Foreword
I have pleasure in providing the foreword to the Tendring District Local Plan 2007, which provides the “blueprint” for development to the year 2011 as well as the framework for protecting and enhancing the districts unique urban, coastal and rural environment.
Planning for new development through the Local Plan process, whether for new homes, employment sites, schools or shops, is one of the most important functions of a District Council. Different land uses have a long-lasting effect on the local environment, which has made it essential that effort has been invested in the Local Plan process to ensure that the most sustainable sites are proposed for development and that all policies in the Plan are of the highest standard.
Tendring is an attractive district, within easy commuting distance of London, Colchester, Ipswich and parts of the south-east, which places it under considerable pressures. The challenge facing the Council is to bring about regeneration and quality of life improvements for all by accommodating growth, providing new employment opportunities whilst protecting the built and natural environment. A strong Local Plan, focussing on meeting the needs of local communities, will help achieve this aim.
In so doing, this Local Plan has been rigorously tested over the lifetime of its preparation. It has been “on deposit” twice, in 2004 and 2005. Comments from all stakeholders including local communities, landowners and developers as well as individuals, were influential in shaping the Plan. The Local Plan (at that time called the Replacement Local Plan) was then the subject of a local plan inquiry between September 2006 and April 2007. During this period there were 36 days of sittings whilst altogether there were over 11,000 objections considered by the independent Inspectors. A thorough testing indeed and from which, I am pleased to say, the Local Plan remained largely intact.
The planning system has been the subject of major change recently, not least through the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and further changes will emerge, although the key theme of promoting sustainable development will remain central to planning policies. A widely used international definition of sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Although the idea is simple the task is substantial.
Whilst this Local Plan looks to the year 2011 in its forward planning and allocation of sites for development, new and emerging challenges already face the district. National and regional policies require further development in the district to the year 2021 and the need to provide more homes, including affordable houses, will remain paramount. We also need to ensure there are sufficient job opportunities to match the housing growth and serve the existing community. Sitting alongside these development issues are the increasingly recognised concerns about climate change and the use of resources and promoting renewable energy.
So the Council is even now looking beyond this Local Plan, to plan for the longer term future to address these evolving issues. The next development plan will be called the Local Development Framework which will look to the East of England Plan in providing the overarching planning framework in preparing new policies to meet needs to 2021.
This Council will encourage all those with an interest to fully participate in helping shape what goes into that Framework. So as well as serving current requirements, this Local Plan provides the springboard for that process, and I commend it to the community of Tendring.
Councillor Iris Johnson
Planning Portfolio Holder
December 2007