Planning policy

Get involved in the preparation of the new Local Development Framework for Shropshire. This page contains information on the consultation on a series of Topic Papers and a Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report

The Government has agreed to merge the county, borough and district councils in Shropshire to form a single unitary council. The new council will start work on 1 April 2009. In the meantime, an Implementation Executive (IE) has been established to take key decisions.

At its first formal meeting on Friday 29 February, IE set up three sub-committees including one devoted to taking forward work on the Local Development Framework (LDF). Meetings of both the IE and the LDF Sub-committee are open to members of the public and representatives from the media and their agendas and minutes will be publicised on all the councils’ websites.

The county, borough and district councils have agreed to develop a single Core Strategy for the new unitary council area. On 9 April the IE approved a draft joint Local Development Scheme (LDS) which sets out the timetable for the joint LDF. The LDF will replace the current Local Plans for all the districts in Shropshire and the County Councils Waste Local Plan. If you would like to know more about the LDF follow the link on this page.

Consultation - Core Strategy Topic Papers
As an important first step in the preparation of the new unitary Core Strategy, the Shropshire councils have worked together to produce a series of Topic Papers. The Topic Papers cover a wide range of themes, each of which the Core Strategy will need to address. The themes are:

• Spatial Overview
• Housing
• Economy
• Environmental Resource Management
• Transport and Accessibility
• Climate Change
• Infrastructure and Implementation
• Monitoring

We would like to hear your comments on the Topic Papers, particularly on the emerging key planning issues facing Shropshire. We are therefore inviting feedback on the Topic Papers for six weeks between 21 July and 1 September 2008. Follow the appropriate links on this page to find more information and to view each topic paper.

Consultation - Draft Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report
The Sustainability Appraisal process is a means by which Local Planning Authorities can assess the overall sustainability of their Local Development Framework. The draft Sustainability Appraisal (SA) Scoping Report is the first stage of this process, and seeks to provide a framework by which future planning policy documents will be assessed.

We would like to hear your comments on the draft SA Scoping Report. The consultation will last for six weeks between 21 July and 1 September 2008. For more information, and to view a copy of the SA Scoping Report follow the appropriate link on this page.

Evidence Base
It is important that new planning policy documents, such as the Core Strategy, are based upon sound and robust evidence. This evidence includes important documents from the national, regional and local level, such as housing market assessments and retail and transport studies. Follow the appropriate link on this page to find out more about the evidence we have used to prepare the Topic Papers.

Interim Community Involvement Statement for Shropshire
In the preparation of the new Unitary Local Development Framework, an Interim Community Involvement Statement has been prepared jointly between the existing councils. The Interim Statement sets out how we intend to engage local communities and organisations in the preparation of new Unitary Planning Policy documents in advance of April 2009.

Following feedback on a draft version of the Interim Statement, a slightly revised version has been prepared and will be available on this page soon. In the meantime you can continue to view the draft version of the Interim Community Involvement Statement by following the appropriate attachment on this page. Once the new Unitary Council has come into operation in April 2009 a fully revised Community Involvement Statement will be prepared.

Planning Applications
In the period before 1 April 2009 each of Shropshire’s district and borough councils will continue to take decisions on planning applications in their individual areas whilst the County Council will continue to take decisions on county matters and minerals and waste applications. In making these decisions on planning applications, each council will continue to apply their own adopted ‘saved’ local plan policies to their individual areas. If you have a planning enquiry in the period before 1 April 2009 you should continue to contact the planning department at your local council.