Right Homes, Right Places Draft Local Plan Public Consultation
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RIGHT HOMES, RIGHT PLACES DRAFT LOCAL PLAN PUBLIC CONSULTATION FEB 2020 – MAR 2020 FOREWORD John Halsall, Leader of Wokingham Borough Council Protecting our borough’s environment and our residents’ quality of life are the cornerstones of this draft Local Plan. Many of our towns and villages have lived under the threat of mass development for some years now and this plan, should it be supported and approved, will remove that fear for the vast majority of the borough. Housing developers have put forward more than 300 locations they would like to build on, but we are actually proposing very few of those because the majority of additional housing would be in a new sustainably developed Grazeley Garden Town. There would still need to be some smaller scale growth in towns and villages where agreed locally, but most of the potential sites put forward as part of the Local Plan process would be rejected. This draft Local Plan also include: • A lower housing target for the borough than would have been enforced by the Government’s standard methodology. • No house building on Green Belt. • An enhanced commitment to resist random development outside of the few areas allocated for new communities. • Protection of local green space • A priority on genuinely affordable, key worker, self build and rural exception homes. I am proud to be proposing a draft plan that is in line with our principles or enhancing our environment, providing the right homes in the right places and maintaining our high quality of life. Wayne Smith, Executive member for Planning and Enforcement The potential for a new garden town, designed and built for environmentally-aware 21st Century lifestyles is tremendously exciting. If approved and funded as we are proposing, Grazeley Garden Town would provide environmentally-designed homes in a carbon neutral new community with great sustainable transport links and vast green spaces for its residents to enjoy. Subject to a successful £252M funding bid, Grazeley Garden Town would have unprecedented upfront investment in infrastructure meaning the schools, transport systems, health hub and community and sporting facilities could be built ahead of the housing. Grazeley Garden Town would also give us the opportunity to ensure homes that are genuinely affordable are built. This would be a long-term project that could provide a large number of the additional housing that is needed across the borough in the years up to 2036 and potentially to the mid-2050s, the council would be better able to resist potential housing sites that have been put forward by developers elsewhere. 1 CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................... 6 What is the Local Plan Update? ........................................................................................................... 6 Why is the Local Plan Update being prepared now? ........................................................................... 7 What is the relationship with other plans and strategies? .................................................................. 7 Evidence and technical reports ............................................................................................................ 7 How do I let you know my views? ........................................................................................................ 7 2. SPATIAL PORTRAIT.................................................................................................................................... 9 3. OUR VISION & OBJECTIVES .................................................................................................................... 13 4. SPATIAL STRATEGY ................................................................................................................................. 17 Policy SS1: Spatial Strategy ................................................................................................................ 17 Policy SS2: Settlement Hierarchy and scale and location of development proposals ....................... 22 Policy SS3: Grazeley garden town ...................................................................................................... 23 Policy SS4: Arborfield Garrison Strategic Development Location ...................................................... 31 Policy SS5: South of the M4 Strategic Development Location .......................................................... 33 Policy SS6: North Wokingham Strategic Development Location ....................................................... 34 Policy SS7: South Wokingham Strategic Development Location ....................................................... 36 Policy SS8: Climate Change ................................................................................................................ 38 Policy SS9: Adaptation to Climate Change ......................................................................................... 39 Policy SS10: Supporting Infrastructure .............................................................................................. 40 Policy SS11: Safeguarded Routes ....................................................................................................... 41 Policy SS12: Improvements to Transport Routes ............................................................................... 42 Policy SS13: Development in the Countryside ................................................................................... 43 Policy SS14: Development in the Green Belt ..................................................................................... 45 5. CONNECTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 49 Policy C1: Active and Sustainable Transport and Accessibility .......................................................... 49 Policy C2: Mitigation of Transport Impacts and Highways Safety and Design .................................. 51 Policy C3: Cycling and Walking ........................................................................................................... 53 Policy C4: Vehicle and Cycle Parking .................................................................................................. 54 Policy C5: Technology and innovation in transport ........................................................................... 55 Policy C6: Digital infrastructure and communications technology .................................................... 57 Policy C7: Utilities ............................................................................................................................... 58 Policy C8: Green and Blue Infrastructure and Public Rights of Way .................................................. 59 2 6. ECONOMY: JOBS & RETAIL ..................................................................................................................... 63 Policy ER1: Meeting employment needs ........................................................................................... 64 Policy ER2: Core Employment Areas .................................................................................................. 65 Policy ER3: Employment Uses Outside Core Employment Areas ...................................................... 66 Policy ER4: Supporting the rural economy ........................................................................................ 67 Policy ER5: Employment and Skills Plan ............................................................................................. 68 Policy ER6: The hierarchy of centres .................................................................................................. 70 Policy ER7: Town, district & local centres and shopping parades ..................................................... 71 Policy ER8: Strengthening the role of centres .................................................................................. 73 Policy ER9: Wokingham Town Centre ................................................................................................ 73 Policy ER10: Whiteknights Campus .................................................................................................... 75 7. HOUSING ................................................................................................................................................. 77 Policy H1: Housing provision .............................................................................................................. 78 Policy H2: Sites allocated for residential / mixed use ........................................................................ 79 Policy H3: Housing mix, density and standards ................................................................................. 80 Policy H4: Presumption against the loss of residential ...................................................................... 83 Policy H5: Affordable Housing ........................................................................................................... 84 Policy H6: Rural Exception Sites ......................................................................................................... 87 Policy H7: Rural Workers’ Dwellings .................................................................................................. 88 Policy H8: Self-build and custom housebuilding ...............................................................................