Mendip District Council’s Draft Local Plan (Part 1, formerly known as the ‘Core Strategy’) includes strategic planning objectives for the District and its main settlements, requirements for jobs and homes, the allocation of strategic housing and employment areas, and policies to support sustainable development of land in the District.  The current Draft Local Plan was last subject to public comment between November 2012 and January 2013, and over 700 comments were received. Earlier in the year the document was challenged at an appeal inquiry (Horsehill Farm, Evercreech) for not providing for sufficient housing sites to demonstrate it could meet the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (paragraph 47) requirement to provide for an objectively assessed housing need to meet 5 years of housing supply in the district. Since then, officers have gathered more and new evidence, reviewed the 700+ comments received, and reviewed housing need projections and supply.

Officers presented their ‘Proposed Changes’ to the Local Plan at a recent meeting of the Members Advisory Group.  The Proposed Changes include minor amendments to reflect comments and new evidence. One important change is the specific floorspace for a foodstore at the Saxonvale site in Frome (1500sq m) is being removed from draft Core Policy CP6 “to remove over-specificity” due to two comments received, although the policy requirement for the site to provide for a ‘small/medium sized foodstore’ remains.

The Proposed Changes now proposes an additional 505 houses are provided in Mendip over the Plan period (now 2006-2029) to meet NPPF requirements. The additional 505 houses will not be allocated to particular sites, towns or villages in the district just yet, although are likely to be needed in the north of the district near Bath & North East Somerset; the ‘site specific allocations’ will be determined in Part 2 of the Local Plan (‘Site Specific Allocations’), which will be prepared in 2014-15.   Frome’s allocation of housing and employment development in the Draft Local Plan will therefore remain at 2300 homes (although this includes hundreds already built or which have planning permission) and about 2700 new jobs. Officers’ review of evidence now estimates that less ‘brownfield’ (previously developed’) land is available for housing so the number of houses that need to be built on greenfield sites around the town has gone up, from 300 to between 400 and 600. I had preivouusly pointed out to officers last year several times that many of the sites (identified in previous Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments) were greenfield not brownfield.  The main strategic site for housing in Frome in the Draft Local Plan remains Southfield Farm near Asda, for which a planning application was submitted in August.

The Draft Local Plan and Proposed Changes documents, and supporting assessments (including Evidence Base documents, Infrastructure Development Plan (which will guide how CIL development contributions are allocated), Sustainability and Habitats Assessments) are being submitted shortly to the Secretary of State. An Examination in Public should take place in early 2014, after which the Local Plan Part 1 should be adopted. The SSA (Local Plan Part 2), Community Infrastructure Levy tariff, and policy on Gypsy and Traveller Sites will also need to be prepared as set out in the Local Development Scheme.  For more details please see http://www.mendip.gov.uk/draftlocalplan and associated Documents and Evidence Base.

Meanwhile, Frome’s Neighbourhood Plan has been published for its first round of public consultation, up to the end of December. This has been prepared by and for Frome Town Council, with assistance from Mendip District Council and a Government grant (which cllr Damon Hooton helped apply for). Although it has to comply with the Local Plan, it includes many specific policies for the future development of Frome so is just as important as Mendip’s Local Plan (and I will comment on it shortly) – please see here – http://www.frome-tc.gov.uk/neighbourhood-plan/.

If anyone has queries or concerns, please let me know.

Adam Boyden