The City Council has published an early scoping document for the Leeds Local Plan 2040. This consultation is about you influencing the Plan at an early stage.
The Local Plan sets out a series of 'planning policies', which are intended to ensure that new development that takes place in the future does so in a responsible way. The Local Plan will identify the amount and type of development that is needed (including new homes and workspaces), where it should take place, what is should look like and the services and infrastructure that are needed to support it. As well as this, we intend to introduce standards to help ensure better quality new development and to protect valued community, historical and natural assets.
(Footnote - We are already bringing forward policies on net zero, green infrastructure, biodiversity and design as part of our separate Local Plan Update called "Your Neighbourhood, Your City, Your Planet". These will also help deliver responsible development.)
We need to keep the Local plan up to date to ensure that our planning policies reflect the changing needs of communities and businesses in Leeds, address emerging challenges and make the most of new opportunities for growth up to 2040. We will simplify the Local Plan so it only includes policies that we really need, which should make the plan easier to understand and use, making it more effective.
Based on what local people have said in the past, and a review of our policies and from assessing the challenges and opportunities that we know that we face in Leeds, we think there are 7 topic areas that the plan should cover:
1. Spatial Strategy – where future growth in Leeds should take place in order to meet the needs of residents and businesses.
2. Housing – seeking to get the right size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in all locations in the District.
3. Economic Development – establishing whether land may be required to support new jobs and retain existing jobs across a range of sectors of the economy, including offices, research and development, advanced manufacturing, logistics, the creative sector and tourism.
4. Role of City and Local Centres – whether we need to protect our city, town and local centres, and how we should do this.
5. Minerals and Waste – how we accommodate extra waste disposal and mineral (sand, gravel etc.) extraction sites, whilst minimising their impact.
6. Transport & Connectivity – supporting the integration of accessible, sustainable and active travel options throughout the region.
7. Other topic areas – an update of our policies that provide more detailed requirements for planning applications, including policies dealing with issues such as conservation & heritage, landscape and rural policies.
We would like your thoughts on this early scope before a decision is made. This consultation will ask you some questions about the topics you think we should cover, as well as more technical questions on a range of topics. If there is anything we have missed, we would like you to tell us that too.
Further information about the Local Plan and all topic areas can be found at www.leeds.gov.uk/llp2040.