Preparation of the Local Development Framework

Local Development Framework

The Government has agreed to merge the County, Borough and District Councils in Shropshire to form a single unitary council. The new council will start work on 1 April 2009. In the meantime, an Implementation Executive (IE) has been established to take key decisions. At its first formal meeting on Friday 29 February, IE set up three sub-committees including one devoted to taking forward work on the Local Development Framework (LDF). Meeting of both the IE and LDF Sub-committee are open to members of the public and representatives from the media and their agendas and minutes will be published on all councils' websites.

The County, Borough and District Councils have agreed to develop a single Core Strategy for the new unitary area. On 9 April, the IE approved a draft joint Local Development Strategy (LDS) which sets out the timetable for the joint LDF. The LDF will replace the current Local Plans for all the districts in Shropshire and the County Council's Waste Local Plan. If you would like to know more about the LDF, visit: www.shropshire.gov.uk/onecouncil/planning.nsf

In the period before 1 April 2009, each of Shropshire's District and Borough Councils will continue to take decisions on planning applications in their individual areas whilst the County Council will continue to take decisions on county matters and minerals and waste applications. In making these decisions on planning applications, each council will continue to apply their own adopted 'saved' local plan policies to their individual areas. If you have a planning enquiry in the period before 1 April 2009, you should continue to contact the planning department at your local council.

The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act of September 2004 has substantially altered the way in which the Council must carry out its statutory duty to prepare planning policy documents for the District in the future. A new range of documents, collectively known as the Local Development Framework (LDF), should now be produced. The Local Development Scheme (LDS) sets out the documents that currently form the District's development plan and is the guide to the future programme of LDD production for North Shropshire.

The revised North Shropshire Local Development Scheme was brought into effect on 21 June 2007. This document can be downloaded from this website by clicking here, and paper copies are available from:

Head of Development Strategy
North Shropshire District Council
Edinburgh House
New Street
Wem
Shrewsbury
Shropshire
SY4 5DB

Annual Monitoring Report

The current North Shropshire Annual Monitoring Report can be downloaded by clicking here. The second Annual Monitoring Report or AMR for North Shropshire covers the period 1st April 2005 to 31st March 2006 and its purpose is two-fold:

1. To assess the performance of the Council's planning policies and;
2. To assess the Council's progress in implementing the timetable of planning policy preparation as shown in the North Shropshire Local Development Scheme (or LDS).

The monitoring of planning policies through the AMR helps establish what is happening on the ground in North Shropshire and what may happen in the future. Via the AMR, monitoring will play a central role in the preparation of new planning policies and proposals for the District.

Contact

Should you require further information or wish to be kept informed on the progress of the North Shropshire Local Development Framework, please contact the Council's Development Plans Team.

This page was last updated on 16 August 2007.