BLACKPOOL COUNCIL PLANNING AND TRANSPORTATION Blackpool Local Plan 2001/2016 Adopted June 2006 Building a better community for all Preface BLACKPOOL LOCAL PLAN 2001-16 ADOPTED AND OPERATIVE JUNE 9TH, 2006 This is the adopted Blackpool Local Plan 2001-16 and provides a statutory planning framework for development in the Borough. The Plan comprises this Written Statement and the Proposals Map. The Local Plan can also be obtained from the Council’s website: www.blackpool.gov.uk. The Council would like to thank everyone who has made representations at any stage of the process and shown an interest in Blackpool’s future development. The Blackpool Local Plan is currently being replaced by the new Local Development Framework. Blackpool Council applied to save the vast majority of the Local Plan policies. The Government Office for the North West, on behalf of the Secretary of State, has issued a direction confirming which Local Plan policies will be retained and used when determining planning applications. The policies which expired as of 9 June 2009 were: RR3, RR6, HN1 (Note: Policy RR5 was deleted on 7 April 2008) Building a better community for all Chapter 1: Introduction and Strategy 1 Chapter 2: Reshaping the Resort 7 Chapter 3: Establishing a Thriving Sub-Regional Centre 31 Chapter 4: Lifting Quality in the Built Environment 45 Chapter 5: Homes for Every Need 65 Chapter 6: Balanced and Healthy Communities 81 Chapter 7: Diversifying the Local Economy 109 Chapter 8: Conserving the Natural Environment 117 Chapter 9: Accessibility and Safe Journeys for All 129 Chapter 10: Planning Obligations 141 Contents Appendices Appendix A 145 Appendix B 147 Building a better community for all 1: Introduction Purpose of the Plan emerging vision for the future of the town centre and resort areas developed through 1.1 Blackpool is at a pivotal point in the New Horizons Masterplan. The final its long history when there are significant content of this Plan has been influenced by opportunities to turn Blackpool into a prime many considerations but particularly by: resort with a new future and a real need to address key issues. • The many formal representations received on the First Deposit Draft. 1.2 The Council and its public service, private sector and community partners are • Consultation on the Revised committed to a long-term programme of Deposit Draft, followed by Proposed measures to regenerate Blackpool as a Modifications after a Public Inquiry place to live, work and visit. into the Local Plan. Chapter 1: Introduction • 1.3 That programme will be co- The development concepts ordinated through the town’s Local incorporated in the Resort Strategic Partnership set out in Blackpool’s Masterplan published in March Community Plan 2004-2020. New 2003, the public’s response and development and physical improvement ongoing detailed evaluation. of the town’s facilities, public spaces, • Changes in national planning policy infrastructure and general environment and in the strategic planning policy will be a vital component in Blackpool’s framework established in regional regeneration. It has therefore been planning guidance and by the Joint timely that during the preparation of the Lancashire Structure Plan. Community Plan, the Council has been preparing a new Local Plan that sets out the Council’s proposals and policies for A Shared Vision the town’s physical regeneration. This 1.5 The vision of the Council and its new Plan promotes investment in key First Deposit Draft partners in the Local Strategic Partnership, sites and infrastructure and establishes - Jan 2003 expressed in Blackpool’s Community Plan the policies against which all applications 2004-2020, is that: for development will be judged. It is vitally important that physical changes that will “Blackpool will have inclusive, healthy and have a profound impact on Blackpool’s safe communities, living in a regenerated, resident and business communities and on attractive and prosperous resort” the experience of the resorts visitors are the subject of the widest possible public and that this should be achieved by debate. They must also be a co-ordinated delivering on six community themes. The part of an agreed wider programme of Community Plan states that in 2020 we initiatives to secure the wider economic want the residents of Blackpool to have: and social regeneration of the town. 1. Quality education and training 1.4 The First Deposit Draft Local Plan, published in January 2003, drew upon 2. Healthy lives Revised Deposit Draft a wide-ranging consultation exercise to - Feb 2004 establish the key issues that the new plan 3. Safer communities should address. It also sought to reflect the 2 0 0 1 - 2 0 1 6 | 1 4. Quality homes in clean and green provisions of the Joint Lancashire Structure residential