Local plan process completed
Approval of the Non-Statutory Local Plan at last Wednesday’s meeting of Full Council means that it will now be used as an interim guide in all planning decisions made by the Wealden District and referred to in any resulting planning appeals that may take place.
Preliminary work on the Local Development Framework, the new overall district guidelines for planning, will begin in the spring of 2006, and this will eventually supersede the non-statutory local plan.
As it has not undergone the final stage of a public inquiry, the local plan can not be treated as a statutory plan for the purposes of Section 54A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. However, in view of the extensive work undertaken in both the first deposit draft plan and the revised draft plan; and the consultations and consideration involved in allocating sites for future development, this non-statutory local plan will be given appropriate weight in the planning decision-making process in Wealden, along with policies which have been retained unchanged from the 1998 Wealden Local Plan and the County Structure Plan as well as Government guidance and other material planning considerations.
A copy of the text of the Non-Statutory Local Plan will be available in the new year ahead of a full printed version. It will also be made available on the Wealden web site, www.wealden.gov.uk.
At today’s Full Council meeting, the Chairman of Wealden District Council Councillor Mrs Pat Kennedy paid tribute to the enormous task that had now been successfully completed by committee members and council officers.“I would especially like to thank members of Wealden’s Planning Department for their hard work and dedication. As well as being one of the busiest planning departments in the country, Wealden had to consider over 9,000 representations during the local plan process, which easily exceeded the combined total number of representations received by the Wealden’s four adjoining local authorities when they undertook the same process,” she said.
