Overview
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What are we trying to achieve?
Review of Local Plan process
The Preferred Option consultation
Key outcomes from consultation
Assessment of “main issues”
Proposed changes
Publication stage
Next steps and Examination and
Possible timetable.
What are we trying to achieve?
• Our Local Plan puts PEOPLE, PLACES AND PROSPERITY at
the heart of our vision.
• Trying to balance:
– Housing need
– Economic growth and job creation
– Sustainable development
– Minimal impact on strategically significant landscapes
• Meeting the aspirations of local people
Key elements of the Local Plan
process
• Policy framework from National Planning Policy Framework
(NPPF) – jobs and homes via growth.
• Independent and evidenced-based assessment of:
– Housing and business needs, based on demographic
evidence;
– Transport implications; and
– Sustainability Appraisal.
• Duty of council is to deliver sufficient land to meet supply,
balancing with sustainability in the context of what we want to
achieve in our plans.
• Based on central government’s census-based household
projections (840pa for Canterbury district).
Key elements of the Local Plan process
• Proposals have to be ‘deliverable’ – to the satisfaction of an
independent Planning Inspector.
• This means we must demonstrate that:
– The sites are available for development;
– There is adequate public and private transport access to the
sites;
– There are no environmental, flooding or landscape barriers;
– The sites we designate perform better in these respects than
sites we don’t designate.
• Viability Assessment indicates that all the strategic sites (with
infrastructure) are viable
• Appraisal of options undertaken by independent consultant
against key criteria
Conclusions of Sustainability
Appraisal
• Most sustainable scenario, balancing economic, social and
environmental factors – 780 houses per year
• It also advised that “the negative effects on the natural
environment could be minimised or reduced by avoiding siting
development in, adjacent to or close to existing sensitive and
important nature conservation and cultural heritage sites”.
• Should support the creation of about 6,500 new jobs over plan
period.
Key issues for us
• Government’s approach clearly links housing development to
job creation.
• Sustainable transport presumes that housing will be sited as
closely as possible to where the jobs are – in our case
Canterbury.
• We therefore need to allocate a substantial proportion of the
new housing in, or adjacent to, Canterbury.
• We must ensure a road system that can cope with the increased
population – though we can’t “cure” congestion.
• Without resolving these issues, our plan will be “unsound”,
which leads to a planning free-for-all.
Preferred Option Consultation –
Summer 2013
• Consultation ran for 10 weeks, ending 28th August 2013
• Exhibitions in district offices and local libraries
• Briefings for businesses, residents, parishes and community
groups.
• Briefings for MPs and neighbouring councils
• People able to comment via web-site; by e-mail or by letter.
Consultation results
• We received just under 7,000 comments from around 1,300
organisations and individuals.
• Covered a range of issues across the whole Plan.
• Good measure of support for large parts of the draft Plan,
particularly landscape, heritage, tourism, and open space.
• Main objections related to the overall strategy and the
development proposals.
• Council is required by legislation to consider the main issues
arising from the consultation and show how it has responded to
those issues.
Key issues arising from consultation
• Key objections related to:
– Overall growth strategy for the district.
– Amount of development (500 or 1200 dwellings per year).
– Location of development (mainly objections to scale of
development at Canterbury and Herne Bay).
– Specific site allocations (South Canterbury, Sturry/Broad
Oak, Hersden, Strode Farm).
– Capacity of existing transport services and delivery of
infrastructure.
– Environmental issues.
Site changes arising from consultation
Changes to allocated sites
• Land north of Hersden (reduce capacity to 500 houses)
• Greenhill (reduce capacity to 300 houses)
• Hillborough (increase capacity to 1300 houses)
Additional sites
• Howe Barracks (400 houses)
• K&C Hospital/Ridlands Farm/Langton Field (810 houses)
• Sturry Road, Canterbury (mixed business use)
• Land south of Joseph Wilson Business Park (business use)
Deleted site
• Simon Langton Girls School (270 houses)
Other changes arising from consultation
• Land at Kingsmead Field designated as Protected Open Space
• Four sites designated as Local Green Space at Whitstable,
• including West Beach
• Land at Chaucer Fields designated as Green Gap to maintain
separation between Canterbury and the University of Kent
• Harbledown Park & Ride site removed from draft Plan
• Eastern Bypass proposal removed from draft Plan
Next stage of consultation
• Council has now published final draft
• This, together with comments, will be analysed by and
independent Planning Inspector later this year for “soundness”.
