West Northamptonshire Strategic Plan - Issues Consultation

The local planning authorities in West Northamptonshire, i.e. Daventry District, Northampton Borough and South Northamptonshire Councils with support from Northamptonshire County Council, have agreed to prepare a new Strategic Plan for the area. The West Northamptonshire Strategic Plan (WNSP) will set out a spatial vision for the future of the area extended up to 2050. To address the key strategic priorities for the area the scope of the WNSP will include:

• The spatial strategy for the distribution of development – this will include consideration of a range of spatial options to deliver sustainable development.
• Place-shaping / sustainable development – Key principles to ensure quality development and sustainable places including the protection and enhancement of natural/built and historic assets and achieving net biodiversity gain.
• The housing requirement – the number and type of new homes to be provided across West Northamptonshire and the proportion of the overall housing requirement that should be affordable.
• Economic growth – Targets for the provision of jobs and employment land in West Northamptonshire and guidance on the strategic locations for new employment land to meet the jobs requirement. New policy guidance for town centres and retail development.
• Strategic infrastructure – The key primary infrastructure projects that are required to deliver the strategy such as strategic transport schemes utility networks and community facilities.
• Health - ensuring people can lead active lifestyles, including access to good quality open space, natural and semi natural greenspace and enjoy cleaner air.

The Issues consultation is the first stage in preparing the new Strategic Plan. We have produced an Issues consultation document which is designed to stimulate debate at an early stage and it is important to emphasise that no decisions have yet been made on the scale of growth or where that growth should be located. We want to engage with stakeholders and communities across the area and work together to ensure that we prepare the best plan possible for a sustainable future. The Issues document can be viewed below and sets out a series of consultation questions for you to respond to. Please read the document and answer the questions using the online form.

Sustainability Appraisal

The WNSP will be informed by a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) which will consider ways in which the plan can contribute to improvements in environmental, social and economic conditions. The SA will also identify and mitigate any potential adverse effects that the plan may have. An initial SA Scoping Report has been prepared and is available for comment alongside this Issues documents (see the Consultation Documents listed below). The Scoping Report can be viewed  below and we would welcome your comments on the report using the online form.

Call for sites

The next stage of plan preparation will be the development of spatial options. To help inform the consideration of these options we are undertaking a 'call for sites'. At this stage we are primarily interested in sites which are strategic in scale. If you have any suggestions for strategic locations for new development then please submit these using the online form.

The Issues consultation is being carried out in line with Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 and the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004). Further details are provided in the public notice which is available in the list of consultation documents below.