Civic Voice has published the results of a member survey asking ‘What should be in the new NPPF’, with members wanting to see green space, green belt and conservation areas given greater protection following the NPPF review.
Civic Voice writes:
… Civic Voice – the authoritative voice for the civic movement – has… published results of a member survey asking poll ‘What should be the priorities in reforming the planning system?
The website poll was launched on Monday 6th March to coincide with the launch of National Planning Policy Framework consultation. After 458 votes, 35% of respondents say that they want to see green spaces given better protection during the review followed by greater protection for the green belt with 23%. Not surprisingly and linking with the Civic Voice campaign on conservation areas, third highest is stronger protection against inappropriate development in a conservation area 9%.
Ian Harvey, Civic Voice said ‘We have started reading though the draft new NPPF to spot matters of possible relevance to Civic Voice and local communities. In general, it is welcome, but we do have areas of concern with issues such as the proposal to define centrally the scale of house building needed in each area is controversial. Some areas will have to build more, some less. It is a very blunt instrument, but we accept the present methodology is far from perfect. We are concerned at proposals to punish councils by making it harder for them to resist development and stopping bonus payments to them where the delivery of houses falls below certain targets. It is often outside Council control how quickly development is delivered. During the financial crash a few years ago building almost stopped and this was something Councils could not have prevented.’
Harvey added ‘We very much welcome the statement that the concept of conservation should not be devalued through the designation of areas that lack special interest. Civic Voice is encouraging better conservation through our Big Conservation Conversation, so we are not surprised to see this as a high item on this poll’
Based on the survey of 458 votes casted so far, the results of the Civic Voice poll so fa find (in order) communities wanting:
- Green space better protected (35.33%)
- Greater protection and clarification on ‘exceptional circumstances’ for development in the green belt (23.33%)
- Stronger protection against inappropriate development in a conservation area (9.11%)
- Plan positively for high quality design (7.78%)
- Stronger brownfield first for housing policies (7.11%)
- Other (6.22%)
- Community Right of appeal against granting of planning permission (5.78%)
- Stronger curbs on out of town development (3.33%)
- Earlier involvement of local communities through collaborative planning/neighbourhood planning (2%)
Ian Harvey, Civic Voice finished by saying ‘We issued this poll on Monday to get an early snapshot of what people see as the priorities for the NPPF consultation. Civic Voice wants to hear the experiences of the planning system at a local level and I call on civic societies, resident associations and town and parish councils to respond to the national review. We look forward to debating the NPPF with the APPG for Civic Societies and others. We will be sharing a full briefing on the NPPF with our members.’
Craig Mackinlay MP, Chair of the APPG for Civic Societies said: ‘The revision of the National Planning Policy Framework implements around 80 reforms announced last year by the Government and retains an emphasis on development that’s sustainable and led locally, but with a stronger focus on both greater freedoms and greater responsibilities for councils to deliver for their communities. It includes an even stronger drive for increasing density, particular in areas where housing need is high, but not at the expense of quality, something Civic Voice strongly campaigns for. The APPG for Civic Societies look forward to this debate and I encourage people to respond to the Civic Voice poll and we will release the result during our meeting’.
Visit the archive of polls
For more on the NPPF consultation see the IHBC NewsBlog
