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ID sylw: 108609

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Kiely Bros Holdings Ltd

Asiant : Pegasus Group

Vision
3.1.
The draft vision for the SWLP Part 1 seeks to “meet South Warwickshire’s sustainable development needs and strengthen local communities”. The vision goes on to state that the plan will provide “homes and jobs, boost and diversify the local economy, and provide appropriate infrastructure, in suitable locations, at the right time”. These representations are broadly supportive of the vision as presented, as this accords with NPPF §7, which states that the purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.
3.2.
Five overarching principles for the plan which are pursuant to the vision are then listed. Notably, these do not fully align with the draft vision, and this must be addressed. Indeed, none of the principles refer to the delivery of “homes and jobs”, despite the provision of new housing and economic growth being key to the achievement of sustainable development, as highlighted in NPPF §8. In order to ensure that the vision and its five principles are positively prepared and consistent with national policy, which emphasises the importance of planning to meet an area’s objectively assessed needs, it is imperative for reference to be made to this, to then feed into the Strategic Objectives which follow. These do reference housing and employment (SO 1, 2, and 4), but have no direct link to the five principles as drafted.
3.3.
The selected spatial growth strategy, ‘Sustainable Travel and Economy’, should also be referred to, and woven into the other principles, as this strategy is now a fundamental part of the SWLP and the vision for South Warwickshire, which will shape the strategic objectives and policies in the plan.
3.4.
The vision and first of the five principles place a significant emphasis on responding to the climate emergency. Although this is supported and it aligns with the Government’s aspirations for achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (NPPF §161), it is also important that this does not dominate the Vision and Strategic Objectives of the SWLP to the detriment of securing a balanced, sustainable strategy which achieves the delivery of development to meet identified needs.
3.5.
The second principle refers to creating a ‘beautiful’ South Warwickshire. Whilst this aspiration is supported, and there is some reference to ‘beauty’ within national policy (NPPF §131), there
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is concern that this is poorly defined and will need to be supported by more detailed
guidance on what beauty means in practice.
Strategic Objectives
3.6.
The twelve Strategic Objectives are comprehensive, covering the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development set out in Paragraph 8 of the NPPF. It is thus considered that they are consistent with national policy. The Preferred Options Sustainability Appraisal (SA) (December 2024) finds that the Strategic Objectives will have negligible, minor positive, and major positive impacts on all SA Objectives.