The Parish Clerk has received a message from Tim Bailey, Deputy Leader of the Spatial Planning – Plan Making and Infrastructure department at Ashford Borough Council. The text of the message is as follows. Please use the links within the message to get more information or to submit a site.
As agreed at the last Local Plan and Planning Policy Task Group, it was decided that Members and Parish Councils should be notified in advance of the council’s intention to launch its ‘Call for Sites’, as it was felt that Members and Parish Councillors will play a key role in helping the council to communicate the purpose of this exercise within their local communities.
To recap, the council is embarking on a statutory review of its Local Plan. A Local Plan to 2041 will need to identify sufficient land to provide for new homes, Gypsy and Traveller sites, and jobs in the borough, as well as places for retail and leisure uses, community services, and visitor and tourism facilities. To reflect the council’s ongoing commitment to create sustainable places that support the environment, health and wellbeing and that seek to mitigate and adapt to, climate change potential sites for new green spaces, energy generation, opportunities for Biodiversity Net Gain, and wetlands for Nutrient Neutrality mitigation (if required) and or nature-based initiatives, are also being sought.
From Friday 8th September 2023, the Council will be going ‘live’ with its ‘Call for Sites’ exercise, inviting landowners, developers, businesses, organisations and residents to submit any land that may be available to be considered for inclusion in the Local Plan. The ‘Call for Sites’ will be published in the Kentish Express and on the Council’s website, alongside a social media campaign on Facebook and Linkedin. This ‘Site Submission’ exercise will run for ten weeks, closing at 5pm on the 20th November 2023. Please be aware you may experience an increase in activity in your area and receive more queries in relation to the ‘Call for Sites’ during this time from interested parties or concerned and/or curious members of the community.
Further information; and instructions on how to submit a site will be available at www.ashford.gov.uk/HELAA (please note that this webpage will go live from Friday 8 September).
Following the close of the ‘Call for Sites’, all sites that have been submitted to us will be assessed for their suitability, availability and achievability, and be made publically available on our webpage in due course. Please note, that a site submission does not mean that it will be allocated, or provide any indication of the outcome of any assessment process through the Local Plan or any subsequent planning application that may be submitted.
If you have any questions or queries relating to the ‘Call for Sites’ exercise, please contact a member of the Spatial Planning Team at planning.policy@ashford.gov.uk; or 01233 330229.
