CPRE Herefordshire Annual Report October 2012
CPRE Herefordshire Annual Report October 2012 CPRE Herefordshire Annual Report October 2012
We are now entering a new era for planning. The Government wants to place much more emphasis on planning at the local level. It believes that local communities are best placed to identify their local needs, and how these should be met. This places a responsibility on local communities – but it is also an exciting challenge: it’s your opportunity to have a greater say in the planning system. CPRE, together with partners The National Association of Local Councils (NALC), has been awarded a Government grant to promote and enable greater public involvement in the planning system. A Neighbourhood Plan (sometimes called a Neighbourhood Development Plan) is a new way of helping local communities to influence the planning of the area in which they live and work. It can be used to: • Develop a shared vision for your neighbourhood • Choose where new homes, shops, offices and other development should be built • Identify and protect important local green spaces • Influence what new buildings should look like These plans are created by your parish council, town council, or neighbourhood forum. They contain more detailed priorities for development in your community, such as the provision of low-cost housing or the preservation of green space. While Local Plans lay out a vision of future development for a whole area, the needs of individual towns and villages within that area can vary. Neighbourhood Plans are optional documents that detail further development priorities for individual communities. They are community-led and can be written by town or parish councils, or where there is neither, by a specially-created neighbourhood forum. Taking part in the writing of a Neighbourhood Plan helps you have a say in the future use of land and buildings in your neighbourhood. HCPRE has launched a new website to help people understand how to use the planning system. Visit CPRE’s Planning Help site at www.planninghelp.org.uk The site, called Planning Help, provides a guide to the new local plans (called Local Development Frameworks) Those who are less familiar with the planning system should find useful the site's guides to responding to planning applications and making the most of Public Inquiries and the simple explanations of how the planning system works. The site also contains examples of how CPRE has been able to use successfully the planning system to protect the countryside and contribute to urban regeneration. In Herefordshire neighbourhood plans are in process in the following areas: Applications to designate a Neighbourhood Area: • Pembridge Neighbourhood Area • Bartestree & Lugwardine Neighbourhood Area • Staunton-on-Wye Neighbourhood Area • Cusop Parish Neighbourhood Area • Dorstone Parish Neighbourhood Area • Colwall Neighbourhood Area Designated Neighbourhood Areas: • Almeley Parish Neighbourhood Area • Shobdon Parish Neighbourhood Area • Leominster Neighbourhood Area • Lyonshall Parish Neighbourhood Area 8
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT N THE LAST YEAR, HCPRE volunteers within our Planning Local Area network have made almost 40 submissions on planning applications that we believed would adversely affect the landscape. Every week, HCPRE volunteers check the lists of recent planning applications to investigate the details. If we feel that the application does not comply with national or local polices, a detailed representation is made. Our objections have covered polytunnels, wind turbines, a new superstore in Ledbury and hedgerow removals. We have also worked at the policy level keeping in close contact with Herefordshire Council on the emerging Local Development Framework that will govern planning policy in the county for the next 20 years. Our 2012 Annual Report covers many of the issues that HCPRE is working with. It is a huge agenda and one that depends on a handful of committed volunteers and the support of our membership across the county. CPRE National Office ably supports us but it’s still a tough task – a task that will get tougher in the future. The new National Planning Policy Framework from Government, while an improvement on the original draft document, nevertheless signals a major change in attitude to landscape protection. Current debate about the possible incursion of development into green belt is further evidence of that change. Economic imperatives may increasingly override more than 70 years of planning protection of the countryside. Hereford does not have a designated green belt but the proposed relief road will slice through prime agricultural land and the exceptional landscape setting of the Wye west of Hereford. HCPRE’s position is that the case for the road is unproven in relation to its stated objective of reducing congestion. Could economic imperatives be the real reason for the road? At a time of economic depression and falling living standards, it is very difficult for organisations such as HCPRE to argue against any development that offers the possibility of economic growth. It is even more difficult to argue that there may be other ways of growing the local economy than by concreting the landscape. HCPRE has supported the local foods initiative in Ledbury (see next page) and is looking to work with REconomy, a project from the Transition Network aimed at creating a truly sustainable Herefordshire economy, one which will meet the real needs of local people. This can be achieved through developing existing enterprises and new ones, through developing local skills and local resources. Our vision is a county that thinks differently, is different and is working for the future not attempting to re create the past; a county that re-generates the local economy from within, and takes advantage of the resources that we already possess. To protect our landscape we need to not only respect it, but to see it as a prime asset: as well spending much of its time objecting to developments that damage our landscape, HCPRE also seeks to positively promote its value. In 1934 Queenswood Country Park, still the county’s only country park, was purchased by HCPRE following concerns that the land was being sold off for holiday homes with no planning control to prevent this from happening. 