North Dorset Local Plan - plain sailing up to April

Yes - it arrived in the Christmas post!  Dated 17 December the Inspector's report concludes the plan is sound, subject to the main modifications that were aired in the summer. 

In particular with regard to the new housing need data, he concludes that "Taken as a whole… the benefits of adopting a plan that will be subject to early review, outweigh the disbenefits of relying on the 2012 SHMA.”

So provided that there are no hiccups between now and the Full Council meeting, the District Council can rest on its laurels of having the most up to date Local Plan in Dorset. Not that the planners can rest for long, as the early review means starting by April this year, and may inevitably require more sites to be found in light of the housing need for the future. 

North Dorset Local Plan and housing numbers update

For those of us that are keeping an eye on when the Examiner's report on the North Dorset Local Plan will be published, there has been some interesting updates in the last month on the latest figures emerging on housing needs for the area, leading to an exchange between the Inspector and the District Council. 

The Inspector has been made aware that the Eastern Dorset 2015 SHMA which assessed the likely housing need for the housing market area is to be published soon. From the information available it seems that it concludes that the objectively assessed need for North Dorset is 330 dwellings a year – compared to the earlier SHMA estimate of 285.  So a 15% uplift in total.  Obviously no decision as yet where this might be allocated - particularly as the 330 dwellings is an indicative split across the housing market area, and depending on the capacity and constraints, this may need to go up or down under the combined Council's Duty to Cooperate. 

The District Council are keen to get their Plan regarded nonetheless, and press ahead with starting their review straight away (they say they will start by 31 March 2016).  It does signal that there is likely to be more housing land required, and that this would need to be identified and allocated in the review (if there isn't sufficient supply coming forward above that already identified by the District Council). 

Will we get to see Inspector David Hogger's final report before Christmas?  And see the details in the SHMA?  Watch this space...

UPDATE - the housing needs report is in fact already on the Purbeck section of the Dorset Council's website - click here to view - the graph on page 197 (shown below) illustrates the different requirements.  Both Purbeck and North Dorset have a significant chunk of their need to support the likely employment growth in the area (which would otherwise be stalled by lack of employees, or lead to higher levels of commuting).  The 330 suggested annual figure for housing in North Dorset does not include residential care homes which if included would add on a further 17 units a year to this figure. 

Progress on the North Dorset Local Plan

The North Dorset Local Plan Examination moved on a step with the publication of the District Council’s responses to some of the issues raised at the examination hearings.  Of particular note is the change in the plan period to 2031 and the proposed retention of the settlement boundaries and higher housing target for Stalbridge and the larger villages.  Care homes and neighbourhood plans also feature in the updated supply numbers.  The housing targets will now expressed as a minimum, the reference to prioritising 2 and 3 bed house sizes for open market houses is to be removed.

Only invited participants can comment at this stage, but there will be a chance to comment on all the major changes at a later stage.

If you want to find out more it is worth checking out the following links

MHD006: recommends extending the plan period to 2031, and increasing the housing target to 285dpa (dwellings per annum).  It also says that provision will be made for an early plan review to incorporate new emerging evidence on housing needs in conjunction with other Dorset authorities.

MHD007: recommends retaining settlement boundaries around Stalbridge and the more sustainable villages (Bourton, Charlton Marshall, Child Okeford, East Stour, Fontmell Magna, Hazelbury Bryan, Iwerne Minster, Marnhull, Milborne St Andrew, Milton Abbas, Motcombe, Okeford Fitzpaine, Pimperne, Shillingstone, Stourpaine, Winterborne Kingston, Winterborne Stickland and Winterborne Whitechurch), and that between them these provide 41dpa (dwellings per annum).  No change is made for rural employment provision. 

MHD008: proposes including care homes (C2 use class) in the housing supply.  It also revises some of the start dates and capacities of specific sites based on landowner updates, and refers to 42 housing sites ‘identified in Neighbourhood Plans’.

MHD018: sets out a range of proposed changes that arose during the hearing sessions.  This includes changes to the policy wording of (take a deep breath here) Policies 3 (Climate Change), 6 (Housing Distribution), 7 (Delivering Homes), 9 (Affordable Housing), 11 (The Economy), 13 (Grey Infrastructure), 15 (Green Infrastructure), 16 (Blandford), 17 (Gillingham), 18 (Shaftesbury), 19 (Sturminster Newton), 21 (Gillingham Strategic Site Allocation), 24 (Design), 27 (Retention of Community Facilities), 30 (Existing Employment Sites in the Countryside) and 32 (Equine-Related Developments in the Countryside). 

All the documents can be found here.

North Dorset's Housing Numbers

Lots of talk at the examination hearings this week about housing numbers for North Dorset and whether the 280 annual target of homes to be built is high enough.  A common concern raised by participants was about the housing needs evidence.  They felt the Council has not fully explored the economic or affordable housing implications, both of which could mean that the overall housing target should be higher.

The Council responded by saying that they do anticipate delivering around 350 homes every year in the next 5 years or so, which they argue should provide sufficient comfort to allow the plan to be adopted with an early review of the numbers when the new housing data is released and considered by all the Eastern Dorset planning authorities.

The Inspector suggested some further work for the Council – in particular whether there may be other ways to boost the affordable housing delivery  - what other options have been considered and why were these rejected?

At the very least it would appear that the 280 figure is to be adjusted slightly upwards to take into account the proportion of housing that is taken up by second homes, and made a ‘minimum’ target and subject to an early review.

North Dorset Local Plan examination

First day of the North Dorset Local Plan examination - a sticky start?

The issues discussed were fairly fundamental - they included the plan period, the status of allocations and the broad locations for growth, and the relationship between part 1, the proposed part 2 and neighbourhood plans.

The Inspector (Mr David Hogger) made a number of observations.  In terms of the Duty to Cooperate, he was satisfied that the Council had met this test from his observations to date.  

The plan period came under considerable scrutiny.  The Inspector said he felt that the plan lacked the 15 year horizon advised by the national planning policy framework - particular as Part 2 (the site allocations plan) had yet to be prepared and would only last 9 years on adoption. Should the plan be halted whilst further work was done, could it be extended to 2031, or should there be an early review? Some of the participants noted that a new housing figure may be available this year from the work on the Strategic Housing Market Assessment - Poole and Purbeck had already published their draft figures. The District Council was asked to prepare further information on their thoughts about an early review.

There was also a lot of debate about how the rural housing needs were being addressed. Would the 230 homes allocation 'left over' from the towns really meet the needs of thriving rural communities? What would happen if rural areas had housing or other needs, but weren't prepared to do a neighbourhood plan or 'opt in' to Part 2? The Inspector said he was not sure there was enough in the local plan to provide a clear enough framework for rural communities undertaking neighbourhood planning, and that the 230 rural target had no relation to the rural needs. Furthermore they would not necessarily be built in the most appropriate locations. He was not convinced that this approach was sound. He asked the District Council to reassess their approach and look at both housing and employment needs for the rural areas to provide a stronger framework from which neighbourhood plans could evolve.

Day 3 should also be interesting - looking at the robustness of the Council’s objectively assessed housing need. This issue has tripped up many a Local Plan in recent years.

For more information on the programme go to https://www.dorsetforyou.com/northdorsetlocalplanexam