Landowners urged to comment on planning strategy

Marcus Plaw, director of planning at the Bristol office of Lambert Smith Hampton

Landowners and property stakeholders in South Gloucestershire are being urged to have their say about planning decisions up to 2036.

Marcus Plaw, director of planning at the Bristol office of national commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), said South Gloucestershire Council is inviting comments on a planning ‘Prospectus’ document, which will help inform the direction of the local authority’s planning policies.

The new South Gloucestershire Local Plan will align with the Joint Spatial Plan (JSP). The JSP will cover South Gloucestershire, plus Bristol City Council, Bath and North East Somerset Council and North Somerset Council, and will provide the overall planning strategy for the region from, 2018 to 2036.

Marcus said: “This new local plan is of critical importance, given its requirement to deliver the emerging JSP’s vision for the West of England as a region of prosperity that will close the gap between the disadvantaged and other communities.

“As part of this consultation and to ensure that the area is ready to embrace new developments, landowners and property stakeholders are being asked to inform the local authority of any suitable and deliverable development sites.

“To facilitate this, the council is also undertaking a ‘call for sites’ exercise that will enable landowners and developers to highlight to the council any land they want to promote and be considered as a potential development allocation.”

South Gloucestershire Council has published a Local Plan Prospectus, which interested parties can comment on until 23 February.

Once adopted, it will present up-to-date policies for determining planning applications on issues such as design, scale, and conservation; and allocate new sites providing information on the amount of development considered acceptable.

The information gathered will also assist with the preparation of a Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment and the Draft Local Plan’s allocations.