Thurrock Borough Council Annual Monitoring Report
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Thurrock Borough Council Annual Monitoring Report For the Local Development Framework 2006 Cabinet version CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 LDS IMPLEMENTATION 4 CONTEXT 9 CORE OUTPUT INDICATORS 16 LOCAL / SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS INDICATORS 32 APPENDICES 33 INTRODUCTION THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT (AMR) The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 introduces a new system for the preparation of development plans in England. The government has introduced the reforms: o To speed up preparation of plans o To ensure that plans are monitored and reviewed and kept up to date, and o To achieve more effective involvement with the community. Under this new legislation Structure Plans, Local Plans and Unitary Development Plans will be replaced by new types of development plan. At the regional level there will be a Regional Spatial Strategy for the East of England. At local level there will be a portfolio of Local Development Documents known collectively as a Local Development Framework (LDF). The development plans contained in the LDF will set out the policies and proposals to guide the development and use of land in the Borough up to 2021. The first stage is the Local Development Scheme (LDS) (available at http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/planning/strategic/). This is a programme for the preparation of the new Local Development Documents. Section 35 of the 2004 Act requires every local planning authority to make an annual report to the Secretary of State containing information on the implementation of the of the LDF. The Act requires this Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) to set out information about progress on the LDS and the extent to which the policies set out in local development documents are being achieved. The key monitoring tasks that this report should undertake are set out in Regulation 48 of The Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004 and by PPS12 Local Development Frameworks. The key tasks are to : (i) whether the timetable and milestones for the preparation of documents set out in the local development scheme have been met or progress is being made towards meeting them or, where they are not being met or not on track to being achieved, the reasons why; (ii) whether policies and related targets in local development documents have been met or progress is being made towards meeting them or, where they are not being met or not on track to being achieved, the reasons why; (iii) what impact the policies are having in respect of national and regional targets and any other targets identified in local development documents and not covered by (ii) above. Local Planning Regulation 48(7) specifically requires information to be provided on net additional dwellings and local planning authorities should produce housing trajectories to demonstrate how policies will deliver housing provision in their area. (iv) what significant effects implementation of the policies is having on the social, environmental and economic objectives by which sustainability is defined and whether these effects are as intended; (v) whether the policies in the local development document need adjusting or replacing because they are not working as intended; (vi) whether the policies need changing to reflect changes in national or regional policy; Thurrock Council Annual Monitoring Report 2006 1 THE SCOPE OF THIS AMR This Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) is the second produced under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill 2004, and covers the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006. At present, the statutory plan in force in Thurrock is the adopted Thurrock Borough Local Plan 1997. The Thurrock Unitary Development Plan was placed on Deposit in March 2003 but, following advice from the Government Office for the Eastern Region (GO-East), the Council suspended work on this plan. Work has begun on the LDF but, as yet, there are no relevant Development Plan Documents that have progressed beyond the Issues Options (Regulation25) Stage. Therefore this AMR concentrates on two things : (i) the monitoring of LDF progress in terms of key milestone targets set out in the LDS. Future AMRs will be able to focus on monitoring of LDF policies as they are produced and adopted. (ii) the monitoring of saved policies in the Thurrock Borough Local Plan (adopted 1997). While the end-date of adopted Local Plan was 2001, the policies contained in the Plan (and the Essex County Council First Review Minerals Local Plan) are the saved development plan policies for a three-year period from the commencement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. The schedule located at Appendix 1 identifies the status of the saved development plan policies after this three-year period. This shows which policies will be either ‘replaced’ or ‘merged’ or eventually ‘deleted’. For the avoidance of doubt all policies are saved for this three-year period and those identified for deletion will not be deleted until that time, namely, September 2007. However the Council’s programme for preparation of its various local development documents extends beyond this three year period. The Council will wish to seek formal agreement from government to extend the period in which a number of the cited policies will continue to be saved. THE STRUCTURE OF THIS AMR The monitoring data contained within this report is broken down into four sections; 1. An introduction, setting out key contextual characteristics of the Borough. Contextual indicators establish the social, environmental and economic circumstances of the Borough. 2. An overview of the progress in implementing the Local Development Framework. This includes programmed timeframes and targets set out in the LDS. 3. An analysis of policy performance and effects utilising Core Output Indicators. The quantifiable physical activities that are directly related to the implementation of planning policies are measured using the national LDF core output indicators. 4. An indication of how Local Output Indicators may be tailored to particular local circumstances in future AMR’s and how the achievement of sustainable development objectives may be measured utilising Significant Effects Indicators. Thurrock Council Annual Monitoring Report 2006 2 Wherever a saved policy relates to a Core Output Indicator, any relevant policies are listed under the indicator. While all of the saved policies are currently being implemented, many do not have a specifically measurable component and do not necessarily relate well to the indicators. An assessment will be made of the longer term value of these policies and new policies will be incorporated into future DPD’s (see Appendix 1). INFORMATION SOURCES A number of sources were used for collecting the contextual and monitoring data. They include information produced by the Thurrock Strategic Planning Department for the Department’s AMR, for the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) AMR 2004, for the Sustainability Appraisal/ Strategic Environmental Assessment that is being produced alongside the LDF and for “Planning Fact Sheets”. Other information includes the “Thurrock Local Transport Plan”, produced by the Highway’s Department. Corporate documents, produced by the Council’s Corporate Improvement & Development Team, include the “Thurrock Profile”, Best Value Performance Indicators and the Community Strategy (ASPIRE). Thurrock Council Annual Monitoring Report 2006 3 LOCAL DEVELOPMENT SCHEME (LDS) IMPLEMENTATION THE TIMETABLE The full timetable to 2010 is reproduced overleaf. The timetables for each Local Development Document contain the following key milestones: 1. Evidence gathering 2. Prepare Issues and Options in consultation 3. Public Participation on Preferred Options 4. Representations on Preferred Options 5. Preparation of submission DPD 6. Submission of DPD 7. Representations on Submitted DPD 8. Pre-Examination Meeting 9. Independent Examination 10. Binding Report 11. Adoption 12. Monitoring and Review PROGRESS REGARDING THE ACHIEVEMENT OF LDF MILESTONES This section covers progress regarding the achievement of LDF milestones to December 2006. The progress that has been made to date for each Local Development Document includes : Local Development Scheme o The LDS was submitted to Government Office in March 2005, as scheduled, and published in April 2005. A revised LDS was submitted to the Government Office in December 2005. Following consideration by the government office and further agreed changes the revised LDS was published in August 2006. A further revision to the LDS (see below) is proposed to be submitted to government early in 2007. Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) o An informal (Regulation 25) Consultation for the preparation of the Statement of Community Involvement was completed in May/June 2005. This involved consultation of key statutory bodies and other stakeholders by questionnaire survey. o The draft (Regulation 26) version of the SCI was approved by Cabinet and public consultation undertaken in February to March 2006, in accordance with the revised LDS. The consultation involved public exhibitions and meetings with identified stakeholder including hard to reach groups. o In June 2006 following consideration of representations received on the draft SCI the Council agreed recommended amendments and the Submission version of the Statement of Community Involvement. .Submission of the SCI (Regulation 28) to the Secretary of State and a six week period of public consultation took place during July and August 2006 in accordance with the revised LDS timetable. o Preparations