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News extract from BCC Development Services e-bulletin
Core Strategy:
The Bristol Development Framework Core Strategy was adopted by Full Council on
21 June 2011, making it part of the statutory development plan for Bristol with immediate effect.
The Core Strategy has significant implications for the way planning applications will be dealt with in and raises the standards that will be expected from development, particularly in respect of energy efficiency and housing type.
The Core Strategy replaces a number of policies of the 1997 Adopted Bristol Local Plan, although 86 of the Local Plan policies remain saved and will continue to be used to determine planning applications pending the production of further development plan documents.
The Core Strategy and related documents, including the list of saved policies, can be downloaded from Bristol City Council (BCC) web site on the local development framework pages.
The adoption of the Core Strategy will have implications for the validation criteria, and the first stagein the process will be the to update the document to add the new policies and to delete the old policies. The second stage will be to look at where the criteria needs to be changed to reflect the updated policy base.
The effective date of the Core Strategy policies is being treated as 1 April 2011,
as from this date the Inspector’s report on the Core Strategy (declaring it as “sound”) was published. Hence, all applications submitted on or after 1 April will be fully assessed against the Core Strategy.
Core Strategy Policy BCS18 Housing Type:
This policy is about space standards and new residential development and says
‘Residential developments should provide sufficient space for everyday
activities and to enable flexibility and adaptability by meeting appropriate
space standards.’
To assist with this, we have prepared a practice note (see attachment at the bottom of this page or go to Other Documents) based on the Homes and Communities Agency Housing Quality Indicators, which will be applied to all residential development. The standards to be applied relate to unit size and storage only.
The practice note is appended, and will shortly appear on our website.
One key point is that while a standard is included for 1 bed space units, it is expected that new dwellings will provide at least 2 bed spaces. This is the smallest unit size that could meet the flexibility and adaptability requirements of policies BCS15, BCS18 and BCS21
i.e. accommodate sufficient space for a partner, a child, temporary carer or visiting friends and relatives.
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and planning applications:
Over the next year the Council will be progressing with the implementation of the
Community Infrastructure Levy(CIL). The levy is based on infrastructure need and the viability of development, and viability advice is currently being sought to inform the level of CIL for various land uses.
The introduction of CIL will result in significant changes to the negotiation of Section 106 Agreements, particularly in respect of major office and residential developments.
It will also impact on a far wider range of developments than the current Section 106 regime as virtually all new development in excess of 100m2 (and development of less than 100m2 that results in the provision of a new dwelling) will be liable for CIL.
Jim Cliffe (the Council’s Section 106 Officer) will be leading on the implementation of CIL;
the current programme for the CIL Preliminary Draft Charging Schedule being consulted on
is likely to be October 2011.
Consultation on government proposals to change the General Permitted Development Order:
The essence of this proposal is to relax the planning rules for a change of use from commercial to residential, to enable changes to take place with out the need for planning permission.
A report on this was presented to the North Area DC committee on 13 July 2011.
More details, including the response to CLG can be found in the committee papers
for 13 July 2011.
Bus Rapid Transit Meetings
A reminder that the BRT meetings organised for NPN members will continue as listed below.
Turnout has been very low for these meetings with many groups in areas affected not being represented.
These meetings are to look at the detail of the proposals and attendance will not compromise your position, if you wish to oppose the principle of any of the lines at the public enquiry stage.
This will probably happen next spring, if the schemes achieve approval for Programme Entry from Central Government as a result of the submission on 9 September 2011.
If you would like more details of meetings, please let me know.