Published Delegated Executive Decisions

Decision ref

0053 2023/24

Decision date

30/11/2023

Portfolio

Regeneration & Planning

Wards

All wards

Title

Draft Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) - Public Consultation

Summary

A number of Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) are being prepared to provide additional planning guidance to aid in the implementation of the St Helens Borough Local Plan (2022). Draft versions of the first cohort of SPDs are now ready for public consultation.

Purpose

To seek approval to undertake a six week statutory consultation on the first cohort of draft Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), in line with regulations as set out in The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012, to allow all sections of the community and stakeholders to have the opportunity to influence and comment on said documents.

Background

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) (2021) defines SPDs as: “Documents which add further detail to the policies in the development plan. They can be used to provide further guidance for development on specific sites, or on particular issues, such as design. Supplementary planning documents are capable of being a material consideration in planning decisions but are not part of the development plan.” There are a number of SPDs (15) in effect in the Borough at the current time, covering a range of different issues, from shopfronts and travel, to hot food takeaways and biodiversity. However, these are all between 10 and 15 years old, and planning policy (both locally and nationally) has changed significantly since the majority of these SPDs were first drafted and subsequently adopted. The St Helens Borough Local Plan was adopted in July 2022. In paragraphs 3.3.2 and 3.3.3 of the Local Plan, there is an acknowledgement that a number of existing SPDs need to be reviewed and proposes a number of new SPDs to be produced. Combined with the age of the existing SPDs, Officers have also reviewed the SPDs to be updated, and identified the need for new SPDs, in order to ensure there is a robust policy framework to provide the appropriate detailed guidance to support the delivery of the Local Plan. Within this context, there are a significant number of SPDs to be prepared. To this end, the preparation of new SPDs will be done in batches to reflect the available resources and the order in which they are prepared will reflect their level of priority. Therefore, the initial batch of SPDs that has been prepared are as follows: • Design SPD • Developer Contributions SPD • Open Space Provision and Enhancement SPD • Transport and Travel SPD To help define and shape their content, a six week targeted scoping consultation was undertaken on the above proposed SPDs between November and December 2022. At a Portfolio Holder briefing session on 4 November 2022, the process for progressing SPDs to adoption (and securing the necessary approvals) was clarified as follows: a Delegated Executive Decision (DED) would be required to approve the full draft SPDs for the purposes of undertaking public consultation on them. Following this, and once the SPDs are finalised following consultation feedback, the final versions will go to Cabinet for adoption.

Conclusion

Draft SPDs on the following topics have now been prepared: • Design SPD (Appendix 1 - Please note due to the file size it has not been possible to download the file, however please contact Sara Manson for access to the document); • Developer contributions SPD (Appendix 2); • Open Space Provision and Enhancement SPD (Appendix 3); and • Transport and Travel SPD (Appendix 4). It is intended that public consultation is undertaken on these draft SPDs for a period of six weeks (in excess of the statutory minimum of four weeks) to gather feedback and comments on their content. Such feedback will then help inform any further necessary changes prior to them ultimately being adopted. There will be a few final tweaks to be made to the draft SPDs appended to this DED prior to the launch of the public consultation to improve clarity in a couple of areas, as well as improvements to their formatting and layout, including the use of images. However, their main content is provided in the appendices to this DED for comment and, ultimately, approval for public consultation.

Risk Implications

None

Measures to Redress Risk

None

Declarations Of Interest

None

Equality Impact Assessment

Download

More information

Please contact Sara Manson on 01744 673276