My Council, in line with others, has declared a Climate Emergency and
understandably Elected Members are asking how this is affecting our
decision making on planning applications. Unfortunately policies in
our recently adopted Local Plan and the slightly older Joint Core
Strategy are encouraging but do not specify requirements to be met, to
enable developments to be carbon neutral, with, for example, micro
power generation technology (solar panels or heat exchangers) or
district heat and power systems, with above standard insultation. So
far we have included conditions requiring electric vehicle charging
points which have been accepted by applicants. I would be interested
to hear from any authorities who have developed policies and perhaps
more interestingly refused planning proposals relating to the lack of
such facilities. I am aware of statements of intent from Ministers
but not specific policy statements which could be used. Or am I
missing something?
