Design for the Future Replacing East Northamptonshire’s Local Plan Have your say… Issues Report July 2001 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 What is the Local Plan? 4 1.2 Why does the Plan need to be replaced? 5 1.3 What is an Issues Report? 5 1.4 Has anything already been decided? 6 1.5 The Council’s Values and Objectives 7 1.6 Design for the Future – have your say 7 1.7 Stages Leading to the Adoption of the Replacement Local Plan 8 2. CREATING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES 9 2.1 Vision 9 2.2 How can we achieve sustainable development? 9 2.3 Greenfield or brownfield? 10 2.4 Travel 11 2.5 Energy use and efficiency 12 2.6 Water resources and flooding 13 3. ENVIRONMENT 15 3.1 Vision 15 3.2 Why protect the environment? 15 3.3 Protecting the Environment 15 3.4 East Northamptonshire’s Landscape 16 3.5 The River Nene 17 3.6 The Built Environment 17 3.7 Design 18 3.8 Telecommunications 20 4. HOUSING 22 4.1 Vision 22 4.2 What is the role of the Local Plan? 22 4.3 Accommodating housing growth 24 4.4 Urban Capacity 24 4.5 Previously Developed Land and Buildings 24 4.6 Raising Densities 25 4.7 Parking 25 4.8 Greenfield Sites 26 4.9 Phasing 26 4.10 Windfall Sites 26 4.11 What sort of Housing is needed? 27 4.12 Designing for quality 28 4.13 Sustainability 28 4.14 Community Safety 29 4.15 Recreation and Open Space 29 4.16 Amenity Open Space 29 4.17 Movement 30 5. ECONOMY 31 5.1 Vision 31 5.2 What is the role of the Local Plan? 31 5.3 Industry and Commerce 31 5.4 Supply 32 5.5 Location 32 5.6 The form of industrial and commercial development 33 5.7 Knowledge driven companies 34 5.8 Non-employment uses in employment areas 34 5.9 Sequential approach to office development 35 5.10 Working from home 35 5.11 Town Centres 36 5.12 Town Centre Policy Areas 36 5.13 Sequential approach to retail development 36 5.14 Car parking standards 37 5.15 Leisure and the evening economy 37 5.16 Design 38 5.17 Tourism 38 6. SUPPORTING RURAL LIFE 40 6.1 Vision 40 6.2 The Amount of Rural Housing Development 40 6.3 Location of Development 42 6.4 Village Envelopes and Infilling 43 6.5 Affordable Housing 43 6.6 Rural Employment 44 6.7 Farm Diversification 45 7. TRAVEL AND TRANSPORT 46 7.1 Vision 46 7.2 The Transport Challenge 46 7.3 Transport Priorities and Objectives 47 7.4 Transport and the Environment 47 7.5 Integrated transport 49 7.6 Public Transport 49 7.7 Voluntary transport 50 7.8 Pedestrian, cycle and powered two wheel vehicle movements 50 7.9 Freight Transport 51 7.10 Car Parking 51 7.11 Roads 52 7.12 Air Transport 52 8. LEISURE AND COMMUNITY FACILITIES 53 8.1 Vision 53 8.2 Leisure 53 8.3 Playing Fields and Play Areas 54 8.4 Recreation Space in Villages 56 8.5 Parks, Amenity Open Space and Allotments 57 8.6 The Nene Valley 58 8.7 Access to the Countryside 58 8.8 Community Facilities 59 8.9 Requirements arising from new development 59 8.10 Retention of existing facilities 60 8.11 Assessing needs 60 8.12 Dual Use of Facilities 61 9. GETTING THINGS DONE 62 9.1 Measuring Performance 63 References 64 1. Introduction The district of East Northamptonshire has seen many changes in recent years. Depending on your view, some of these have been for the better and some for the worse. East Northamptonshire Council has faced an equal number of challenges, as it has to balance promoting the district and encouraging job creation with conservation of our environment and heritage. Land uses are often the most obvious changes because they can be seen, especially where they affect the character and quality of our environment. Social and economic changes are not so easy to detect but they may lead to visible changes through their impact upon land uses. 1.1 What is the Local Plan? The planning system is concerned with regulating the development and use of land in the interests of the community as a whole. This is done through Government legislation and guidance, regional guidance and the Development Plan – made up of the County Structure Plan, County Minerals and Waste Local Plans and the District Local Plan. The Council uses these documents when it has to make decisions on land use changes, most commonly through permitting or refusing planning applications for new development. The District Local Plan is prepared by the Council to ensure all of the Government, regional and county-wide policies are applied in a way that reflects local needs and circumstances. Not surprisingly then, it is the District