Supplementary planning guidance and documents

Introduction

What are SPGs and SPDs?

The council has produced supplementary planning guidance (SPG) and supplementary planning documents (SPD) that provide further guidance about the implementation of specific planning policies or development in specific areas/sites.

Supplementary planning documents (SPD) replace SPGs in the new planning system introduced under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act, 2004 and perform the same function.

SPGs/SPDs do not introduce new policies or requirements but rather assist in the interpretation and application of existing policies and proposals and should help applicants make successful planning applications.

What is the status of SPGs/SPDs?

Whilst they do not have the same status as Development Plan Documents (or DPDs), SPGs/SPDs are a material consideration in the determination of planning applications.

What happened when saved policies in the old UDP were superseded?

The council adopted the Development Sites and Development Management DPDs (together with an associated Policies Map) on 10 December 2013 at a meeting of the Full Council. This means that any remaining saved policies in the pre-existing development plan for the borough – the Unitary Development Plan (UDP) or The Plan for the Environment – that was originally adopted on 12 October 2004 have been superseded and the plan has been withdrawn. In the absence of a parent policy hook a number of SPGs/SPDs were withdrawn at the same time.

However, the council agreed to carry forward some of these SPGs/SPDs in some other form and they have been re-published as informal guidance in the interim pending the preparation of a replacement SPD.