North Somerset Local Plan 2038

1 North Somerset Local plan 2038. Preferred Options (Consultation Draft). February 2022. North Somerset Local plan Preferred Options: Version for Executive Committee 2 February 2022. Contents 1. Introduction 6. 2. Vision, Strategic Priorities and Sustainability Objectives 8. 3. Strategic Policies 11. SP1 Sustainable development SP2 Climate change SP3 Spatial strategy SP4 Placemaking SP5 Towns SP6 Villages and rural areas SP7 Green Belt SP8 Housing SP9 Employment SP10 Transport SP11 Green infrastructure and historic environment SP12 Minerals 4. Locational Policies 31. LP1 Strategic location: Wolvershill ( North of Banwell). LP2 Strategic location: Yanley Lane (Woodspring golf course). LP3 Nailsea and Backwell LP4 Housing, employment and mixed use allocations LP5 Educational, sporting, leisure, and community use allocations LP6 Settlement boundaries LP7 Town centre hierarchy LP8 Extent of the Green Belt LP9 Strategic Gaps LP10 Transport Infrastructure allocations and safeguarding LP11 Bristol Airport LP12 Air safety LP13 Royal Portbury Dock LP14 Local Green Space LP15 Preferred Area for mineral working land at Hyatts Wood Farm, south of Stancombe Quarry LP16 Area of Search for minerals working land at Downside Farm, south of Freemans Quarry LP17 Minerals Safeguarding Area for carboniferous limestone North Somerset Local plan Preferred Options: Version for Executive Committee 2 February 2022.

2 2. 5. development management Policies 63. Design and Place-making 63. DP1 High quality design DP2 Residential development within settlement boundaries DP3 Residential extensions DP4 HMOs and Residential subdivision DP5 Climate change adaptation and resilience DP6 Net zero construction DP7 Large scale renewable energy generation DP8 Efficient use of land DP9 Flood risk DP10 Sustainable drainage DP11 Rivers, watercourses, and springs DP12 development in the Green Belt Transport 85. DP13 Highway safety, traffic and provision of infrastructure associated with development DP14 Active and Sustainable Transport DP15 Active travel routes DP16 Public transport accessibility DP17 Travel Plans DP18 Parking DP19 Airport related car parking Economic development 97. DP20 Safeguarding employment sites DP21 Visitor attractions DP22 Visitor accommodation DP23 Town centres DP24 District Centres DP25 Local Centres DP26 Primary shopping areas DP27 Retail Parks DP28 Sequential approach for town centre uses DP29 Control of non-mineral development DP30 Mineral working exploration, extraction and processing Natural and Historic Environment 113.

3 North Somerset Local plan Preferred Options: Version for Executive Committee 2 February 2022. 3. DP31 Green Infrastructure DP32 Nature conservation DP33 Biodiversity Net Gain DP34 Trees and Woodlands DP35 Landscape DP36 Green spaces not designated as Local Green Space DP37 Mendip Hills AONB. DP38 Built Heritage DP39 Archaeology and non-designated heritage assets DP40 Historic Parks and Gardens DP41 Coastal erosion and marine management Life Prospects 134. DP42 Affordable housing (including rural exception schemes). DP43 Gypsies, travellers and travelling showpeople DP44 Accessible and adaptable homes DP45 Residential Space Standards DP46 Homes for all DP47 Older person Accommodation DP48 Residential annexes DP49 Healthy Places DP50 Location of new educational, sports leisure and community facilities DP51 Provision of educational, sporting, leisure, cultural or community facilities to meet the needs of new development DP52 Protection of existing educational, sporting, leisure, cultural or community facilities Countryside 154.

4 DP53 Best and most versatile land DP54 Rural workers housing DP55 Agriculture and land based rural businesses DP56 Equestrian development DP57 Recreational use in the countryside DP58 Replacement dwellings in the countryside DP59 Conversion or reuse of rural buildings DP60 Previously developed land in the countryside DP61 Employment on green field land in the countryside DP62 Existing businesses in the countryside DP63 Visitor accommodation in the countryside including camping and caravanning Delivery 170. North Somerset Local plan Preferred Options: Version for Executive Committee 2 February 2022. 4. DP64 Infrastructure delivery and development contributions 6. Schedules of allocations 171. Schedule 1: Proposed large sites for residential development Schedule 2: Proposed Employment Sites Schedule 3: Proposed Local Green Space Schedule 4: Proposed sites for community facilities Schedule 5: Settlements with settlement boundaries 7.

