TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT 1990

LICHFIELD LOCAL PLAN ALLOCATIONS EXAMINATION

Response of CT Planning to District Council’s Note 5: Policy Rural 1 (CD EX16)

At Table 1 of Note 5 Council confirms that 2299 homes are to be provided within the Key Rural Settlements including . These 2299 homes represent 21% of the ADPD provision of 11,350 homes (Table 4.1).

LPS (CD1-32) (CD1-32) Policy Rural 1 provides that “approximately 24% of the District's local housing growth (a minimum of approx. 2,400 dwellings) will be provided within the Key Rural Settlements.”

Note 5 thus confirms that the ADPD provision of 2299 homes to be provided within the Key Rural Settlements including Fradley falls short (101 homes) of the provision required in LPS (CD1-32) Policy Rural 1.

This under provision of housing in the Key Rural Settlements including Fradley has been made in the context of the housing provision within the ADPD having increased to 11350 homes (Table 4.1), from the 10244 homes planned for in the LPS (CD1-32) .

Applying LPS (CD1-32) Policy Rural 1 to the housing proposed in the ADPD (11,350), means that the ADPD should be making provision for 2724 homes within the Key Rural Settlements including Fradley (24% of 11350). Consequently, there is a shortfall of 425 homes (2724 – 2299).

Three Spires House Station Road Lichfield WS13 6XH Tel: 01543 418779 Email : [email protected] Web : www.ctplanning.co.uk Registered in 4110624 The significance of the shortfall is that there is a risk of not delivering appropriate levels and types of housing sought by LPS (CD1-32) Policy Rural 1 for the Key Rural Settlements including Fradley. The failure to provide sufficient housing in these settlements could undermine the objective of Policy Rural 1 including retaining rural services and facilities and the delivery of new ones.

The figures given above have assumed that that the Key Rural Settlements include Fradley. Lichfield District Council state in the penultimate paragraph of page 1 of Note 5: Rural 1 (CD EX16) that “Fradley is explicitly identified as a Key Rural Settlement within the LPS (CD1- 32).” This is self-evidently not the case. There is no mention of Fradley as a Key Rural Settlement at LPS (CD1-32) (CD1-32) Policy 1 where it states (page 25, 8th bullet point) “Key Rural Settlements of , with , , Shenstone and Whittington”; Fradley is mentioned at LPS (CD1-32) (CD1-32) Core Policy 6 (page 50 3rd bullet point) where it states “Alrewas, , Fazeley, Fradley, Shenstone and Whittington”, however it then goes on to state (page 51 under sub-heading “Broad Development Locations”) “440 properties between the Key Rural Settlements of Alrewas, Armitage with Handsacre, Fazeley, Shenstone and Whittington.” Here there is no mention of Fradley. It is acknowledged that Fradley is mentioned as a Key Rural Settlement within LPS (CD1-32) (CD1-32) Policy Rural 1 and the preceding paragraph “Vision for Rural Area.” However, the contention that “Fradley is explicitly identified as a Key Rural Settlement within the LPS (CD1-32) ” is self-evidently not the case.

The confusion as to whether or not Fradley is a Key Rural Settlement is compounded by the fact that Fradley is excluded from the list of Key Rural Settlements in the June 2018 SHLAA (see paragraph 4.21) and in the 2016 Urban Capacity Assessment (CD3-35-Paragraph 5.10 and Table 5.10).

2 The point about Fradley is that it has allocations and planning permissions granted for a considerable amount of new housing; the housing numbers for Fradley are far in excess of the amount of housing to be provided in the remaining Key Rural Settlements of Alrewas, Armitage with Handsacre, Fazeley, Shenstone and Whittington. There is a need to ensure that any shortfall in housing provision identified above is evenly distributed between the other 5 Key Rural Settlements of Alrewas, Armitage with Handsacre, Fazeley, Shenstone and Whittington. This is necessary to ensure that these settlements also have sufficient development to meet the objective of LPS (CD1-32) Policy Rural 1 (see paragraph 17.40) namely that these 5 settlements are as sustainable as possible, “delivering appropriate levels and types of housing to address identified need, retaining rural services and facilities in all the villages, providing new services which are relevant to local needs and supporting communities in delivering initiatives which help them to be more self sufficient.”

CET/CMF 14 September 2018

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