• So at this stage, comments can be made on any aspect of the
draft plan, but…
• It should be made clear how they relate to issues of
“soundness” or legal compliance so that an Inspector can
understand the basis of the comment
Commenting on the draft Plan
• Publication period runs until 5pm on Friday 18th July.
• We encourage people to use the comments forms as this helps
the Inspector in assessing the comments.
• Please note that comments received after the consultation
closes will not be considered by the Inspector.
• If you would like to appear at the Examination hearings, please
tell us when you submit your comments.
Next steps
• Collation of comments made during the publication period.
• Plan submitted to independent Inspector for examination
(including Transport Delivery Plan and other supporting
documents).
• Inspector will make an initial assessment of the draft Plan, and
may seek additional information from the council.
• Inspector will then consider whether the draft Plan is “sound”
and legally compliant.
• Likely to be some public hearings as part of the Examination
• Inspector will provide a report to the council.
Possible timetable
• Submit draft Plan to Inspectorate in Autumn, depending on
number of comments.
• Examination end of 2014/early 2015, depending on inspector
availability.
• Inspector’s report Spring 2015.
• Council formally approves the plan.
Draft Canterbury District Transport Strategy
Supports the Local Plan
The challenges
• Existing peak hour congestion and poor air quality
• 15,600 new homes
• 6,500 new jobs
Traffic Forecasts using ‘VISUM’ computer model :
Do minimum (background growth) scenario:
• Increase in travel demand 17%
• Increase in traffic growth 18%
Do something (Local Plan growth) scenario:
• Additional increase in travel demand 13%
• Additional increase in traffic growth 10%
Strategy approach – four strands
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Managing the network
Encouraging sustainable travel
Car parking strategy
Reducing the demand to travel
Managing the network
Main road improvements are:
• New junction on A2 at south Canterbury and relocated Park and
Ride.
• New off-slips on A2 at Wincheap
• New Sturry/Broad Oak bypass
• New link road from council offices to Littlebourne Road
Sustainable travel by area (% of
journeys to work in 2011)
Herne Bay
Whitstable Rural (incl Canterbury
Hersden)
On foot
8.7%
8.5%
6.4%
30.5%
Bicycle
1.8%
2.3%
1.8%
4.2%
Bus, minibus or
coach
4.7%
3.6%
7.4%
5.9%
Train
4.3%
7.1%
3.1%
4.8%
Total
19.5%
21.5%
18.7%
45.4%
Key targets
• Traffic levels in the centre of Canterbury in 2031 will not have
increased from the base year
• 90% of peak hour journey times in Canterbury to be below the
monthly journey time threshold figure (reliability)
• Reduce the percentage of journeys to work by car or van to
42.3% as mode share (currently 55.0%)
• Reduce journey time by bus on main routes
• Increase the number of journeys by Park & Ride to 1.45 million
each year.
• Reduce NO2 levels to below annual average of 40μg/m3
Method of travel: district targets
Number of
journeys to
work
2011 Mode
Share
2031 target
Mode Share
%
change
36,080
55.0%
42.3%
-23.1
9,626
1,750
14.7%
2.7%
18.0%
4.0%
+22.7
+50.0
Bus, minibus
or coach
Train
3,197
4.9%
6.5%
+33.4
3,252
5.0%
6.5%
+31.2
Working mainly
at home
Passenger in
car or van
Other
Total
7,592
11.6%
14.0%
+21.0
3,106
4.7%
6.5%
+37.3
1,017
65,620
1.5%
100%
2.2%
100%
+42.0
Driving a car or
van
On foot
Bicycle
Reduction in city centre parking
• Existing allocations from 2006 Local Plan, totalling 439 spaces
(10%).
• Approx half already agreed for disposal : Rosemary Lane, Hawks
Lane, St Johns Lane, St Radigunds (38 spaces), Longport (9
spaces).
• Remainder (194 spaces) are linked to three sites :
- Holmans Meadow (Dover Street frontage)
- Northgate (Linked to Kingsmead Development)
- Castle Row (linked to expansion at Wincheap Park & Ride.
• Reduction from these three sites would only happen if there was
sufficient space at P&R sites and at other city centre car parks on
peak Saturdays outside the Xmas period (currently 250 spaces).
• Business user spaces would be protected.
Questions?