County Structure Plan (Review) and recent Government guidance, including PPG3 Housing.

2.2 The Borough Council is committed to an open and transparent local plan process and has undertaken a number of consultation exercises to date:

(i) an Issues Report was published in January 2001, seeking views on key issues the Plan should address;

(ii) in July 2001 an `Accommodating Development' consultation paper was published, alongside a register of all sites being promoted by landowners or developers for possible future development; and

(iii) in December 2001 a supplementary register of an additional 60 promoted sites was published.

2.3 The Borough Council is keen to adopt innovative approaches to its consultation and has been highly successful in engaging with the local community. The summer 2001 consultation comprised a `traditional' local plan travelling exhibition trailer and then a formal exhibition in The Anvil, Basingstoke, to which developers and landowners were invited to attend and display information about their own sites. Over 1,300 people attended the travelling exhibition and a further 1,000 the exhibition at the Anvil. In total over 2,000 people responded to the consultation, making many thousands of individual comments on potential development sites, and on the overall development strategy the Borough Council should adopt. All of the Borough Council's published local plan information is available on the internet at www.basingstoke.gov.uk.

2.4 Alongside the consultation, work is being progressed on the detailed content of the Plan. A number of reports have been, and are being, taken through the Borough Council Committees and Cabinet on various policy areas for the Plan.

3. The Borough Council's Approach to the Plan

3.1 Further to the above work, the Borough Council has recently published a Local Plan Strategy Paper containing a development strategy and recommended approach to the format and content of the Plan. The Paper was considered by Borough Members during February 2002 and it has been made publicly available for comment.

3.2 In summary, the main recommendations of the paper are that:

(i) the Plan is prepared on the basis of a long term approach to the future development of the borough (ie looking ahead to 2016);

(ii) the Plan format is simplified and makes maximum use of Supplementary Planning Guidance; and

(iii) the development strategy is based on:

(a) maximising the use of brownfield development opportunities;

(b) focusing development on major settlements, in particular Basingstoke, including the possible first phase of a long term sustainable new development for the period beyond 2008; and

(c) identifying small to medium scale developments outside Basingstoke town, maximising brownfield opportunities before any small greenfield sites.

3.3 It is recommended that the Borough Council takes a long term approach to the Local Plan, including the issues relating to meeting future development needs. By looking longer term it is possible to plan comprehensively to secure the necessary infrastructure and services required to build effective new communities. Although this approach would mean looking beyond the current end date of the Structure Plan, initial discussions with both the County Planning Officer and the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) have shown support for the principle of this approach.

3.4 The content and format of the replacement Plan are intended to be dramatically different from the Adopted Local Plan which contains almost 200 policies, with only a relatively small number routinely being used. A shorter plan focusing on strategic policies, in line with the content of the Government Green Paper, is the aim. The detail normally associated with local plan policies will be contained within Supplementary Planning Guidance instead.

3.5 Due in part to the over-supply of housing in the Adopted Local Plan, but also to the conclusions of an Urban Capacity Study, the Borough Council is in a relatively `healthy' housing land supply position. The Borough Council considers, and the County Planning Officer and GOSE have agreed, that the existing allocated sites at Park Prewett and North of Popley Way are of sufficient scale to be considered as Major Development Areas. On the basis of current figures the Borough Council estimates that all of the baseline housing requirement in the Structure Plan (12,060 dwellings) could be met without requiring additional greenfield sites above those in the Adopted Plan to be released. It is anticipated that between 1,000 and 1,500 additional greenfield dwellings would be required to meet the Reserve housing requirement set out in Structure Plan Policy H4.

3.6 The longer term approach outlined above will require additional housing to be identified for the period 2011-2016. It is estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 additional greenfield dwellings would be required (in addition to brownfield sites) during that period. In the circumstances of these figures it is recommended in the Strategy Paper that a long term sustainable development proposal at Basingstoke would be the most appropriate means of meeting this housing requirement. If confirmed, this would be expected to start contributing housing towards the end of the current decade as the first phase of a longer term development.

3.7 Detailed work is now progressing to assess the suitability of potential development sites and to assess further and review the recommendations set out in the Strategy Paper.

4. Consideration of Transport Issues

4.1 Work is progressing on a review of the transport policies from the Adopted Plan to bring them into line with more recent Structure Plan policies, guidance in PPG13, the Basingstoke Environmental Strategy for Transport (BEST) and the Local Transport Plan (LTP). In line with the Borough Council's recommended approach it is intended that the Plan would only contain a small number of key transport and accessibility policies. These would then cross-refer to and rely on the detail contained within the LTP and proposals being worked up under BEST. LTP or BEST proposals with a land-use requirement, such as where land is required outside of existing highway for bus lanes, etc, would obviously still need to be reflected in the Plan.

4.2 It is intended that a more detailed report on the suggested transport policies will be brought to this Panel in due course.

5. Future Timetable

5.1 The Local Plan timetable requires the Borough Council to consider and agree the content of the First Deposit Plan in the period May to July 2002, with the Borough Council meeting on 18 July to formally agree the content of the Plan for publication. A timetable is appended to this report.

5.2 Consultation on the First Deposit Plan would take place in autumn 2002, with the Borough Council agreeing its response to comments and the revised deposit plan during 2003. The timetable beyond this stage envisages the Adoption of the Plan at the end of 2004/early 2005, although it must be recognised that the changes outlined in the recent Planning Green Paper, including the proposed Local Development Frameworks, are likely to have been brought into effect before those dates. The implications of these changes for the Local Plan and its timetable are not clear at this stage.

Recommendation

That the Panel notes the current position regarding the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Local Plan Review and the timetable for future work.

6975/NR

APPENDIX

Timetable of Local Plan Review

Winter 2001 - Policy drafting - Draft policy approaches considered by Borough Council.

September 2002 - First Deposit Plan - Consultation on policies and proposals.

Mid 2003 - Revised Deposit Plan - Revised proposals to take account of comments.

Mid 2004 - Public Inquiry - Unresolved objections considered by an independent Inspector.

2004/2005 - Modifications - Borough Council modifies the Plan in the light of the Inspector's report.

End 2005 - Adoption - the end of the process - work to commence on the next plan.