areas Plan. 5. Strong and vibrant communities 1.9 There have been considerable shifts in national guidance over recent 6. A prosperous town. years (set out in Planning Policy Guidance 1.6 Within all these six themes are Notes [PPGs] and subsequent revisions cross-cutting commitments, which are in the form of Planning Policy Statements integral to the delivery of all six themes: [PPSs]). The most fundamental have been in the emphasis on economy in the • to ensure a sustainable environment use of land (with priority to be accorded to previously developed, brownfield sites) • to support vulnerable people and on achieving patterns of development that are sustainable. In preparing this Plan The Local Plan establishes the framework the Council has been particularly mindful within which the Council ensures that of the radical changes to the Development Blackpool’s physical development Plan system provided through the Planning contributes towards these ambitions. Bill, that came into force on 28th September 2004, and has sought to produce a Influences Shaping The Local Plan Local Plan that, in its broad approach, is consistent with the proposed new system 1.7 The Community Plan has provided of Local Development Frameworks and as a broad local framework for developing far as possible reflects guidance contained the new Local Plan. The Plan’s specific within PPSs. objectives, strategy, policies and proposals have also been shaped by a number of 1.10 Planning guidance at a regional other key influences, in particular: level influencing the shape of this Plan is drawn from Regional Planning Guidance • existing and emerging national, (RPG) for the North West, adopted in 2003. regional and sub-regional planning This guidance is currently under review; guidance and policy the Draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) for the North West was placed on deposit • other local strategies for consultation in March 2006, with a view • surveys, research studies and best to an Examination in Public (EIP) in the practice Autumn of 2006. Throughout the formation of this Plan the adopted regional guidance • public consultation. has been RPG, which sets limits on future housing development within Lancashire National, Regional and Sub- that are substantially below past levels of Regional Policy development. Blackpool is identified as one of a number of Regeneration Priority 1.8 In preparing the Local Plan, the Areas. Blackpool is also recognised Council has taken account of national and as a tourist destination of national and regional planning guidance and to prepare regional importance and as a sub-regional policies that accord generally with the centre for the Fylde Coast. It accepts that Blackpool needs high quality modern facilities to support these roles. Building a better community for all 2 | Blackpool Local Plan 1.11 The Joint Lancashire Structure • A Sea Change in Blackpool Plan 2001-2016 provides the sub-regional – Successful Bid for Economic strategic planning framework for future Development Zone status and planning policy within Blackpool. The plan European Objective 2 funding strategy and development policies are October 2001. designed to bring about a better balance of development within the County targeting • New Horizons, Blackpool Resort housing and economic development Masterplan 2003. at Regeneration Priority Areas such as • Equal Chances – A Neighbourhood Blackpool and the Wyre Peninsula. Renewal Strategy for Blackpool. 1.12 The Structure Plan requires that • Integrated Neighbourhood Blackpool’s Local Plan provides for Improvement – a new initiative that Chapter 1: Introduction future housing development within the has been successfully piloted in the borough at about two-thirds of recent build Talbot Brunswick Area. rates, a significant reduction but not as great as that set for many other parts of • The Blackpool Shopping Study Lancashire. It also sets the amount of land (Hillier Parker, 1999) and the to be allocated for business and industrial Blackpool Shopping Study 2004- development. 2016 (Savills, 2004) assessing the “health” of the Town Centre and other district shopping centres Other Blackpool Strategies, within the borough and the need Surveys and Studies and potential for further retail development. 1.13 Local Plan policies have been influenced by a wide range of local • Accommodating Change, Planning strategies, initiatives and funding for the Future of Areas of Older submissions being pursued by the Council Holiday Accommodation in and its partners. These include: Blackpool, CURS, University of Birmingham, January 2002. • Community Plan for Blackpool 2000- 2005, and it’s subsequent review • Urban Capacity Study 2002, and – Blackpool’s Community Plan 2004- the subsequent updated version 2020. – Urban Potential