Joint Core Strategy Public consultation Reg25

IMPORTANT NOTE - development of this document

In 2007 and early 2008 the Greater Norwich Development Partnership (GNDP) undertook a considerable amount of work to develop a Joint Core Strategy for the area covered by Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk councils, except for the Broads Authority area. This involved a major consultation exercise from November 2007 to February 2008, looking at 'issues and options'. The document which formed the focus of this work, and the summary leaflet, looked at possible approaches to a wide range of topics including different ways of accommodating the level of new development necessary to meet the requirements of the East of England Plan. This included looking at alternative locations where large scale development might be located in the area close to Norwich.

The GNDP intended to produce a 'preferred option' for public consultation last summer. However, changes to the plan-making process in June 2008 meant that the preferred option stage was removed. To comply with the new procedures the Partnership carried out a technical consultation with statutory agencies, service providers, organisations that deliver infrastructure, and other key stakeholders in August 2008. It asked them for guidance to develop the 'content' of the strategy and asked whether our current approach is one they could support. Technical consultees were asked to consider three options for the distribution of major growth in and around Norwich and on major sites.

During autumn 2008 the information provided by technical consultees and further results from evidence studies, were presented to Councillors from the four GNDP councils who agreed to publish the emerging Joint Core Strategy for full public consultation.This consultation document now includes the favoured option for large scale housing growth in and around Norwich, and on major sites (see Appendix 0 on page 59). However, the document does not yet reflect any of the comments made by the technical consultees and no changes have been made to the proposed settlement hierarchy to meet the challenges of the new favoured option which is shown in Policy 5.

PLEASE NOTE This could particularly affect places within the Norwich Policy Area (see Appendix 4) which now need to be considered for further development because the favoured option has allocated 1800 homes on smaller sites in the Norwich Policy Area of South Norfolk and 2000 homes on smaller sites in the Norwich Policy Area of Broadland . This means that for places in the Norwich Policy Area their position in the settlement hierarchy in this document could change.

After this consultation, the next stage will be to publish the draft plan, and to invite comments on its soundness, before submitting it to the Secretary of State, for an independent examination into whether the plan is sound.

The GNDP hopes this consultation document will help people understand and consider the broad strategy for the three districts, including the favoured option to develop new jobs and homes in and around Norwich. This report is publicly available in printed and electronic formats, and a programme of exhibitions is taking place to help give people an opportunity to find out more. Reports of previous consultations, the draft sustainability appraisal report, and the evidence studies completed to date are available on the GNDP's website www.gndp.org.uk.

Status of this document: Readers are asked to please note that:

• This document is largely unchanged from the technical consultation, except consequential changes arising from the inclusion of the favoured option for major growth in the Norwich Policy Area.

• Editing at this stage has been very restricted to keep it largely unchanged from the technical consultation document. This has led to some inconsistencies which the GNDP is aware of and which will be addressed during a major edit after the end of this consultation.

• This document will be fully reviewed at the end of this consultation.

Your comments

This consultation lasts for eight weeks and your comments must be received by Friday 24 April 2009.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this important plan. Please answer the consultation questions using the comments form available online at www.gndp.org.uk or in the questions booklet, available on request (phone 01603 430484). If you would like to provide supporting evidence please attach it to the comments form.

Responses can be made preferably through the GNDP's online consultation system which can be found at www.gndp.org.uk, or by email to jointcorestrategy@gndp.org.uk. Alternatively please post your response to:

Greater Norwich Development Partnership

1 Yarmouth Road

Norwich

GNDP contact number: 01603 430484

Please contact the teams in your area if you have any general questions about this consultation or the process.