Media release from B&NES Council as follows:
Updates to parts of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Local Plan, which sets out the basis for decision making on development and the use of land across the district, have moved a significant step closer towards adoption.
The planning inspector who has been examining it has found the Local Plan Partial Update (LPPU) sound and legally compliant subject to some changes, known as main modifications, being incorporated. His Final Report has recently been published on the council’s website.
The LPPU will now be considered for adoption by B&NES Council on 19 January 2023.
B&NES Council state that once adopted the LPPU will ensure planning policy better addresses the climate and ecological emergencies, maintains the supply of new homes in a controlled manner and updates other policies including those on purpose-built student accommodation.
The main modifications suggested by the planning inspector were needed to make the LPPU sound (the government sets out the tests of soundness against which Local Plans are judged) and will allow it to be adopted. Those main modifications were consulted on in October and November this year.
The LPPU updates parts of the current Local Plan, which runs until 2029. If adopted the LPPU becomes part of the Statutory Development Plan and the basis for determining planning applications.
B&NES Council also states that the LPPU will also help to facilitate the development of renewable energy infrastructure of an appropriate scale in the right locations while minimising harm to the landscape and allow for new homes to be provided on sites in the most sustainable locations, mainly on brownfield sites in Bath. It also enables the Bath Park & Ride sites to be turned into true transport interchanges, with facilities to enable car drivers to switch to more sustainable modes of transport to access the city and surrounding countryside – not just buses, but also bikes, electric bikes, e-scooters etc
You can find more information on the Local Plan and Local Plan Partial Update on the council’s website.