'Saved policies'
We have now received 'direction letters' from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) c/o of the Government Office for the West Midlands (GOWM) to confirm which policies in the adopted Structure Plan, Minerals Local Plan and Waste Local Plan have been 'saved' and remain our adopted planning policies from 28 September 2007.
The direction letters dated 7 September 2007 from GOWM are as follows:
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Structure Plan direction letter
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Minerals Local Plan direction letter
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Waste Local Plan direction letter
As a consequence, the adopted and 'saved' Waste Local Plan and Minerals Local Plan, together with the Staffordshire Borough / District Local Plans, the Structure Plan and Stoke-on-Trent's Unitary Development Plan, which form a part of the 'development plan' for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, will now change with effect from 28 September 2007. Essentially this means that the number of policies making up the development plan have been reduced and more reliance is now placed on national Planning Policy Statements and the Regional Spatial Strategy to help determine planning applications until such time as replacement Development Plan Documents are adopted. For more information go to:
Background
In August 2006 the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) issued a 'Protocol for handling proposals to save adopted... policies...' to advise all Local Planning Authorities in England about how they would assess any requests to save policies in their 'saved' local plans beyond 28 September 2007 (the date 3 years from commencement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004). DCLG wishes to ensure that only relevant and up to date policies remain after 28 September 2007 and only remain until they are replaced by policies that are adopted as part of the new Local Development Framework.
DCLG Protocol handling proposals to save adopted policies - August 2006
Staffordshire County Council's request to 'save' policies
Following approval by the Cabinet Member (Development), a request by the County Council to save policies was submitted to the Secretary of State via the Government Office for the West Midlands (GOWM) before the deadline of 1 April 2007. GOWM is now assessing our request on the basis of protocol issued by the DCLG referred to above.
A report to Planning Committee in April 2007 provided the reasoned justification for the requested saved policies.
Report to Planning Committee 12 April 2007 - request to save policies
Structure Plan 'saved policies'
The DCLG protocol gives specific advice regarding the saving of Structure Plan policies by the Regional Planning Bodies (the West Midlands Regional Assembly in our case).
The committee report referred to above identifies a number of Structure Plan policies that were included in our request to be saved policies as they are considered to be necessary in the determination of minerals and waste planning applications.
Staffordshire Borough / District Council 'saved policies'
The Staffordshire Borough / District Councils (excluding those councils that have adopted their local plan since September 2004) also had to make a request to save their local plan policies. To find out more click on the development plan index page below where you will find links to the Staffordshire Borough / District Council's and Stoke-on-Trent City Council's planning policy pages.
Last Modified:
03/11/2008 11:08:49
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