Report to Chelmsford City Council by Yvonne Wright BSc (Hons) DipT&CP MSc DMS MRTPI an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State Date: 25 February 2020 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended) Section 20 Report on the Examination of the Chelmsford Draft Local Plan The Plan was submitted for examination on 29 June 2018 The examination hearings were held between 20 November 2018 and 13 December 2018 File Ref: PINS/W1525/429/8 Abbreviations used in this report AAP North Chelmsford Area Action Plan AQIA Air Quality Impact Assessment BREEAM Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method CIL Community Infrastructure Levy CNEB Chelmsford North East Bypass dpa Dwellings per annum DPD Development plan document EEFM East of England Forecasting Model Framework National Planning Policy Framework 2012 GLA Greater London Authority GTAA Gypsy and Traveller and Travelling Showpeople Accommodation Assessment HMA Housing Market Area HRA Habitats Regulations Assessment IDP Infrastructure Delivery Plan NDSS Nationally Described Space Standards LEA Local Education Authority OAHN Objectively assessed housing need PPA Planning Performance Agreement PPTS Planning Policy for Traveller Sites PPG Planning Practice Guidance RAMS Essex Recreational Disturbance Avoidance and Mitigation Strategy SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest SEA Strategic Environmental Assessment SHMA Strategic Housing Market Assessment SLAA Strategic Land Availability Assessment SPA Special Policy Area sqm Square metres SA Sustainability Appraisal SUDS Sustainable drainage systems WRC Water Recycling Centre Chelmsford City Council Draft Local Plan, Inspector’s Report 25 February 2020 Non-Technical Summary This report concludes that the Chelmsford Draft Local Plan (the Plan) provides an appropriate basis for the planning of the city area, provided that a number of main modifications [MMs] are made to it. Chelmsford City Council (the Council) has specifically requested that I recommend any MMs necessary to enable the Plan to be adopted. The MMs all concern matters that were discussed at the examination hearings. Following the hearings, the Council prepared a schedule of the proposed modifications and carried out sustainability appraisal and a Habitats Regulations Assessment of them. These were all subject to public consultation over a six week period. In some cases I have amended their detailed wording and/or added consequential modifications where necessary. I have recommended their inclusion in the Plan after considering all the representations made in response to consultation on them. The Main Modifications can be summarised as follows: Amend the spatial principles to give clear direction to a decision-maker; Update the housing supply figures and trajectories to reflect latest evidence; Delete two site allocations that are no longer available; Amend site-specific policies to include necessary infrastructure and mitigation measures, and make other various changes to ensure that they are justified, effective and consistent with national policy; Amend the policy for gypsy, traveller and travelling showpeople sites, so that it is consistent with national policy; Remove Green Belt boundary changes from the Plan and amend relevant policies to ensure consistency with national Green Belt policy; Delete green corridor designations; Ensure the approach to the historic and natural environments are consistent with national policy; Delete unnecessary appendices; Replace the monitoring framework; Delete policies that unnecessarily repeat national policy or are not justified; Revise the wording of development management policies to ensure they are effective, justified and consistent with national policy; and Make various other changes to ensure the Plan is up to date, internally consistent, justified, effective and consistent with national policy. 3 Chelmsford City Council Draft Local Plan, Inspector’s Report 25 February 2020 Introduction 1. This report contains my assessment of the Chelmsford Draft Local Plan in terms of Section 20(5) of the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended). It considers first whether the Plan’s preparation has complied with the duty to co-operate. It then considers whether the Plan is sound and whether it is compliant with the legal requirements. The National Planning Policy Framework 2012 (paragraph 182) makes it clear that in order to be sound, a Local Plan should be positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy. 2. The revised National Planning Policy Framework (Framework) was published in July 2018 and further revised in February 2019. It includes a transitional arrangement in paragraph 214 which indicates that, for the purpose of examining this Plan, the policies in the 2012 Framework will apply. Similarly, where the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) has been updated to reflect the revised Framework, the previous versions of the PPG apply for the purposes of this examination under the transitional arrangement. Therefore, unless stated otherwise, references in this report are to the 2012 Framework and the versions of the PPG which were extant prior to the publication of the 2018 Framework. 3. The starting point for the examination is the assumption that the local planning authority has submitted what it considers to be a sound plan. The Chelmsford Draft Local Plan submitted in June 2018 is the basis for my examination. It is the same document as was published for consultation in January 2018. 4. Whilst the Council also submitted a Schedule of Additional Changes and a Schedule of Minor Changes when submitting the Plan, these had not been subject to consultation and matters were considered as part of the hearings, where relevant. Main Modifications 5. In accordance with section 20(7C) of the 2004 Act the Council requested that I should recommend any main modifications [MMs] necessary to rectify matters that make the Plan unsound and not legally compliant and thus incapable of being adopted. My report explains why the recommended MMs, all of which relate to matters that were discussed at the examination hearings, are necessary. The MMs are referenced in bold in the report in the form MM1, MM2 etc, and are set out in full in the Appendix. 6. Following the examination hearings, the Council prepared a schedule of proposed MMs and carried out sustainability appraisal of them. The MM schedule was subject to public consultation for six weeks during August and September 2019. I have taken account of the consultation responses in coming to my conclusions in this report and in this light, I have made some amendments to the detailed wording of the main modifications and added consequential changes where these are necessary for consistency or clarity. None of the amendments significantly alters the content of the modifications as published for consultation or undermines the participatory processes and sustainability appraisal that has been undertaken. Where necessary I have highlighted these amendments in the report. 4 Chelmsford City Council Draft Local Plan, Inspector’s Report 25 February 2020 Policies Map 7. The Council must maintain an adopted policies map which illustrates geographically the application of the policies in the adopted development plan. When submitting a local plan for examination, the Council is required to provide a submission policies map showing the changes to the adopted policies map that would result from the proposals in the submitted local plan. In this case, the submission policies map comprises a set of plans which incorporate large maps: Chelmsford North, Chelmsford South, 1: Chelmsford Urban Area, 2: Chelmsford City Centre and 3: South Woodham Ferrers and on inset maps numbered 4-40. 8. The policies map is not defined in statute as a development plan document and so I do not have the power to recommend main modifications to it. However, a number of the published MMs to the Plan’s policies require further corresponding changes to be made to the policies map. In addition, there are some instances where the geographic illustration of policies on the submission policies map is not justified and changes to the policies map are needed to ensure that the relevant policies are effective. 9. These further changes to the policies map were published for consultation alongside the MMs in the Council’s ‘Schedule of Proposed Policies Map Changes’ document (EX049). In this report I identify any amendments that are needed to those further changes in the light of the consultation responses. 10. When the Plan is adopted, in order to comply with the legislation and give effect to the Plan’s policies, the Council will need to update the adopted policies map to include all the changes proposed in EX049 incorporating any necessary amendments identified in this report. This includes the need to rectify any factual or typographical errors on the policies map to ensure it is accurate at adoption. It would also aid clarity for the key to the policies map to include relevant policy numbers, and ensure that it refers to the mixed-use site allocations. 11. MM98 set out in EX047 relates to the policies map. It is not necessary for soundness and I therefore do not recommend it. Nevertheless, this does not prevent the Council from making this change at the point of adoption of the Plan, if they wish. Sustainability Appraisal 12. The Council has carried out sustainability appraisal (SA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of the Plan through its various stages of preparation.