Quality of development

As development is inevitable, it is essential that it meets the Borough’s needs, is of sufficient quality and will stand the test of time. The strategy to guide the amount and location of development will be supported by a suite of detailed policies setting out the Council’s expectations with regard to development quality.

This consultation looks at the kinds of measures that the Building a Better Future Plan can bring into force in the Borough and seeks your views on where the priorities should be.

More information about the proposed approach to these can be found below.

Getting involved

You can feed back your views via the green survey button below. This is the same survey as the one on the main Building a Better Future Plan homepage which asks questions on all of the themes in the Plan.

You can also submit general comments on any of the themes listed below via the green "submit a comment" button. All comments submitted can be viewed at the bottom of this page.

Face-to-face exhibition events are also being held across the borough. Full details of these events can be found in the Events tab at the top of this page.

Feedback your views via the Building a Better Future survey here

Climate change

By reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water use, the impacts of development on climate change can be lessened in the future. Given the significant amount of housing and commercial development over the lifetime of the Plan, it is critical that development is planned and designed considering its full environmental footprint.

The natural environment

There are a number of locally led strategies to deal with the environmental issues of the borough. This includes: Solent Recreation and Mitigation Strategy, Solent Waders and Brent Goose Strategy, Protected Species and Water Quality.

Biodiversity net gain

The Building a Better Future Plan will be prepared in line with the Environment Act and its secondary legislation (though the latter has not yet been published).

The Council’s proposed approach is to include a strategic policy setting out the requirements for biodiversity net gain and what development needs to do to ensure biodiversity net gain is provided as set out in legislation.

Local nature designations

The proposed approach will be to protect, conserve and enhance the Borough’s local nature designations, and to ensure that development avoids fragmentation of the local ecological network. Should a development impact a local nature designation, then an avoidance and mitigation plan should be submitted which includes provision for ongoing management and maintenance.

Affordable housing

National planning policy expects local plan policies to reflect the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community. This includes affordable housing and the type of affordable housing required.

Government policy requires that affordable housing is not sought unless part of a scheme of at least 10 dwellings and that it should normally be provided on-site.

Housing design standards and specialist accomodation

The Council aims to require housing development to provide high quality accommodation that meets the needs of future occupiers of those homes. The Council will be guided by the evidence and consultation feedback as to whether new standards should be introduced. These would cover some or all of:

• Minimum internal space standards

• Gardens and balconies

• Homes with enhanced accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible homes

Landscape and loss of agricultural land

The Building a Better Future Plan will recognise, protect and enhance designated landscapes, both through criteria based policies for these areas and through its selection of development sites, which will avoid protected landscapes unless their development would meet the specific criteria in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) associated with designated landscapes

Infrastructure

Timely provision of infrastructure to support the level of development proposed is necessary to make sure that the quality of life of existing communities is maintained, and that development does not have a detrimental impact upon amenity, safety or the environment.

The most efficient way to plan for infrastructure is to make existing facilities and services more resilient to higher levels of use as the population rises

Transport and electronic communications

The Building a Better Future Plan will reflect the emerging Local Transport Plan and the Environment and Climate Change Strategies. The development strategy will seek to focus development in locations that give residents of new development good access to shops, services and facilities.

Green Infrastructure

This includes all types of open spaces, which can be green (such as parks), grey (such as public spaces) and blue (such as the seafront). Together these are generally known as green infrastructure and Government intends for the spaces to be capable of delivering a wide variety of economic, health and wellbeing benefits

Sports and recreation

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) recognises the role of sport and recreation as a fundamental part of sustainable development. It is acknowledged that access to high quality sport and recreation facilities make an important contribution to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of communities.

High quality design

The Building a Better Future Plan will set out design expectations for development, covering not only the proposed buildings themselves, but also their context and surroundings. Good design is not only about visual appeal, but also about amenity, ease of getting around, crime prevention, and environmental considerations, and the policies in the plan will reflect this.

Heritage and the historic environment

The Building a Better Future Plan will seek to protect, conserve and enhance its heritage assets and their setting, both through criteria based policies and through its development allocation selection. Development in these sensitive areas will be limited and where it does take place would have to be to the highest quality, retaining as much of the heritage as possible.

Pollution

The approach to this in the Building a Better Future Plan will be to expect developers to submit sufficient information to establish whether a significant negative effect is likely to result from development in isolation and in combination with other development. If it is, then a mitigation strategy would be needed to ensure that there is no adverse impact on the environment.

A key part of encouraging vitality and viability in the Borough’s town centres will be to encourage uses which support the evening economy, whilst focusing high quality high density residential development in these areas. Whilst new homes in these areas can contribute to the evening economy, it can cause conflicts such as noise which need to be managed in order to protect residential amenity.

To navigate to other sections of this website, please use the links below or go back to the top of the page and click the arrow titled "Building a Better Future".

Go to your priorities for building a better future