A number of draft planning documents have been published on St Albans City and District Council’s website.

 

They include:

• the draft housing target for the District over the next 17 years, and

• the draft Strategic Local Plan. Once adopted, this document will set out strategic planning policy in the District, including a framework for infrastructure and development policy, up until 2028. The Plan will partially replace the 1994 Local Plan on which planning policy is currently based.

The Council is currently seeking comments from councillors and members of the public on the emphasis and clarity of the documents and whether they are legally ‘sound‘. 

Public meetings are being held on 19 and 24 September at 7pm in the Council Chamber at the Civic Centre, St Peter’s Street, St Albans.

As part of this process, the Council’s Local Services Scrutiny Committee will consider the draft documents at their meeting on 27 September. Cabinet will also consider the documents at a meeting on 18 October and make recommendations on the draft Strategic Local Plan to Full Council which meets in November.

Once this process has been completed, the Council will publish the proposed documents late December. It will then submit them to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for examination in Spring next year.

Councillor Robert Donald, Chair of the Local Services Scrutiny Committee, said: “We can finally see the finishing line in this long-running planning marathon to produce a new strategic local plan for the District. This is the most important plan the Council produces barring only the Community Strategy. The Plan, comprising several documents, such as the proposed housing totals, belongs however to all of us who are residents in St Albans City and District. It sets out the long-term vision for our area and will determine how our District grows, our environment is sustained and our infrastructure is developed to cope with any additional housing over the next 20 years. The local plan has been developed following four previous major public consultations over the last few years. This will be one of the last opportunities for the public to comment on the final documents before they are submitted to the Secretary of State for examination next Spring. 

“Members of the public are warmly invited therefore to attend our meeting on 27 September and can contact the Scrutiny Support Officer Catherine Comfort for more details on 01727 819529 or by email at scrutiny@stalbans.gov.uk. Comments can be sent to Chris Briggs, Spatial Planning Manager for Planning, at slp@stalbans.gov.uk by 1 November on the Plans’ emphasis, clarity and legal soundness. Don’t miss your opportunity to have a say.”

It is expected that the East of England Regional Spatial Strategy, which currently sets out planning strategy for the District, will be revoked in Spring 2013. Submitting the Council’s Strategic Local Plan to the Secretary of State for examination in the spring will ensure that strategic policies are in place to replace those lost in the regional spatial strategy.

The meeting on 27 September is open to the public and will take place in the Council Chamber at the Council’s offices from 7pm. If you are unable to attend the meeting in person, you can view a webcast of the meeting live or at a later date on the Council’s website. 

The agenda for the meeting is available on the Council’s website.