Planning to protect the countryside

Ramblers General Council

13 April 2013

Paul Miner, MA MRTPI FRGS

Senior Planning Officer

• Pledge to maintain national protective designations

• New legislation aims:• deregulation • more local

autonomy • community

involvement

•Planning policy changes

• New CPRE report: Countryside Promises, Planning Realities

The Coalition and planning

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

Localism Act: the main changes

• General power of competence

• Pre-determination rules

• Pre-application consultation

• New enforcement powers

• National projects: some procedural

changes

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

• Intrinsic value of countryside (17)•National and local landscape designations (113-116)•Local authorities should protect ‘areas of tranquillity’ (123)•Plan for biodiversity at a landscape scale (114)•Local green space (76-77)•Open space / National Trails (74/75)•Undeveloped coast (114)

The wider countryside: relevant national policies

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

Development plans: the main changes

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

• No RSS, but a ‘duty to co-operate’

• More flexibility to prepare ‘Local Plans’

• SPDs discouraged unless promoting development

• Neighbourhood Plans

• LPA discretion to review inspector recommendations and re-submit

• Local finance considerations

• Need to meet ‘full, objectively

assessed needs’ • Five year supply plus 5% - 20%

buffer• Encourage use of brownfield

land, including windfalls• Rural Exception Sites • Viability / deliverability

Housing development: the main changes

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

• Onus on planning authorities to secure good land management

• New tests for new or extended Green Belt

• Defining boundaries

• Brownfield sites and ‘local transport infrastructure’

Green Belt: the main changes

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

• Greater focus on local plans

• Local Enterprise Partnerships

(LEPs)

• ‘Town centre first’ remains, but

with exemptions

• Enterprise Zones and added

pressure to remove unreasonable

employment land allocations

Town centres and business development: the main changes

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

• Strong design policy, considering

local character, history, identity

and materials

• Designation of new conservation

areas is strongly discouraged

• Stronger and tighter focus on the

significance of heritage assets

Heritage and design

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

• Growth and Infrastructure Bill:

changes to stopping up of public

paths and town / village greens

•Permitted development rights to

be extended

• ‘Poorly performing’ local

planning authorities in special

measures

• Matthew Taylor: review of

guidance

It’s not just the NPPF…

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

• Have your say on local plans and promote countryside protection policies and priorities. Submit your ideas at the earliest stage.• Use the concept of ‘smart growth’ to respond to Government economic priorities• Respond to planning applications• Get involved in producing neighbourhood or parish plans

How you can influence planners

Will planners continue to value the countryside?

• National campaigns to protect wider countryside, and to reduce noise and light pollution

• Local planning expertise: network of county branches and district groups

• Planning Hotline, Thursday afternoon, available to CPRE members

• Planning Help website

How CPRE can help

Will planners continue to value the countryside?