Planning Policy refers to the suite of documents that set out the standards and expectations applied to development proposals, which are taken into account when decisions are made on planning applications.
Most of these are prepared by the Council’s Planning Policy Team, but there are others set at a national, sub-regional and county levels, and others prepared by the community.
National Government have prepared a national framework for planning policy, which Local Planning Authorities must adhere to in their Plan Making and Development Management (planning applications) decisions.
The Local Plan is the most significant planning policy document that the Council prepares. It sets out the vision for future development in the borough, identifies what areas should be developed, and what requirements and standards developers should meet in their proposals.
Neighbourhood planning allows local groups to come together to prepare a local level plan for their area. Neighbourhood plans that have gone through all the necessary stages of production and a local referendum are used by the council alongside its own planning documents to make decisions on planning applications in a particular area.
To date, the Emsworth Neighbourhood Plan is the only neighbourhood plan that has been prepared in the borough.
Supplementary Planning Documents provide further policy guidance on some of the policies in the adopted Local Plan. The Council has also published other documents that are not formally SPDs, but provide useful guidance for applicants.
You can contact the Planning Policy team with queries about the Local Plan or other policy matters on 023 9244 6539 or email policy.design@havant.gov.uk