Date: 25 June 2002 Item 4 Report by: The Hampshire County Planning Officer, Portsmouth City Planning Officer and Southampton Director of Development and Sustainability Written by: Antony Payne, tel: 01962 846766 Purpose and Summary: The purpose of this report is to inform the Panel of the conclusions arising from the first Annual Monitoring Report of the Hampshire County Structure Plan 1996-2011 (Review). The report concludes that the adopted Structure Plan is generally performing well, although its full effectiveness may only be felt when all the Hampshire local plans have been reviewed to take account of its policies. The monitoring process has also highlighted some shortcomings in the collection of data for monitoring purposes. To improve the quality of future monitoring of the Structure Plan additional systems may need to be put in place. RECOMMENDATION: That it be a RECOMMENDATION to the three strategic authorities that the first Annual Monitoring Report of the Hampshire County Structure Plan 1996-2011 (Review) be approved for publication. 1. Introduction 1.1 On 8 February 2002 the Panel noted that work on monitoring the adopted Hampshire County Structure Plan was in hand. The Plan was adopted early in 2000 and states that regular monitoring will ensure it remains the most appropriate and locally acceptable response to contemporary social, economic and environmental issues. To this end the first Annual Monitoring Report has been produced and is attached as an appendix. Monitoring broadly covers the period 1996 to 2001, although more recent information is referred to where possible. In addition, supporting information (in the form of sets of tables) has been prepared, from which the Monitoring Report has been drawn. This can be provided to Members on request. 2. Detail 2.1 The main conclusions of the Monitoring Report are set out in an Executive Summary at the beginning of the document. 2.2 However, a few indicators show movement away from meeting Structure Plan policy aims. These include a rate of housebuilding from 1996 to 2001 below Regional Planning Guidance, more office floorspace developed in out-of-centre locations than within the key commercial and financial centres, and the absence of a Major Development Area within the recently published Eastleigh Borough First Deposit Local Plan. 2.3 A number of indicators also show no overall movement towards meeting the policy aim. In many cases this may be due to the lead-in time required for policy changes to take effect and influence development of the ground. 2.4 The analysis also shows that, due to a lack of data, it has not been possible to assess how some Structure Plan policies have performed. It will be necessary to build on current information gathering processes to improve future monitoring of the Plan. 3. Conclusions 3.1 The adopted Structure Plan is generally performing well. However, its full effectiveness may only be felt when all the Hampshire local plans have been reviewed to take account of its policies. 3.2 The indicators used for monitoring should be refined and developed for future assessment of Structure Plan policies. 3.3 The data collected through the monitoring process be fed into the ongoing work on the Review of the Structure Plan. 3.4 The Panel recommend to the three strategic authorities that the first Annual Monitoring Report of the Hampshire County Structure Plan 1996-2011 (Review) be approved for publication. The published version to include the use of graphs and other visual aids to illustrate the key points of the Monitoring Report and generally improve its presentation and readability. | 
