Saved policies - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
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Started - July 2012
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Last activity - Yesterday
Saved policies
Ryan Shepherd, modified 14 Years ago.
Saved policies
New Member Posts: 15 Join Date: 20/10/11 Recent Posts
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Our adopted UDP policy regarding employment land covers B1, B2 and B8 uses. It does not make any comment about B1 offices but we have always considered that this is covered by PPS6 - ie we request a PPS6 statement for office proposals on employment land in out of centre locations. This policy was saved as it broadly covers uses on employment land, although we acknowledge that it does not conform fully to PPS6 as our employment sites have not been assessed in terms of suitability for office uses. Our view was that the policy overall should be saved and that PPS6 would still apply as a material consideration. Not saving it would have left no local policy guiding developments on employment land. A recent case has suggested that as the policy is saved that it is therefore part of an "up to date" plan and office uses are acceptable without having to provide a PPS6 statement. My view is that whilst it is saved it is not fully up to date and that PPS6 remains a consideration. Has anyone else come across this issue or had similar experiences with saved policies?
I presume that the issue is that the policy gives a blanket B1, B2 and B8 designation across all sites, irrespective of their relationship with the Town Centre and that an out-of-centre proposal for B1(a) office use has been successfully appealed. The inspector has presumably decided that, in deciding to retain the policy, you have taken a view as to its compatability with PPS6 and found it compliant. On that basis, your decision to retain the Policy is more recent than the PPS. It sounds like a perverse decision. Presumably you have retained the policy because it remains relevant to B1 (b-c), B2 and B8 uses. If it is your custom to rely on PPS6 alone for B1 (a) proposals this needs to be stated. Perhaps in your Annual Monitoring Report, where you list saved policies, you could highlight where these are effectively partially superseded, signpost the superseding policies (which could be LDF,RSS or PPS) and note that in considering planning applications, both old and new policies will be taken into account, but in the event of a conflict, the newer one will normally prevail. It sounds as if you need an employment land review quickly.
Ryan Shepherd, modified 14 Years ago.
Re: Saved policies
New Member Posts: 15 Join Date: 20/10/11 Recent Posts
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Thanks for the reply Dan. Its not actually come up as a result of an appeal, rather from an application yet to be determined for a large out of centre office scheme. Helpfully we came across a recent inspectors decision in Leeds dealing with a very similar issue (APP/N4720/A/08/2092127). The council, whilst acknowledging that the saved policies are not wholly superseded, considered the UDP policies are not up to date in terms of national planning policy, particularly that contained within PPS6. The Inspector agreed with the Council's opinion in this case. Similar to ourselves, Leeds felt that not saving a policy would have created a policy vacuum and that as deleting or saving were the only options, that saving was the most appropriate action.