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PART 3 IMPLEMENTATION AND REVIEW

3.2.1 District Planning Authorities are required by legislation to review those matters which may be expected to affect the development of their area. Regular monitoring is important to the success of the Local Plan. It will ensure that the policies and proposals of the Plan continue to be up-to-date, relevant and, if necessary, respond to changing circumstances. Monitoring is the collection of information on a regular basis about the performance of the Plan. Review is the conclusion to a period of monitoring and allows judgements to be made about whether the Plan is proving successful.

Assessing the performance of the Plan.

Monitoring


3.2.2 As far as possible, the policies and proposals of the Local Plan are expressed in a form which will allow for monitoring and subsequent review. However, any system for collecting information and for reaching judgements on the effectiveness of the Plan needs to be straightforward. There is little advantage in collecting information for its own sake. The District Planning Authority will produce an annual monitoring statement setting out readily available information on matters such as the number of houses built, the take-up of industrial land and new road improvements completed. Table 8, overleaf, sets out the information that can be gathered and how it can be used to assess the performance of the Plan. A county-wide environmental monitoring system has been set up, detailed in paragraphs 3.2.7 - 3.2.9 below.


Preparing an annual Monitoring statement.

3.2.3 The purpose of adding Objectives and Targets to the Plan is to make it easier to carry out a meaningful assessment of the Plan's performance. Objectives help to identify the priorities that the District Planning Authority places on achieving different types of development such as affordable housing or the importance attached to protecting the environment. Targets provide benchmarks to see what has been achieved. They represent worthwhile achievements as the Plan's policies and proposals are put into effect.

Measures of progress.

Review


3.2.4 The Local Plan covers the period up to the year 2006 but it will need to be responsive to changing circumstances as the years pass. If monitoring shows a need to make changes to policies or proposals, then changes will be made in a review of the Plan. The need to review and update the Plan may be triggered by an alteration to the County Structure Plan or a major change to Government planning policy, but in any event a review should normally take place at least once every 5 years. Mid Suffolk District Council will initially look to carry out a review of the Local Plan after the first 3 years. Alterations to the Plan will involve full consultation with the public.


Making sure the Plan does not become out of date.

Environmental Appraisal of the Local Plan

 

3.2.5 Since 1993, the District Planning Authority has been working as part of a county-wide project team with the other seven local authorities in Suffolk to develop a methodology for assessing the role of development plans in achieving sustainable development.

 

3.2.6 The Suffolk Planning Authorities published Guidance on the Environmental Scope of Development Plans (Autumn 1995) to assist in the environmental appraisals of all the development plans in Suffolk, including the Mid Suffolk Local Plan. However, due to the revision of key guidance notes since its publication, this was updated and reissued in Autumn 1998.

 

3.2.7 In March 1997, the Suffolk Local Planning Authorities produced a county-wide environmental audit, called Suffolk's Environment: Towards Sustainable Development. The report comprises:

(a) information about the current state of the environment;

(b) a set of measures or indicators which will allow us to monitor future changes in the local environment; and

(c) a look at how planning policies and decisions affect the quality of life in Suffolk.

 

3.2.8 A wide range of indicators has been established to provide a means of measuring the potential impact of development plan policies and proposals. Monitoring of the indicators started throughout Suffolk on 1 July 1997. Some indicators will be reported on an annual basis, others less frequently, and it is intended to publish the first review of the report in early 1999.

 

TABLE 8

Information to be monitored throughout the Local Plan Period

General Principles and Settlement Boundaries

- Development outside Settlement Boundaries

- Development affecting Visually Important Open Spaces

- No. of design briefs prepared for major sites

- No. of planning applications refused on design grounds

- Area of derelict land by District

- Area of redevelopment sites by proposed use.

Heritage and Listed Buildings

- No. of listed building consents and conservation area consents approved and refused

- No. of planning applications in conservation areas approved and refused

- No of enhancement schemes in conservation areas

- No. of Conservation Area Partnerships, compared to the no. of bids made

- No. of listed buildings

- No. of historic buildings at risk

- Total value of grant aided work to historic buildings and buildings in conservation areas

- No. and percentage of planning applications which affect known archaeological sites approved, subject to amendments, conditions, agreements or prior evaluation

- No. and percentage of applications which affect known archaeological sites refused

- No. and percentage of Scheduled Ancient Monuments (and other archaeological sites of national importance) damaged as a result of development

- No. and percentage of applications which affect known archaeological sites of less than national importance approved with no provision for preservation in situ or recording prior to or during development

- No and percentage of applications affecting sites of high archaeological potential approved.

