Re: Area Action Plans - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

We had an 'exploratory meeting' with our Inspector on our Core Strategy DPD yesterday and he was querying (amongst many other things) the relationship between the Core Straegy and our proposed City Centre AAP DPD. We thought we had included in the submission Core Strategy about the right level of detail re new retail floorspace and the preferred lcoation (in general terms, not precisly defined on an OS base). We soad we would leave detail of boundaries, exact floorspace, phiasng etc to the AAP, but he said these were issues that the core Strategy should determine. If one extends that to the many other issues that we are proposing to deal with the the AAP (but were not mentoned quite so up front in teh core Strategy) then one begins to wonder if an AAP is needed. Maybe we just need to do one single plan for the city as a whole, wrapping in both straegic issues and more detailed site specific ones too. Hmmm.

Having read Colin's summary of his Inspectors comments I again am forced to wonder whther there is ever any point in trying to understand the new plan-making system. For just when you think it might make sense the fog closes inonce more. When we in Liverpool recently received comments on our Core Strategy PO report we were told by our GO that if we intended to produce AAPs then our Core Strategy did not need to be as detailed a would be needed for a site allocations DPD. Colin's Inspector would seem to have a different view. I for one cannot understand why a Core Strategy would need to be any more or less detailed for one type of follow-on DPD to be produced than another. My greatest lack of understanding however is why matters of detailed boundaries, exact floorspace figures etc need to be specified in a"strategic" document in the first place. Still only another 15 years till retirement - maybe by then we will be doing UDPs again.

Starter for ten and lots of conferring... Having reviewed the revised PPS12 carefully, together with the PINS guidance on DPD soundness, I am of the opinion that it is possible to produce an AAP in advance of a Core Strategy DPD. However, that said, whilst PPS12 is silent on the need for conformity with the Core Strategy, the PINS guidance specifically raises this as a Legal Complainace requirement under para 2.3 p5. Given that the AAP has to conform to the RSS and this is equally applicable to the Core Strategy, surely complaince between the AAP and Core Strategy is surplus to requirements and no longer relevant? Furthermore, is a Statement of Conformity required for the AAP with the Core Strategy, as per the Core Strategy and the RSS? Thoughts..