NPPF – THE FINAL ACT
Last year the draft National Planning Policy Framework was described in Watch on the Weald as ‘an appalling document'. Countryside protection bodies much larger than WKPS similarly criticised it. The result has been that the recently issued final document no longer gives the impression that it was virtually dictated to the minister by developers. Substantial improvements have been made, although it still falls short of what countryside lovers might have hoped for. Below are six of the many changes.
- There is now a more meaningful definition of the ‘Sustainable Growth' which was said to justify all development.
- The alarming statement that ‘The default answer' to a development proposal is ‘Yes' has been dropped.
- Protection for countryside, not merely in designated areas such as AONBs, has been somewhat strengthened. Decisions must recognise ‘the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside'.
- Although, regrettably, the ‘sequential' principle of building on brownfield sites before green ones has been lost, local authorities ‘should encourage' the use of brown.
- Although again this is weaker than we might have hoped, local authorities are told to ‘consider… policies to restrict inappropriate development of residential gardens'.
- Hugely welcome, somewhat unexpected, and highly relevant for all three of the WKPS local planning authorities is the new and long overdue concession that reasonably anticipated ‘Windfalls' of housing, on the basis of past evidence, may be counted when local authorities are calculating fulfilment of their housing targets. We must urge our authorities to respond promptly to this, with, it is to be hoped, significant benefit to Tenterden, Cranbrook and Hawkhurst.
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