Wyre Local Plan Issues and Options June 2015 Wyre Local Plan Issue and Options 2015 Disclaimer 1 Wyre Local Plan Issue and Options 2015 Wyre Borough Council Foreword Wyre is a beautiful district with distinct character and heritage extending from the Fylde Coast to the Forest of Bowland. Although it includes a number of vibrant towns and villages, most of the land is open countryside. It is important that we ensure the economic growth and sustainability of our communities whilst protecting our valued environment. The Local Plan will guide, manage and encourage development to meet our needs for the next fifteen years whilst protecting the quality that defines Wyre Borough. It is an important document and we want the community and stakeholders to get involved in the process. We know that local people feel very strongly about the future of the borough. The Council has adopted a Local Growth Plan to facilitate local economic growth and support businesses in the creation of jobs. The Council also need to address the increased need for new housing to serve the needs of a growing population and support business growth. The Council also recognises that growth needs to be sustainable and take place without undue harm to the environment. This is a challenging task. In 2012 we consulted on preferred options for a Core Strategy which would have set the strategic framework within which more detail policies would be prepared for the period up to 2028. However almost at the same time national planning policy changed and in 2013 the Regional Spatial Strategy, which provided the context for the Core Strategy and most importantly set the scale of development in Wyre, was abolished. The Council was required to assess its own development needs and it became apparent that it was necessary to reconsider the strategy. As encouraged by national policy the Council also decided to prepare a single Local Plan which will set out the overall strategy, identify land for development and set out policies to manage development. This Issues and Options document is the first stage in developing the new Local Plan and will guide development in the borough for the period up to 2031. The Council is still working on a number of studies that will inform the Local Plan. However it is important that at this early stage, the community and stakeholders are involved before any decisions are made on the overall strategy and on what sites will be allocated for development. This Issues and Options document does not shy away from outlining the challenges we are faced with. It also sets out a vision for the future and options of how development could be distributed across the Borough. It provides an opportunity for local people to positively influence the formulation of policies and proposals that would represent a clear and sustainable future for the borough. We hope you can take the time to respond to this consultation and let us know your views on the important issues that this document raises and the choices which are presented in it. We very much look forward to receiving your responses. Councillor Pete Murphy, Planning and Councillor Ron Greenhough, Chairman Economy Portfolio Holder Planning Committee and Planning Policy Working Group 2 Wyre Local Plan Issue and Options 2015 Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 4 2 SPATIAL PORTRAIT ..................................................................................................... 6 Spatial Characteristics 6 Population and Society 7 Housing 8 Economy 8 Natural Environment 10 Built Environment 13 Infrastructure 13 3 KEY ISSUES .................................................................................................................17 Population & Settlement Pattern 17 Fleetwood 18 Housing 18 Economy 19 Natural Environment 20 Climate Change and Flood Risk 21 Built Environment 22 Infrastructure 22 4 VISION ..........................................................................................................................24 5 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES ..........................................................................................27 6 SPATIAL STRATEGY ..................................................................................................29 OPTION 1 – FYLDE COAST PENINSULA MAIN URBAN AREA FOCUS 31 OPTION 2 – A6 CORRIDOR FOCUS 35 OPTION 3 – DISPERSAL 38 7 DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS FOR EACH SETTLEMENT ..............................................42 APPENDIX 1 – POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT SITES .........................................................43 3 Wyre Local Plan Issue and Options 2015 Wyre Borough Council 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Council is preparing a new Local Plan which will provide a planning and development strategy to guide future development in Wyre. It will establish a vision for the Borough up to 2031 and the strategy for delivering that vision; and identify the overall level of different types of development (including housing, employment and retail) that is envisaged during that period, and the general geographical distribution of that development. The Local Plan will also allocate sites for certain types of development; designate areas for protection; and set out policies to manage development in the Borough. It will cover the period from 2011 to 2031 and, once adopted, will supersede the “saved” policies in the 1999 Local Plan and the Fleetwood-Thornton Area Action Plan. 1.2 In April 2012 the Council consulted on preferred options for a Core Strategy. The Core Strategy would have set the overall strategic framework for the Borough and would have been supplemented by site allocations and more detailed policies for managing development set out in a Site Allocations and Development Management Policies Plan. 1.3 However, at the same time the Government published the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which advocates that local authorities should prepare a single planning policy document, a Local Plan, to provide both the overall strategic framework and the more detailed policies and allocations for their area. The production of a single Local Plan document is considered to have particular advantages for community involvement given that it enables local residents to see the implications of strategy options in terms of land allocations when commenting on the overall strategic framework. In addition, the North West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) was revoked in May 2013 and therefore the Council is required to establish the development needs of the Borough. The 2013 Strategic Housing Market Assessment has indicated a significant increase in the scale of housing that would be required in the period up to 2031. A single Local Plan document enables the Council to consider the spatial distribution of development more holistically. The Council therefore resolved to prepare a single Local Plan document rather than produce separate Core Strategy and Site Allocations and Development Management Policies documents. 1.4 Although the Council has decided not to progress the Core Strategy, the work undertaken to inform its preparation, including the consultation feedback received in 2012, is still of relevance and will be used to feed into the preparation of the Local Plan. However, it is opportune to consider whether the 2012 preferred strategy is still relevant and appropriate in light of new evidence. 1.5 The Local Plan is at a very early stage in its production. This document identifies a series of key planning issues and options for the Borough which are being considered by the Local Plan. It covers two main topics – the overall spatial strategy, which addresses the distribution of development across the Borough, and potential land for development. The document has been produced to enable the early involvement of the community and other stakeholders in the process so that their views can be taken into account when producing the draft Local Plan. 4 Wyre Local Plan Issue and Options 2015 1.6 As part of addressing issues the Council is preparing a suite of studies (the evidence base) to inform the preparation of the policies in the Local Plan. These include, for example, the Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) and the Employment Land Review (ELR) which will inform the overall scale of housing and employment development across the Borough. The complete set of evidence will be published with the final draft Local Plan. 1.7 In parallel with the preparation of the Local Plan, the Council, together with infrastructure providers, is producing an Infrastructure Plan which will assess the impact of proposed development on infrastructure and set out necessary infrastructure required to support proposed development. The Infrastructure Plan process will enable infrastructure providers to align their funding programmes accordingly with the development strategy and as far as possible ensure that essential infrastructure associated with new development is brought forward at the right time. The Infrastructure Plan will be kept under review and the work with infrastructure providers will continue beyond the adoption of the Local Plan. 1.8 The council is inviting comments on this Issues and Options document for a six week period between 17th June 2015 and 31st July 2015. 1.9 All comments must be received no later than 5pm on 31st July 2015 and should be made in either of the following ways: By post to: Planning Policy, Wyre Council, Civic Centre, Breck Road, Poulton-le-Fylde, FY6 7PU. By e-mail to: [email protected]