The County Durham Plan is a statutory document which will set out the strategic policies to guide where development is located and to plan for change in County Durham over the next 20 years.
We are preparing a new plan for County Durham to help guide development and change in the county until 2030. The plan will identify the quantity and location of new development across the towns and villages of the County.
The County Durham Plan is being prepared in accordance with existing Government guidance and regulations on preparing Local Development Frameworks. We have so far produced three drafts of the main document in the plan which is known as the Core Strategy. Further information is available on our consultation pages - copies of all recent documents and evidence can also be found on these pages.
Changes to the planning system
The Government have recently produced a draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which sets out their intentions to reform the planning system.
The NPPF states that each Local Planning Authority should produce a Local Plan for its area. Local Plans will dispense with the existing Local Development Framework system, which orders plans into a suite of documents that link up to an overarching Core Strategy. Local Plans will instead be comprised of a single plan document which contains development allocations and with additional planning documents only used where justified.
The NPPF also sets out a presumption in favour of sustainable development which introduces some uncertainty to the Council's ambitions for a clear and coherent development strategy as outlined in the Regeneration Statement and the emerging County Durham Plan.
While the NPPF is still in draft form and the Government have indicated that there may be transitional arrangements to ease the changes, it is nonetheless important that we investigate what these changes will mean for County Durham. To this end we have added further information to the Local Development Scheme (LDS) section below which sets out what the revised timetable for the County Durham Plan may be if the Governments changes come into force.
Consultation on the County Durham Plan
Durham City update
In order to provide an update for Durham City residents on the County Durham Plan and its potential implications for Durham City the planning team undertook a week long information exercise during the week commencing 17 October 2011. Four drop in sessions were organised at venues around Durham City and further details were provided on:
- The proposed Aykley Heads Strategic Employment site
- The three preferred possible green belt deletions (Sniperley, North of Arnison, Sherburn Road)
- The possible routes of the relief roads
A briefing paper was produced for further information (this can be downloaded below).
County Durham Plan Update for Durham City Residents October 2011.pdf (23 pages, 8894kb)
Following this event a feedback report has now been produced (this can be downloaded below)
Feed Back Report - County Durham Plan Update for Durham City Residents November 2011.pdf (2 pages, 39kb)
Recent consultation events
Our most recent consultations on the plan ran from 23 May to 8 July 2011.
As part of this work we prepared the following consultation papers:
We also released two background papers which considered executive housing and the impact the County Durham Plan may have on important nature sites - Core Strategy Interim Habitats Regulation Assessment Report.
How to get involved and comment
It is important that you get involved in the development of the County Durham Plan. Please visit our County Durham Plan consultation pages where you can view the documents in a web page format and submit your comments using the interactive website.
As the plan progresses through each stage of preparation (ie Issues stage, Issues and Options stage, etc) we will publish a copy and any supporting evidence and documentation to allow you to comment as we go along.
Using the website has a number of advantages, such as allowing you to look more closely at maps and pictures. You can also register to be placed on our consultation database which means we can notify you about future consultation documents. (Please note once you have registered you can log in and change your contact preferences including how often we contact you by email).
Details and feedback from previous consultation events and papers are also posted on our consultation pages, along with other planning, housing and transport documents such as masterplans and planning briefs.
Links to related council documents and functions
The County Durham Plan will directly link with the Sustainable Community Strategy 2008-2023. Development Plan Documents (DPD) and Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD) are prepared alongside Sustainability Appraisals (SAs) to ensure the documents are sustainable in social, environmental and economic terms.
The Local Government (Structural Changes Transitional Arrangements) Regulations 2008, which came into force on 27 November 2008, transferred responsibility for preparing the Local Development Framework (LDF) to us.
The Local Development Scheme (LDS)
Potential changes to the LDS
If the changes proposed in the draft NPPF come into force next April then changes will be required to the the timetable for preparing the new County Durham Plan. As the Core Strategy is still at a relatively early stage in its preparation it is possible to convert our existing work into a Local Plan should the NPPF require these changes.
In the event that these changes do occur then the Council may have to convert the work already done on the County Durham Plan into a Local Plan. To do this a number of additional areas of work will need to be added to the Core Strategy, namely:
- Development Management Policies
- Employment Allocations
- Retail Allocations
- Housing Allocations
Given these changes, the next stage of the Plan will still be a Preferred Options document which we would hope to publish for consultation in Autumn 2012. In order to give sufficient time to consider the responses to the Preferred Options, Publication of the Submission Draft would be towards the end Spring 2013. Following consideration of the consultation responses following Publication and the making of any changes, the Plan will be formally submitted in Autumn 2013 with Public Examination in Spring 2014 and Adoption likely in Summer 2014.
