South Downs National Park Authority South Downs Local Plan Interim Consultation Statement Statement in accordance with Regulations 17 and 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 Published alongside Pre-Submission Local Plan on 26th September 2017 i Contents Page Introduction – What is this document? 1 Local Plan overview 1 Preferred Options media campaign – impact and exposure 2 Who did the SDNPA consult? 3 How did the SDNPA consult? 3 Results of Preferred Options consultation 9 Conclusion 12 Appendix 1 - Full list of consultees at Options stage 13 Appendix 2 - Full list of consultees at Preferred Options stage 19 Appendix 3 - Summary of main issues raised by representations 33 and how these have been taken into account General comments 35 Chapter 1 – Introduction 43 Chapter 2 – Spatial Portrait – The National Park Today 47 Chapter 3 – Vision and Objectives 51 Chapter 4 – Core Policies 55 Chapter 5 – A Thriving Living Landscape 91 Chapter 6 – People Connected with Places 149 Chapter 7 – Towards a Sustainable Future 175 Chapter 8 – Strategic Sites 231 Chapter 9 – Site Allocations 239 Chapter 10 – Development Management Policies 269 Chapter 11 – Implementation and Monitoring 337 Inset maps 339 Appendices and Glossary 343 ii iii Introduction – What is this document? 1. This document sets out how the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) has undertaken consultation in preparing its Pre-Submission Local Plan (SDLP). It provides an overview of all stages of the consultation, but in particular focuses on the consultation on the Local Plan Preferred Options (LPPO) that took place in the autumn of 2015. It addresses: Which bodies and persons were invited to make representations during the preparation of the Local Plan. (Who was consulted?) How these bodies and persons were invited to make those representations. (How were the public and other stakeholders consulted?) A summary of the main issues raised. (How many responses were received on the chapters in the LPPO and what were the main issues raised?) How those issues have been addressed. (How have the main issues raised been taken into account?) 2. This statement has been prepared in accordance with Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012, as one of the “proposed submission documents” defined in Regulation 17 of those same regulations. Local Plan overview 3. The South Downs Local Plan: Preferred Options was published for public consultation under Regulation 18 of The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012. The consultation was launched on 2 September and ran for 8 weeks until 28 October 2015. 4. Local Plan policies have been formulated in consultation with local communities, building on extensive engagement on the Partnership Management Plan (PMP) and the State of the Park Report. The views and input of the local community are vital to us and we have undertaken a considerable amount of public engagement, particularly with the town and parish councils. The Authority also benefits from the active engagement with a number of local groups including the South Downs Land Managers’ Group and the South Downs Partnership, who give us a wide range of views from people who live, work and develop in the National Park. 5. The first formal round of public consultation on the Local Plan was on the Options Consultation Document in spring 2014. The evidence based document ‘Progress from Issues and Options to Preferred Options’ sets out all the issues and options consulted on, the main issues raised and how these main issues were addressed in the formulation of the Preferred Options. 6. The Preferred Options Local Plan was the second formal round of public consultation. Over 1500 individuals and organisation were notified directly at the launch of the consultation, and the consultation was publicised using a range of methods. As part of the consultation, 5 public roadshows, 3 parish workshops and a number of meetings were held with key partners. It is estimated that over 500 people attended the public roadshows. As part of the publicity for the events, there were over 40 pieces of broadcast, online and print coverage, including ITV Meridian and BBC News online, a BBC Sussex radio interview with the Chief Executive of the SDNPA, publicity on Facebook, Twitter and the SDNP Forum. 1 Preferred Options media campaign – impact and exposure 7. During the consultation period we had a total of 16,756 page views to all Local Plan related web pages, broken down these include: 6,409 page views on the Preferred Options consultation landing page; 4,355 page views on the Local Plan landing page; 1,115 page views on the Roadshows & Paper Copies page; and 918 page views on the What’s in the Local Plan page. 8. We decided that Facebook presented the best way to promote a Local Plan promotional film to very specific audiences across the National Park. From this we achieved a total of 22,751 views. The majority of these were through mobile devices (phone/ tablet). The film was also viewed 472 times on YouTube which includes people watching it through the SDNPA website, Forum, Twitter and finding it through other means. Our other social media activity focused on three aims: raising general awareness about the consultation; promoting specific consultation events; and reminding people that the consultation was due to close on 28 October. We posted a further 16 times on Facebook about the consultation – using stills from the film with links through to the media release and directly through to the consultation page. These achieved a total of: 24 likes, 15 shares and 23 clicks through to the link (either the media release or directly through to the consultation page). An online forum was set up on the website to generate discussion. The initial posting announcing the public consultation received 167 official views, the chaser postings received 129 and 139 official views and the short film on the making of the short film received 64 official views, but we know from google analytics that unofficial views (from non-members) generally treble this number of views. We utilised Twitter to further publicise the Local Plan. We put out 22 tweets over the course of the consultation achieving: 20,979 impressions; 305 engagements; 57 retweets, 2 replies and 14 favourites; and 101 clicks through to the link (either the media release or directly through to the consultation page). We posted stills from the Local Plan film onto our Instagram account to further promote the consultation. Our post using the still of the tree from the Local Plan film is the most popular image we have shared on Instagram to date – gaining 116 likes. We posted three stills altogether, gaining a total of 155 likes. 2 We also promoted the Local Plan through local newspapers and broadcasters. We achieved a total of 42 pieces of broadcast, online and print coverage for the consultation. Our main press push was at the start of the consultation. Our embargoed media release, sent out two working days before the start of the consultation to make sure that story was covered in the weekly publications on the first week, achieved 36 pieces of coverage including ITV Meridian and BBC News Online. Who did the SDNPA consult? 9. There have been two main stages of consultation: the Options consultation in Spring 2014 and the Preferred Options consultation in Autumn 2015. 10. At the Options consultation, a range of organisations were contacted, and there was wide publicity to encourage members of the public from across the National Park and surrounding areas to participate. Further details of how the consultation was conducted are given below. A list of those specifically invited in writing to participate at this time is provided in Appendix 1. 11. At the Preferred Options stage, a wide range of organisations and individuals were directly invited to participate. A list of organisations and individuals who were contacted at Preferred Options stage is provided in Appendix 2. 12. In addition, there has been continuous dialogue with both specialist stakeholder bodies (see the Duty to Cooperate statement), and community representatives. The SDNPA has been particularly proactive in having informal dialogue with Parish Councils, particularly where the relevant parish has been identified as having capacity to accommodate some housing growth to be allocated in the SDLP. How did the SDNPA consult? 13. The following section sets out details of consultation and engagement in relation to the South Downs Local Plan. 14. Options Launch of Issues and Options - Issues and Options Consultation ran from 28 February 2014 to 30 April 2014 - Notification of consultation sent to all County, District and Unitary Authorities (Chief Exec) - Notification also sent to all Planning Policy and Housing Teams providing info on consultation and how to respond - Notification of Issues & Options consultation sent to all parish councils - Copy of Issues and Options consultation document sent to all Parish Councils and 8 weeks provided for feedback with request to promote to their respective communities and encourage them to respond to SDNPA (e.g. parish newsletters) - Posters sent out to Parish Councils (March 2014) highlighting the local plan process 3 One to One meetings with Towns and large Parishes (September / October 2014) - Meetings held with the towns and larger parishes in the National Park - One to one meetings held with Alfriston, Amberley, Corhampton,