The Council’s planning policies provide a framework for making decisions about the area’s future.
The system for producing them is changing – as a result of legislation introduced in 2004 a Local Development Framework (LDF) will replace the Huntingdonshire Local Plan in setting out policies for the area.
The LDF will comprise several documents to be produced over a period of time:
· Development Plan Documents
· Supplementary Planning Documents
· A Statement of Community Involvement
· The Local Development Scheme
· An Annual Monitoring Report
Informal planning guidance and policy statements, which do not form part of the LDF, will also be produced.
The role of these different documents is explained below.
The Development Plan
The most important policies are those that form part of the Development Plan, as by law decisions on planning applications have to be made in accordance with the Development Plan unless there are other ‘material considerations’ that are sufficient to justify departing from it.
National policies contained in Planning Policy Guidance Notes (PPGs) or the Planning Policy Statements (PPSs) that are replacing them are important material considerations that need to be taken into account.
At present the Development Plan is made up of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Structure Plan (which contains strategic policies relating to the whole county) and the Huntingdonshire Local Plan (which contains more detailed policies and proposals).
Under the new system the Development Plan will instead be made up of a Regional Spatial Strategy (setting out strategic policies for the East of England) and the Development Plan Documents (DPDs) produced by the District Council.
Most policies and proposals in the Structure Plan and Local Plan will remain in force until they are replaced by the Regional Spatial Strategy or a Development Plan Document.
The District Council will produce a number of Development Plan Documents over time. The first two are the Core Strategy and Development Control Policies DPD, which set out the overall vision, objectives and general policies for managing development in the area. The documents that we will prepare – and the timetable for producing them – are listed in the Local Development Scheme.
As part of the new system we have already produced a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) which explains how we will involve people in preparing the new documents, and also in significant development control decisions.
Supplementary and informal guidance
From time to time we have prepared Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) to expand upon the policies and proposals contained in the Development Plan. Under the new planning system any new guidance of this type will be known as a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD). Our proposals for producing SPDs are set out in the Local Development Scheme.
We will also continue to prepare informal planning guidance as and when required. Some of this provides guidance for areas or sites where development is proposed, but where a specific allocation does not exist in the Local Plan (or an emerging Development Plan Document). Other informal guidance provides general advice on particular subject areas, such as tree preservation.
The Council has also produced an Interim Planning Policy Statement outlining the local policies it intends to apply when dealing with planning proposals. This includes a mixture of saved Development Plan policies, policies from the withdrawn Core Strategy and other local planning policy guidance. This Interim Planning Policy Statement was adopted by the Council on 18 April 2007.
Extension of "saved" policies beyond 28 September 2007
The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 provides for the saving of policies in adopted or approved local and structure plans for a period of 3 years from the commencement of the Act, which was 28 September 2004. In order to ensure continuity in the plan-led system and a stable local planning framework, the Secretary of State has issued a Direction (Schedule 1) listing all policies from the Huntingdonshire Local Plan 1995 and Local Plan Alteration 2002 which are to be saved beyond 28 September 2007, until they are replaced by policies in forthcoming Development Plan Documents.
Schedule 1 can be viewed by clicking in the 'Linked Documents' box to the right of this page.
Those policies not listed in the Direction will expire on 27th September 2007.