5 Consultation and next steps 208. Glossary 209. North Somerset Local plan Preferred Options: Version for Executive Committee 2 February 2022. 5. 1. Introduction 1. North Somerset Council is preparing a new Local plan with a 15 year plan period 2023-2038. Once adopted it will replace the current development plan which comprises the Core Strategy, site Allocations plan and development management Policies and which has an end date of 2026. 2. This Preferred Options document is a consultation document prepared under Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning ( Local Planning) (England). Regulations 2012. 3. The Local plan will provide a positive vision for the future of North Somerset , a framework for addressing housing needs, employment requirements and other priorities and a mechanism through which Local communities can help shape their surroundings.

6 The heart of the planning system is the delivery of sustainable development which comprises interdependent economic, social and environmental objectives. The Local plan provides the Local expression of what sustainable development means for North Somerset . It must be positively prepared (to address objectively assessed needs), justified (an appropriate strategy based on reasonable evidence), effective (deliverable over the plan period) and consistent with national policy. It is subject to several stages of consultation and tested through independent examination. 4. The initial stages of consultation took place in 2020: Challenges for the Future and Choices for the Future. Challenges for the Future (July 2020). 5. The Challenges document sought views on the key challenges facing the district over the plan period and set out a draft vision, aims and priorities.

7 The key challenges included the climate and nature emergencies, the scale of the government's housing requirement, improving design quality and placemaking and responding to the impact of the pandemic on society and economic growth. Choices for the Future (November 2020). 6. Following consideration of the responses received to the Challenges consultation, Choices focused on the alternative high-level approaches for delivering the growth required. While these illustrated the principal alternatives, the consultation document emphasised that there will be other options and that the preferred strategy may be a hybrid combining elements from different alternatives. Each of the approaches sought to accommodate the growth North Somerset Local plan Preferred Options: Version for Executive Committee 2 February 2022.

8 6. required (housing and employment) but through the identification of broad locations, not specific sites. Four illustrative broad approaches were identified: Retain Green Belt ( development opportunities identified outside the Green Belt). Urban focus (maximised the amount of growth close to the districts four main towns as well as locations well related to the Bristol urban area using a relatively small number of large strategic sites). Transport corridors (focused growth on existing or potentially enhanced public transport corridors into Bristol and Weston). Greater dispersal (growth is more widely distributed using a large number of smaller development locations). Each of these was illustrated with a range of different scales and locations of growth to help inform a debate about how best to meet the growth required and therefore to help shape a preferred spatial strategy for inclusion in the Local plan .

9 7. Having considered the evidence and taken account of the initial consultation stages, in April 2021 the Council approved the vision and strategic priorities for the Local plan and set out the spatial strategy and sequential approach to the assessment of development opportunities to act as the framework for plan preparation, although this was still to be subject to further testing. 8. This Preferred Options document sets out the Council's preferred approach taking account of the evidence and the engagement undertaken to date. It is not the final version of the Local plan . The plan is still at an early stage and this is a chance for all interested parties to comment on the proposals and help shape the emerging policies and allocations. All responses will be considered before the Council agrees a final version which it intends to submit for examination (the pre-submission version).

10 9. The pre-submission version will also be consulted upon prior to it being submitted for examination by an independent inspector. Following the examination, the Council will receive an Inspector's Report setting out any proposed amendments. The plan can then be adopted . 10. The Local plan timetable is as follows: Consultation on Preferred Options March/April 2022. (Consultation Draft). Consultation on pre-submission plan November 2022. Submission to Secretary of State January 2023. Examination April 2023. Inspector's Report October 2023. North Somerset Local plan Preferred Options: Version for Executive Committee 2 February 2022. 7. Adoption December 2023. 2. Vision, Strategic Priorities and Sustainability Objectives Vision 11. The Local plan vision is our aspiration as to what good development will look like in the future and reflects the corporate values of open, fair and green.