It is likely that there would still be a requirement for separate planning documents on Gypsy and Traveller Site Allocations and Minerals and Waste Allocations. Because of their controversial nature it is likely that their inclusion in a single Local Plan could unacceptably delay its preparation. In both cases there is no short term need for new sites - new Gypsy and Traveller proposals can be assessed against a new criteria based policy in the Local Plan and there is sufficient minerals and waste sites to meet need for a number of years.
The Gypsy and Traveller and Minerals and Waste documents would likely be progressed following adoption of the Local Plan. These documents would go out to preferred options at the same time as Publication of the Local Plan. Publication would follow Adoption of the Local Plan with Examinations to follow in Spring 2015 and Adoption, Autumn 2015.
The existing LDS
The Local Development Scheme (LDS), the first stage of preparation for the County Durham Plan, is a project plan that represents an agreement with central Government outlining the arrangements for producing the County Durham Plan. It illustrates the relationship between the individual documents currently being proposed and how they fit into our wider strategies.
This project plan supersedes those previously adopted by us about minerals and waste and those adopted by the former district councils about all other planning policy matters. It provides a revised outline of the policy documents we will produce over the next three years and the timescale for their production. This project plan will be revised over time to reflect progress made and to include subsequent policy documents.
County Durham Local Development Scheme 2010.pdf (30 pages, 366kb)
Content of the Local Development Scheme
The Local Development Scheme currently includes milestones for the following documents:
- The Core Strategy contains the overarching strategy for future development of the county to which all subsequent planning documents must conform. The Core Strategy will cover the period up to 2030 and will include a vision and strategic objectives, a spatial strategy, core policies, strategic development sites and a framework for monitoring and implementation.
- The Development Management DPD (Development Plan Documents) will expand on the policies within the Core Strategy and will include more detailed policies for the management of development. While the Core Strategy will set out our vision and aspirations in fairly broad terms, the Development Management DPD will be more specific. It might, for example, identify the type and size of retail units allowed outside town centres or the control of hot food takeaways. It will also carry forward, where appropriate, existing development management designations made in former district council local plans.
- The Development Allocations DPD will deal with new sites for development. It will identify appropriate sites for new development required by the Delivery Strategy for the county. It will explain the rationale for their selection, taking into account the county’s requirements for housing and industry, the transport infrastructure which would be needed to allow new development, and the sensitivity of the surroundings. The Development Allocations DPD will also provide the detailed framework for the delivery of the South and East Durham Growth Point.
- The Gypsy and Traveller DPD will describe how the council will meet its obligations to provide accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers. The DPD will establish the number of equipped caravan pitches which need to be provided across the county, and identify appropriate sites for them.
- The Minerals and Waste Policies and Allocations DPD will develop the strategic minerals and waste content of the Core Strategy DPD. Strategic components of the waste and minerals delivery strategy, including strategic sites will be in the Core Strategy. Where needed and justified, the Minerals and Waste Policies and Allocations DPD will allocate non-strategic minerals and waste sites.
- The Proposals Map will show the areas of operation of all of the policies contained within DPDs. For example, it will show areas which have been allocated for specific types of development, such as industrial estates and retail areas.
In addition to the above DPDs, we are producing a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), which will set out guidance relating to sustainable design. SPDs are no longer statutory planning documents but tools to supplement the statutory DPDs. Recent changes to legislation mean they are no longer included within the Local Development Scheme. Further information is on our Sustainable Design Supplementary Planning Document web page.
Future work
Local development documents that are vital to spatial planning in the County and those where resources have already been committed, will be prioritised. Other local development documents will be produced as soon as time and resources allow, while others may be produced if and when they are required. Recent examples of such projects include Masterplans for Stanley and Consett Town Centres.
Monitoring our progress
The Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) is required to monitor how we are performing in implementing the Local Development Scheme and how effective plan policies are in achieving the aims and objectives set out in the Local Development Framework (known as the County Durham Plan). As the County Durham Plan is not yet adopted, the Development Plan for the county currently comprises the saved policies from the former district and county Local Plans and the saved policies from the Structure Plan and the Regional Spatial Strategy. The AMR is submitted to the Secretary of State by the end of December each year.
Annual Monitoring Report - Durham County Council 2009/10.pdf (33 pages, 958kb)
Annual Monitoring Report - Durham County Council 2008/09.pdf (172 pages, 3.37mb)
Annual Monitoring Report - Durham County Council and Durham District Local Authorities 2007/08.pdf (128 pages, 1.43mb)
Monitoring reports are also available for each of the former districts and county areas (Local Plans) from 2004/05.
Ensuring equality
Equality Impact Assessment is a legal requirement for all strategies, plans, functions, policies, procedures and services - we are legally required to publish our assessments. The document below assesses the impact upon equality and diversity of the Issues and Options Stage of the Core Strategy of the County Durham Plan.
EQA County Durham Plan Feb 2011.pdf (15 pages, 72kb)
Evidence base work
Please click on the link below to access our evidence base for the County Durham Plan:
Evidence Base Documents