Local Plan that will direct most of the land-use decisions made by the Council on a day-to-day basis. It provides guidance and confidence for developers and individuals, by setting out a consistent basis for planning decisions. East Northamptonshire Council adopted its first district-wide Local Plan in November 1996, although work first began on its preparation in 1990. The long and complicated process of preparing a Local Plan is set out at the end of this section. The first Local Plan sets out a land-use policy framework for the period up to 2006. It contains proposals aimed at meeting social and economic needs in East Northamptonshire, while limiting harm to the environment. 1.2 Why does the Plan need to be replaced? The Local Plan has to be in line with Government, regional and county policies. Since the Plan was adopted, many of these policies have changed. There have been several shifts in the way the Government wants local councils to plan for land use change. The most important of these are the emphasis on using brownfield sites, reducing the need to travel by private car and concentrating more development in cities and towns. At the same time, the Government recognises that rural jobs, homes and services need to be planned carefully to support village communities. The Regional Planning Guidance for the East Midlands and the Northamptonshire County Structure Plan have both been revised recently to take account of Government policies. The County Council has also prepared a Local Transport Plan that will affect travel in the District and have an impact on land uses. As a result of all these changes, the Local Plan now has to be revised and extended to cover the period up to 2016. In January 2001, the Council published a Monitoring Report that looked at how the Local Plan has been used, giving a picture of which policies have worked and which have not, and setting out all of the various changes that are required to keep the Plan up to date. This Issues Report is the first stage in the preparation of a replacement Local Plan. 1.3 What is an Issues Report? Government guidance requires the District Council to consult a wide range of organisations, businesses and the local communities on key land-use planning issues, before writing a replacement Local Plan. This Issues Report therefore sets out the main areas that the Council will have to make decisions on, so that all the competing needs of the district can be tackled in a creative and balanced way. Each main section contains many questions about the issues, to help get you thinking so that you can express your views. A summary leaflet and questionnaire has also been produced to make it easy to reply, if you do not wish to write separately. The Council will use the results of consultation on this report and the summary leaflet to pull together ideas for land-use proposals and help with writing new policies. This document is intended to cover as many issues as is necessary to inform the replacement Local Plan but it is not an exhaustive list, so please raise any other issues you think might be relevant. 1.4 Has anything already been decided? The Local Plan cannot stray too far from Government policies or the strategy of the County Structure Plan, so some things have already been decided for us. The County Structure Plan sets out a strategy of “compact urban growth and transport choice”, which means that development should be concentrated on brownfield sites in the towns, wherever possible within walking and cycling distance of jobs, shops and services. In the rural area the strategy is to restrict development to meeting local housing needs, providing employment and supporting services for village communities. The opportunities for further market or “commuter” housing are very restricted. The County Structure Plan requires the Council to find sites for 8,000 new homes between 1996 and 2016. At least 7,000 of these are to be in the urban areas – the six towns of Higham Ferrers, Irthlingborough, Oundle, Raunds, Rushden and Thrapston. This figure is based on national population projections and the long-term trend towards smaller households. A total of 140 hectares (346 acres) of employment land will also need to be identified in or on the edge of the urban areas. As the last County Structure Plan and the Local Plan overlap with the new County Structure Plan, a lot of this development has already taken place or has planning permission.