Local Plan: Development Management Plan (DMP) consultation
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council has announced the start of a consultation on the next part of its local plan, the Development Management Plan, which runs until Monday 10 October 2016. Once finalised the DMP will be ‘Part 2’ of the new Local Plan for Reigate & Banstead and will sit alongside the Core Strategy (‘Part 1’ of the Local Plan adopted in 2014).
The Core Strategy sets the overarching framework for planning and development in the borough, including the scale and broad location of growth. The DMP will set out more detailed planning policies that translate the Core Strategy proposals into ‘on-the-ground’ proposals. The DMP will comprise:
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Planning policies to guide decision making on planning applications, covering issues such as open space, nature conservation, heritage, design and parking
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Planning designations which highlight areas with particular characteristics where a specific policy approach is necessary. Examples include green space, employment areas, and Residential Areas of Special Character
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Site allocations for specific types of development, for example, housing, offices, new shops.
The DMP will also allocate reserve sites for urban extensions outside existing urban areas (in the areas of search set out in the Core Strategy). These will be required if the Council is unable to demonstrate that it has five years’ worth of other housing sites.
Tell us your views
Cllr Tony Schofield, Executive Member for Planning Policy, said: “Having a Local Plan in place will provide greater local control over where development goes. It will help make sure that the need to provide new housing and grow the economy is balanced against protecting the local environment and providing infrastructure and services. In our plan, new development will be provided in urban areas as a priority. If the Council does not have a plan in place it is more likely that government planning inspectors will decide for us where development will go in the future and what it looks like. I urge residents, businesses and workers in the borough to give us their views. This is your chance to shape what is included in this plan. Your views are important to us so please get involved.”
New development will help to pay for local services and infrastructure needed such as schools, health facilities and roads. The consultation document identifies potential sites for two new primary schools and a new healthcare facility.
This first round of consultation (Regulation 18 consultation) is an opportunity for you to tell us what you think should be included in the DMP.
How to have your say
Exhibitions will be held at various locations around the borough along with a number of staffed drop-in sessions so you can find out more and have your questions answered.
There are lots of ways you can have your say, including an online survey and an interactive online map to easily find out what’s proposed and comment on proposals for a specific area.
Alternatively, download a comments form and complete and return it by email to ldf@reigate-banstead.gov.uk or by post to the Policy team at the Town Hall, Castlefield Road, Reigate RH2 0SH.
Hard copies of the consultation document are available for inspection at the exhibitions, at libraries, at the Town Hall in Reigate (where supporting background information will also be available) or by calling 01737 276178. You can pick up a comments form from these locations too.
For information on where and when the exhibitions and drop-in sessions will be, to view the full consultation document and supporting evidence, to access the online survey, comments map and the comments form or to find out more visit www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/dmp.
Next steps
Following this consultation, the Council will use your comments to help develop preferred policy options and finalise which development sites to include in the formal draft DMP.
A further public consultation on the formal draft version of the Development Management Plan is scheduled for spring 2017. It will then be examined by an independent planning inspector before it can be formally adopted by the Council.
To keep up to date on this and other planning policy matters you can register to be added to the Council’s mailing list, online at www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/dmp, by emailing LDF@reigate-banstead.gov.uk or by phoning 01737 276178.