80 years later, we are researching the possibility of initiating a new Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering the Black Mountains. It is surprising to many that despite the beauty of Herefordshire’s landscape less than 20% has any official designation that might protect it from development. A new AONB in addition to protecting more of the landscape could bring economic benefits as well. This will be the main topic of our AGM on 3rd November, so let us have your views. Membership over the last year seems to have held stable halting the decline in recent years, which is good news. However in the coming year we will need to give more attention to finances. We have incurred extra costs this year with the new website but our projections suggest an underlying structural deficit. Although our reserves are healthy, we will need to address income if we are to maintain them. We could face substantial cost next year in the Examination in Public (EIP) of Herefordshire’s Council Core Strategy at which HCPRE will need to make its case on issues such as the relief road, and increased development that threatens the landscape. We have allocated a significant proportion of our reserves to cover the possible costs. Finally, may I make my annual appeal for volunteers? We need whatever time you can give whether as part of our planning watchdog group or to serve on the Executive Committee or any other skills you think you can bring. An hour or a day – as they say every little helps! My thanks to all our volunteers, our supporters and to our administrator Barbara Bromhead- Wragg who has done sterling work this year on our new website and keeping us organised. Our President, Bishop Anthony, will be in the chair again at our AGM and my thanks to him for his continued support. 9
- Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 6 OCTOBER 2012 ANNUAL REPORT
- Page 3 and 4: NPPF AT A GLANCE... GREEN Improved/
- Page 5 and 6: A CASE STUDY HCPRE recently challen
- Page 7: tranquillity in beautiful landscape
- Page 11 and 12: Our planning watchdogs! Members of
We are now entering a new era for planning. The Government wants to place much more<br />
emphasis on planning at the local level. It believes that local communities are best<br />
placed to identify their local needs, and how these should be met. This places a<br />
responsibility on local communities – but it is also an exciting challenge: it’s your<br />
opportunity to have a greater say in the planning system.<br />
<strong>CPRE</strong>, together with partners The National<br />
Association of Local Councils (NALC), has<br />
been awarded a Government grant to<br />
promote and enable greater public<br />
involvement in the planning system.<br />
A Neighbourhood Plan (sometimes called a<br />
Neighbourhood Development Plan) is a new<br />
way of helping local communities to influence<br />
the planning of the area in which they live and<br />
work. It can be used to:<br />
• Develop a shared vision for your<br />
neighbourhood<br />
• Choose where new homes, shops, offices<br />
and other development should be built<br />
• Identify and protect important local<br />
green spaces<br />
• Influence what new buildings should<br />
look like<br />
These plans are created by your parish council,<br />
town council, or neighbourhood forum. They<br />
contain more detailed priorities for development<br />
in your community, such as the provision<br />
of low-cost housing or the preservation of<br />
green space.<br />
While Local Plans lay out a vision of future<br />
development for a whole area, the needs<br />
of individual towns and villages within that<br />
area can vary. Neighbourhood Plans are<br />
optional documents that detail further<br />
development priorities for individual<br />
communities. They are community-led and<br />
can be written by town or parish councils, or<br />
where there is neither, by a specially-created<br />
neighbourhood forum.<br />
Taking part in the writing of a Neighbourhood<br />
Plan helps you have a say in the future use<br />
of land and buildings in your neighbourhood.<br />
H<strong>CPRE</strong> has launched a new website to help<br />
people understand how to use the planning<br />
system.<br />
Visit <strong>CPRE</strong>’s Planning Help site at<br />
www.planninghelp.org.uk<br />
The site, called Planning Help, provides a<br />
guide to the new local plans (called Local<br />
Development Frameworks)<br />
Those who are less familiar with the planning<br />
system should find useful the site's guides to<br />
responding to planning applications and<br />
making the most of Public Inquiries and the<br />
simple explanations of how the planning<br />
system works. The site also contains<br />
examples of how <strong>CPRE</strong> has been able to use<br />
successfully the planning system to protect<br />
the countryside and contribute to urban<br />
regeneration.<br />
In <strong>Herefordshire</strong> neighbourhood plans are in<br />
process in the following areas:<br />
Applications to designate a<br />
Neighbourhood Area:<br />
• Pembridge Neighbourhood Area<br />
• Bartestree & Lugwardine Neighbourhood<br />
Area<br />
• Staunton-on-Wye Neighbourhood Area<br />
• Cusop Parish Neighbourhood Area<br />
• Dorstone Parish Neighbourhood Area<br />
• Colwall Neighbourhood Area<br />
Designated Neighbourhood Areas:<br />
• Almeley Parish Neighbourhood Area<br />
• Shobdon Parish Neighbourhood Area<br />
• Leominster Neighbourhood Area<br />
• Lyonshall Parish Neighbourhood Area<br />
8
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