Over six and a half years after the adoption of its Core Strategy in 2014, Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES) has launched a consultation on its ‘Local Plan Partial Update’. This looks to review areas within both the Core Strategy and Placemaking Plan (adopted in 2017) that can be addressed without changing the overall planning strategy. B&NES is aiming to have the document adopted in April 2022.
As part of this, the Council is inviting comments on an ‘Options Document’, which sets out a number of potentially far-reaching changes. Whilst these are at a very early stage and do not alter the overall spatial strategy or housing numbers, they do provide a clear indication of the direction of policy and will have a bearing on planning applications and developer costs in the future.
Sustainability and Ecology are key focus areas, following the Council’s declaration of a climate and ecological emergency in 2020. Some proposals on sustainability include:
- A possible net zero carbon policy, enforced either through the Future Homes Standards (FHS) (which will eventually be built into building regs) or, until FHS comes into force, setting requirements for minimum operational CO2 emission reductions through building fabric performance and renewable energy. Operational emissions that can’t be mitigated on site will be required to make financial contributions. This applies to new dwellings and commercial development. There is also a proposed new threshold for sustainability improvements for works on existing buildings.
- Possible introduction of Whole Life Cycle Carbon Assessments for proposals of 10+ dwellings or 1,000m2 or more of non-residential floorspace (a higher threshold is also optioned).
- Additional requirements for electric vehicle charging infrastructure within proposals.
Ecology related proposals include:
- A new policy reinforcing the current requirement for biodiversity net gain, setting net gain requirements to at least 10% or 15%. To be assessed using the latest DEFRA metric (or equivalent) and carried out by a qualified ecologist.
- 30-year management plans with applications to ensure long term biodiversity net gain.
- More emphasis on retention of existing habitat and vegetation in situ; replacement habitat creation and maintaining/creating ecological networks.
Other potentially significant changes include:
- The removal of housing development boundaries for settlements in the green belt, potentially making it more straightforward to develop brownfield sites beyond the current boundaries.
- New parking standards, to be set in a separate Supplementary Planning Document.
- An increase in requirements for a proportion of dwellings to meet building regulation standards M4(2) on accessibility and adaptability, and M4(3) on wheelchair use (pending a viability review).
- Expanded criteria for applications proposing the loss of employment floorspace on both primary and non-strategic industrial sites
A number of changes to development allocations are also proposed, including reviews of sites already allocated within the Placemaking Plan, and new opportunities in Bath, Keynsham and Radstock.
The consultation runs until 18th February 2021. If you would like more information and/or would like Nash Partnership to make representations on your behalf, please get in touch.
Image by Andrea Smith from Pixabay.