Havant Borough Council have today circulated details of the ‘Pre-submission’ version of the ‘Local Plan 2036’. The full text of the announcement is quoted below.
(To open or download a copy of the full document, please scroll down to the bottom of this post and press the ‘Download’ button. )
The Havant Borough Local Plan 2036, which sets out how the borough will develop with homes, jobs and infrastructure, will be considered by councillors on Wednesday 30 January at 5.30pm.
At the meeting, councillors will consider the Local Plan and decide if it is ready to be submitted to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government following the final proposed consultation.
The Local Plan sets out how the Borough of Havant will develop over the next 17 years. It outlines the strategy for ensuring that the growth needed is delivered in the right places and is of the right character and quality. It also ensures that this growth is delivered alongside supporting roads, schools and services such as health, as well as retail, leisure and community facilities.
The Havant Borough Local Plan 2036 includes a number of proposals to meet housing, employment and infrastructure needs for the borough. These include the regeneration of Havant and Waterlooville Town Centres together with Hayling Island Seafront. These are key priority sites in the newly adopted Regeneration Strategy.
The plan also identifies Southleigh – a new community between Emsworth and Denvilles providing up to 2,100 homes – and the provision of 82,780 square metres of employment floorspace to support a population expected to rise by 16,912 during the lifetime of the plan.
The council is aiming to submit its plan to the Secretary of State during summer 2019 to be considered by an independent inspector at an ‘Examination’. The examinations are expected in the winter.
Having an up-to-date Local Plan in place will mean the council can retain influence over where development should be located, rather than being delivered in an ad hoc way as a result of speculative planning applications, sometimes without sufficient benefit to the local communities.
The decisions regarding the Havant Borough Local Plan 2036 follow an extensive preparation period that began in 2016. As part of this, two consultations were held with the local community. Most recently, more than 500 comments (representations) were made during the Draft Local Plan consultation, which was held in 2018. These comments have been collated and analysed. In response to this feedback, the report to Full Council has removed a number of sites previously considered for development and made other changes to the plan.
Councillor Leah Turner, Cabinet lead for Communities, Development and Housing, said: ” The Havant Borough Local Plan 2036 is the strategy that will underpin how we achieve the homes, jobs and infrastructure that our residents require. Crucially, this up-to-date Local Plan will mean we can protect the borough against speculative development and avoid government intervention which could imposed more development than we believe to be sustainable.
“It has been an extensive process to get to this point. Importantly, we’ve been able to develop the Local Plan with residents’ input. We’ve listened to the feedback from our consultation last year and have made a number of minor changes. These will now go before all council members for a decision.
Havant Civic Society 