Local Green Spaces –Draft Consultation

We are currently receiving a high number of planning applications which is resulting in delays to our usual response times. We are determining applications and responding to enquiries in the order they are received. We will respond as soon as possible.

The draft version of the Local Green Spaces Development Plan Document (referred to as the Local Green Spaces Plan) has been published for consultation. The consultation ran for six weeks, closing at 5pm on 19 November 2018. 

Local Green Spaces are areas of land that are of value to the local community and have been identified and allocated through a development plan.  Local Green Spaces can be located in rural or built up areas.  In the draft Local Green Spaces Plan, 86 sites were proposed to be allocated as a local green space and the Council was interested in responses as to whether these sites are appropriate or not.

All the sites proposed have been considered through a set methodology and require that sites are:

  • not subject to existing protection through the Local Plan, such as designated wildlife sites, sports pitches etc., unless clear justification exists for extending further protection to these sites
  • within close proximity of the community they serve (taken as being within 800m)
  • not an extensive tract of land (taken as being less than 5ha)
  • capable of enduring beyond the end of the Plan period in 2028 (and therefore excludes current development sites and those identified by the Council as potentially suitable for development through its strategic housing land availability assessment)
  • not privately owned land, such as residential land, gardens or paddocks
  • demonstrably special to the local community.

The process of identifying potential local green spaces began through consultations on the Local Plan Part 2. A further separate Local Green Spaces Options consultation took place during 2017, followed by a scoping consultation earlier this year which determined the methodology for site selection summarised above.

The justification for the selection of sites from those proposed through previous consultations is outlined in the consultation documents. Once allocated, a local green space would have a policy designation that is similar to that of green belt, so would restrict future development.

The local green spaces document will be subject to a further round of consultation following this one and will then be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate to be examined in public before adoption can take place.

A summary of the consultation responses received can be found here (pdf, 324kb).