Chapman Lily Planning have responded to the invitation by New Forest District Council to comment upon their draft ‘Planning for Climate Change’ Supplementary Planning Document.
It will inform the validation list and aid the interpretation of the Local Plan policies in the determination of planning applications for the construction of new homes and for other developments.
Alan Davies, Associate Director at Chapman Lily Planning exclaimed ‘The requirements in my view are quite onerous. Most applications will require a ‘Climate Change Statement’. For larger development, the applicant will need to calculate ‘embodied carbon savings, meet the ‘Design to build for a healthy Life standard’ and demonstrate ‘natural heatwave mitigation.’
These requirements are going to add significant costs to the already costly application bundle (add to this the fact that application fees are going up!) I do wonder if this whole issue is more properly addressed through the Building Regulations? Are Planning Officers ever going to check the ‘embodied carbon savings’ or ‘Energy usage’ etc.. are as the submitted documents?
Chapman Lily Planning has commented upon several of similar draft documents being brought forward by Local Planning Authorities – the last one being a similar document published by Dorset Council. The aims and objectives are all very laudable and adopt a similar tone – but use different formats, language, typeface and refer to different national publications. A lengthy document such as this will have taken many months to research and draft, taking up the time of several officers. I have no doubt most Local Planning Authorities will be looking to produce something similar. However, rather than each and every Authority producing broadly the same document. I do wonder if it would be more expedient for Authorities to ask the Planning Officers Society to produce a single national core document that can be lightly ‘tweaked’ for the inevitable local variations. This would reduce duplication and provide consistency.
New Forest District Council’s consultation closes on 11th July. We’ll be responding and we would urge the development industry to get involved.