Context and reasoned justification

It is the intention that following the adoption of the Haslemere Neighbourhood Plan local residents will be able to continue to make constructive contributions to the development of our community.

It is not possible to anticipate all the developments that will be proposed during the life of the Plan and therefore provision is needed for continuing the process of community consultation on future developments. The WBC Local Requirements list states that for applications of 10 or more dwellings, developers may have to provide a community involvement statement and they are directed to the Good Practice Guide to Public Engagement in Development Schemes for further information.

82% of consultees agreed the Plan should require developers of sites of more than 50 dwellings to produce a transparent development brief and evidence that they have consulted local residents before applying for planning permission. This is not considered an overly onerous requirement since, given the value of such large developments, much of the content will be a necessary part of the developer’s planning application and that good developers will often choose to consult voluntarily before commencing projects in our area. Given that population projections suggest 14% of residents will be aged over 75 by 2021, developers should ensure they engage with all community sectors using a variety of means and media.

Intent

To ensure the community is effectively informed and able to provide its opinions on substantial proposed developments within the Plan area, developers should prepare a development brief to provide a clear, illustrated and complete explanation of their proposals with appropriate mapping, freely available to the community. There should also be a presentation of the development at a community venue, open to all, prior to the submission of any development application.

Policy

H4 Any development application for 50 or more dwellings is required to be accompanied by:

1. a published development brief
2. a travel plan, to demonstrate how the development will improve local traffic and pedestrian management (Surrey County Council have published guidance on writing travel plans available for reference)
3. evidence that the development brief has been delivered to all residential properties within an appropriate distance of the development site (this will be assumed to be 500 metres unless there are good reasons for the use of a smaller area) and advertised and made available to the wider community
4. a summary of the consultation process undertaken and the responses received from the community

The development brief must include:

5. a site map, showing the site’s location within its immediate neighbourhood and identifying any key features, e.g. Green Belt, Special Protection Areas and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, flood zones, key landmarks, views and other features potentially affected by the proposed development
6. an illustrative layout of the proposed development, including elevations of the properties as seen from outside the boundary of the site
7. a schedule of the proposed development, numbers of properties, by size, numbers of affordable homes and dwelling type, mix and tenure
8. design style, materials to be used, proposed layout and landscaping of the site
9. site access arrangements, road, pedestrian/cycle routes and parking provisions
10. consideration and mitigation of any infrastructure issues raised by the proposed development
11. an outline of the proposed drainage and other ecological/ environmental impacts and proposed mitigation/ improvement
12. proposed community benefits of the development with regard to the Haslemere Neighbourhood Plan and any other key local issues

Developers may consider explaining how the new development contributes to the 12 Building for Life standards.