Countryside and Rural Economy

- Area of agricultural land allocated for development

- Number of applications for development in rural areas, approved and refused

- No. of applications in designated landscape areas approved and refused

- No. and area of historic parks and gardens, commons, village greens and visually important open spaces (VIOSs) lost or damaged as a result of development

- No. of applications refused in, or in relation to, historic parks and gardens, commons, village greens or VIOSs

- No. of applications approved, subject to safeguarding conditions, in an historic park and garden, common, village green or VIOS

- No. of applications outside designated landscape areas where loss of landscape features are cited as a reason for refusal

- Extent of non-local authority landscape management schemes

- Area of woodland

- Area of woodland covered by approved Forestry Authority management schemes since 1991

- No. and area of sites designated as of nature conservation value lost or damaged as a result of development

- No. of applications refused in, or in relation to, sites designated as of nature conservation value

- No. of applications approved, subject to safeguarding conditions or agreements, which relate to a site designated as of nature conservation value

- No. of applications which include reasons for refusal relating to protected species

- No. of applications which include condition or agreements relating to protected species

- New habitat provided in association with applications where an environmental assessment (EA) is required or voluntarily provided

- New habitat provided in accordance with the provision of the Local Plan allocations

- No. of publicly accessible nature reserves

- No. of new Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) served within villages and towns

- No. of applications for work covered by TPOs within villages and urban areas

- No. of TPO trees or areas of woodland within villages and towns lost each year.

Housing

- Housing stock changes in relation to Structure Plan rates of development

- Land availability for residential development in relation to Structure Plan/Local Plan requirements and PPG 3

- No. and percentage of applications for affordable housing approved and refused

- Percentage of housing in towns and elsewhere

- Percentage of all new residential development taking place in towns and elsewhere

- No. and percentage of applications refused on grounds of privacy, daylight, odour or noise nuisance.

Industry and Commerce

- No. and percentage of unemployed

- No. and percentage of employees by individual employment section

- No. and percentage of employees by location

- Land availability for business/industrial development

- Completions on business/industrial development land

- No. and percentage of applications for commercial activity in rural areas approved

- No. and percentage of all applications for expansion of commercial activity refused

- No. and percentage of all applications for new commercial activity refused.

Shopping and Town Centre Development

- No. of units of each land use class in the defined town centres

- No. of vacant units of each land use class in the defined town centres

- No. of multiple retailers in town centres

- Planning approvals and Local Plan allocations for major developments or new developments in town centres

- Pedestrian flows in each town centre

- Length and area of pedestrianisation in Stowmarket

- No. of town centre parking spaces

- No. of major commercial applications outside town centres approved and refused (PS1/2 Codes 2, 4 and 5).

Transport

- Percentage of population with journey to work by public transport

- No. of pedestrian friendly road crossings

- Total length of urban cycle routes

- No. of public cycle parking facilities

- No. of parishes where 30 mph speed restrictions have been implemented

- No. of applications refused because of unacceptable environmental impact of traffic

- No. of applications refused because of traffic safety implications

- No. of approvals which include conditions or agreements which seek to minimise traffic impact.

Recreation and Open Space

- Existing level of publicly accessible open space provision within Mid Suffolk's towns and villages

- Hectarage of new publicly accessible open space permitted

- Hectarage of publicly accessible open space lost through development

- No. and percentage of applications refused because of loss of publicly accessible open space

- No. and percentage refused because of inadequate publicly accessible open space provision

- Accessibility to publicly accessible open space

- Existing provision of outdoor playing space (youth and adult)

- Existing provision of children's play space

- Existing provision of allotments

- Existing provision of facilities for golf

- Existing provision of indoor sport and leisure facilities

- No. and percentage of applications for the provision of new public recreation facilities approved and refused

- No. of public recreation facilities likely to be lost as a result of planning approvals

- No. and percentage of applications refused because of a loss of public recreational facilities

- Registered accommodation bedspaces in Suffolk

- No. of visitors to top tourist attractions

- No. of tourist attractions

- No. and percentage of all applications for tourist related development approved and refused

- Percentage of population who live within 5 km of an informal countryside recreation site

- Hectarage of informal countryside sites (District & County Council managed) per 1,000 population

- No. of visitors to selected countryside recreation sites

- No. and length of footpaths promoted

- Length of Rights of Way routinely cleared of surface growth

- Percentage of justified complaints relating to ploughing and cropping resolved.

Services and Community Facilities

- Percentage of rural population living in parishes which have a food shop or general store, post office, public house, primary school and meeting place

- Percentage or urban population living within 400 metres of a local shop and/or a primary school

- Length of freshwater river courses, classified by chemical quality and by biological quality

- Length of estuarine waters classified by quality

- No. of applications refused on water quality grounds

- No. of applications refused on flood risk grounds

- No. and percentage of applications for waste disposal or recycling facilities approved and refused

- Hectarage of waste disposal sites restored

- Installed electricity generating capacity using renewable energy

- No. and potential electricity generating capacity of renewable schemes with planning permission but not installed

- No. and potential electricity generating capacity of renewable schemes refused planning permission.

 

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