The old core strategy

The Local Plan 2029 is based on, and was developed from work we had already done on our Core Strategy before the government changed the national regulations.

Here is a little background on the work that went into the core strategy.

For the first stage, in the preparation of the Core Strategy, the council published an Issues and Options document called 'Your Vale - Your Future' for public consultation in autumn 2007. This report set out some of the issues we think we will be facing in the future and some possible options for tackling them.

The council is required to carry out a sustainability appraisal of all development plan documents. This involves an assessment of the sustainability effects of all the policies and proposals contained within each document so that any undesireable impacts can be reduced or removed. The sustainability appraisal process will run alongside the production of the relevant document and will be open to consultation at the same times.

The Core Strategy scoping report, which was published by the council in March 2007, and the Core Strategy Sustainability Statement, which was published in November 2007, can both be downloaded from the right of the page.

The council then published the Preferred Options document which was out for consultation in January and February 2009. A summary of the comments recieved can be downlaoded from the Preferred Options consultation page.

As a result of your comments we have done further work and consulted you on some additional matters details of which are available on the Core Strategy: Additional Consultation page.

In June the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, set out his commitment to abolish regional spatial strategies, including the South East Plan. The South East Plan contained housing targets for individual local authority areas.

Subsequently, the secretary of state has issued further guidance on what the council should now be doing (see letter 6 July (85.6 KB) ). The guidance makes clear that revoking the South East Plan is not a signal for councils to stop making plans for their area and so they should continue to develop their core strategies, reflecting local people's aspirations and decisions on important issues such as housing and economic development.

In light of this guidance and the pressing need for the council to have an up to date set of local planning policies, work on preparing the Core Strategy will continue. It is important that our policies help us to continue to attract investment and ensure we are in control of what development happens where, led by our vision.

The Localism Bill, which will formally revoke the regional spatial strategies, is currently making its passage through Parliament. This Bill aims to shift power from central government back to communities and enable them to help shape their local areas.