Appendix F Shropshire Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan Pre-Submission Draft (Final Plan) March 2014 Consultation Statement Appendix F SAMDev Plan Pre-Submission March 2014: Consultation Statement Table of Contents Section Page 1 Purpose of the Consultation Statement 4 2 Statement of Community Involvement 4 3 The SAMDev Plan 4 4 Issues and Options Consultation (April 2010) 5 5 Preferred Options Consultation (March 2012) 10 6 Draft Development Management Policies 14 Consultation (January 2013) 7 Revised Preferred Options Consultation 16 (July 2013) Appendix A Issues and Options Consultation Strategy 18 (April 2010) Appendix B Issues and Options: Key Issues Raised 22 Appendix C Preferred Options Consultation Strategy 54 (March 2012) Appendix D Preferred Options 2012 Consultation: Key 58 Issues Raised Appendix E Development Management Policy Directions 184 2012 – Key Issues Raised Appendix F Draft Policies 2013 Consultation: Key Issues 200 Raised Appendix G Revised Preferred Options Consultation 208 2013: Key Issues Raised 2 Appendix F SAMDev Plan Pre-Submission March 2014: Consultation Statement This page is intentionally blank 3 Appendix F SAMDev Plan Pre-Submission March 2014: Consultation Statement 1) Purpose of this Statement 1.1 Shropshire Council has engaged widely and extensively on the preparation of the Site Allocation and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan. This document brings together and summarises the consultation on the SAMDev Plan from 2010 up to the publication of the Final Plan publication document in March 2014. 1.2 This Consultation Statement is one of the Submission Documents required as part of Regulation 17 (d) of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012. 1.3 The document shows the Council has met the requirements of Regulation 25 of the Town and Country (Local Development) and Regulation 18 of the 2012 Regulations, as well as the Council’s own Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). 2) Shropshire Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) 2.1 The Shropshire Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) was adopted by the Council in February 2011. The document sets out the broad framework for how Shropshire Council will engage communities and organisations on planning issues across the county, including in the preparation of Planning Policy documents. 2.2 The preparation of the SAMDev Plan has followed the consultation principles established in the SCI, and in many cases exceeded them, in particular in the Pre-submission phase of production. 2.3 The SCI can be viewed on the Shropshire Council website at http://shropshire.gov.uk/planningpolicy.nsf/viewAttachments/EWET- 8URCNQ/$file/statement-of-community-involvement-adopted-version- february-2011.pdf 3) The SAMDev Plan 3.1 The Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan is the second part of the Council’s statutory development plan. When adopted it will sit alongside the Core Strategy (adopted in 2011) and together these will form the Local Plan for the area. 3.2 The adopted Core Strategy has established a number of development principles and policies, which have already been subject to extensive consultation as part of its preparation between 2008 and 2010. The preparation of the SAMDev Plan has focussed solely on those aspect not covered by the Core Strategy, principally: - The identification of sustainable growth targets for Shropshire's 18 market towns and key centres; 4 Appendix F SAMDev Plan Pre-Submission March 2014: Consultation Statement - The identification of Community Hubs and Community Clusters in the rural area where some further market housing development will be planned for; - The identification of appropriate sites for future housing and employment development in market towns, community hubs and community clusters; - The provision of additional development management policies which can be used in the consideration of planning applications 3.3 Community consultation and the idea of ‘localism’ has been a key part of the SAMDev Plan’s preparation. The Council’s approach to community engagement has far exceeded the level required by national regulations and has allowed the Council to better reflect local community visions and priorities. 3.4 Table 3.1 illustrates the separate stages involved in the preparation of the SAMDev Plan alongside our periods of consultation. Table 3.1 SAMDev Plan Preparation and Consultation Stages Production stage SAMDev Consultation Document Dates Production Issues and options 2 April – 25 June 2010 Preferred Options 9 March – 20 July 2012 Preferred Options Draft Policies 31 Jan - 28th March 2013 Revised Preferred Options 1 July - 23 August 2013 Pre-Submission Draft March 2014 Submission Estimated Summer 2014 Examination Examination in Public Estimated Autumn 2014 Adoption Adopted Plan Estimated Spring 2015 3.5 As well as the specific periods of consultation and representation shown in table 3.1 the Council has been keen to maintain meaningful and continuous engagement with local communities and developers throughout the plan preparation period. 4) Issues and Options Consultation (May 2010) Overview 4.1 The SAMDev Issues and Options consultation was carried out between April and June 2010. This stage of consultation was not statutory but contributed to the Council meeting regulation 25 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004 which requires pre-production engagement on development plan documents. 4.2 The Issues and Options document was extensive, covering the whole Shropshire unitary Council area. However, given the size of the area, it was important to break down the document into smaller ‘parcels’ based upon geographical areas. Outside Shrewsbury, the County’s Local Joint Committee (LJCs)1 areas were therefore used as the geographic basis for the 1 There are 28 Local Joint Committees in Shropshire covering different geographical areas, based around clusters of parishes. They are formal committees and have a diverse role including raising awareness and facilitating debate on local issues. 5 Appendix F SAMDev Plan Pre-Submission March 2014: Consultation Statement consultation. A single document was prepared for Shrewsbury which encompassed all the town’s LJC areas. 4.3 In total 22 separate documents were prepared for consultation. 4.4 Each Issues and Options document was structured in the following way: Part A: asked questions about the relevant Spatial Zone Part B: asked question specifically relevant to the LJC area Part C: asked questions about Development Management themes covering the whole Shropshire LPA area. 4.5 Each document asked a set of questions concerning the following issues: - The broad distribution of housing development within the Spatial Zone; - The scale of development in specific Market Towns and Key Centres; - Which villages should be defined as Community Hubs and Community Clusters and how many houses should they accommodate; - What types of sites would be appropriate to allocate for development; - Which areas should be considered for policy protection; - Infrastructure priorities for settlements; - The scope of policy issues for additional Development Management policies 4.6 To help consultees various options were presented for potential scales of housing and employment development. In addition, for those settlements identified in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) a range of site options were presented based upon information from the SHLAA database. 4.7 Aside from the ‘givens’ already identified in the adopted Core Strategy, the key purpose of the Issues and Options document was to raise important questions rather than to provide answers. As such, at this stage no sites were screened out which allowed consultees to view all the options available. Consultation Process 4.8 Appendix A shows the Consultation Strategy used at the Issues and Options Stage. Summary The public consultation was carried out between April and June 2010 for a period of 12 weeks. Letters were mailed to everyone on the LDF Consultee Database, which at this stage represented around 4000 organisations and individuals. Copies of relevant documents were sent to all Parish and Town Councils Copies of all documents held at each main Council Office and Libraries in the County; 6 Appendix F SAMDev Plan Pre-Submission March 2014: Consultation Statement The Council website hosted a specific webpage including downloads of all the documents; Local Community ‘drop in’ meetings were held in each of Shropshire’s 18 Market Towns and Key Centres; Additional local meetings were held on request of Parish and Town Council, where resources allowed; Press releases were issued to advertise the consultation and the ‘drop in’ events; Questionnaires and Consultation material were made available to the public on request Consultation Bodies 4.9 Shropshire Council holds an extensive consultee database which includes the full list of Specific, General and Other Consultation bodies totalling around 4,000 individuals and organisations. A significant number of the non-statutory consultees held on this database have been included a result of commenting on previous planning policy consultations. Given the scale and importance of this initial SAMDev consultation it was decided to directly consult all consultees on this database by letter. Parish and Town Councils 4.10 In line with the Council’s SCI and Localism agenda, the involvement of Parish and Town Council’s from this early stage was particularly important.