Ledbury Neighbourhood Development Plan

Consultation 1st December—5th January

The Ledbury Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) is making good

progress & the NDP Group will soon have a draft plan to show you.

The Ledbury NDP is based on the evidence collected by the NDP

Group (and available to view on our website) and the views of the

Community expressed at the many consultation events we have held

during this process.

The NDP is a planning policy document which will become the third

layer of planning policy in Ledbury after the National Planning Policy

Framework and the Herefordshire Core Strategy. This means that, once

adopted, planning applications in Ledbury ward will have to be

compliant with the NPPF, The Herefordshire Core Strategy and the

Ledbury NDP.

The NDP will therefore afford

a measure of control to the

community about what sort of

development takes place in the

town.

In order to see the work

undertaken so far please visit:

www.ledbury-ndp.org

The proposed Objective and Policies and potential allocation sites put

forward in the Call for Sites were consulted on in July 2016. We

received a broadly positive response. We have however made some

alterations to those objectives and policies and identified the sites,

that from the evidence so far, we consider most appropriate for

allocation.

The purpose of this consultation is to present all recent developments

and alterations to the plan to the community before we publish the

draft plan document in February 2017.

As part of this consultation we want to know whether you:

1. Believe Ledbury should have a settlement boundary and

whether you agree with our proposed boundary?

2. Agree with our shopping frontages designations?

3. Agree with our definition of where ‘Town Centre’ housing

should be located?

4. Believe we have allocated the right sites for housing for the

Neighbourhood Development Plan?

5. Agree with our new proposed Natural Environment

Objectives & Policies?

6. Agree with the Design Code?

The Settlement Boundary

A development boundary is a line drawn around a settlement to

indicate where a set of policies apply. Development within the

settlement boundary is usually considered sustainable and appropriate

in principle (subject to other national and local planning policies).

The NDP Group believe that a settlement boundary will help to

defend the edge of Ledbury from further unwanted housing

applications since the Ledbury NDP intends to include a policy which

states that:

‘Proposed development outside the identified settlement boundary will

not be supported’

There may be some instances where, despite the introduction of a

settlement boundary, some development will be allowed outside the

town. For example, affordable housing may be built on ‘exception sites’

which may be allowed even when contrary to policy.

However, the settlement boundary will afford a layer of protection to

the town to prevent further unwanted housing applications coming

forward.

The development boundary has been drawn tightly around the existing

built form and includes the allocated Viaduct site and the permitted site

South of Leadon Way. These two sites, along with other extant planning

permission mean that Ledbury has all the housing it needs over the

plan period. Map 1—Development Boundary

Shopping Frontages

Chapter 2 of the NPPF aims to boost the vitality of city, town,

district and local centres and states that planning policies should

promote competitive centres and anticipate and accommodate

changes to centres over the plan period. In order to do this it is

considered that the NDP needs to define a hierarchy of shopping

frontages in order to give the Plan control over what happens in

those areas.

The Ledbury NDP is proposing to define Primary and Secondary

Shopping Frontages as shown on the adjacent map. These

designations will be read in conjunction with Policy EE3.2 which

states that:

Policy EE3.2—Shopping Frontages

To preserve the current character. The change of use of A1—

Shops, A3—Restaurants & Cafes or A4—Drinking

Establishments to other use classes in the primary shopping area

will not be supported.

New A2—Financial & Professional Services and A5—Hot Food

Takeaways will not be supported within the primary shopping area

but will be encouraged within the secondary shopping area.

This policy, along with the adjacent map, is intended to help

prevent the loss of important retail services. The intention is to

prevent the loss of shops and the proliferation of hot food take-

aways in the what we consider to be the primary retail area.

The Town Centre

The evidence, both demographic and from consultation responses

from the community, suggests that we need to provide housing for

people at both ends of the age spectrum—downsize or retirement

homes for older people and starter homes for younger people.

It is considered that the most appropriate location for both types of

housing is close to the town centre so that future residents are in

close proximity to shops and services. Elderly people especially will

benefit from being within a few hundred metres of such amenities.

Therefore the NDP intends to include the following policy along

with a definition of the town centre for the purposes of this policy.

Policy HO3.2—Town Centre Housing

Smaller development proposals located close to the town centre (in the

area identified on the map) must give priority to the needs of the

elderly unless physical considerations such as steepness of access

determine otherwise.

Where a site is not appropriate for elderly persons accommodation it

should provide at least 20% Starter Homes.

Therefore any housing sites that come forward for development

within the identified Town Centre Housing area must provide elderly

person’s accommodation unless it can be demonstrated that the

topography makes it inappropriate.

The area identified on the adjacent plan is based on a maximum

walking distance of 400m from the Market House.

Design Code

The Neighbourhood Development Group have been working

hard on a Design Code in order to set rules on the design of new

development in the town.

The Design Code is a tool to help developers understand the

types of styles, materials and design that are considered most

appropriate in the town and which will help Ledbury retain its

unique identity. The Design Code, once adopted, will be a

document that developers will have to pay regard to when

submitting planning applications.

The Design Code sets out

guidance when it comes to:

Architectural styles

The public realm

New residential

developments

Landscaping

Sustainability

Key

Definition of town centre as per Policy HO3.2

Primary Shopping Frontage

Secondary Shopping Frontage

Map 2—Shopping Frontages & Map 3—The Town Centre

Housing Allocations

Prior to the previous round of consultation we undertook a Call for

Sites exercise in order to give local landowners the opportunity to

tell us about sites that might be appropriate for development in and

around the town. Of the sites submitted, only those within 1km of

the edge of the town were put to the community for consultation.

It has been clear from consultation responses that the community do

not want more new housing in Ledbury than is necessary. Since the

Viaduct site, the permitted site south of Leadon Way and the Cricket

Club site will deliver enough homes to meet Ledbury’s requirement

over the Plan period we currently consider that any Ledbury NDP

housing allocations should be within the settlement boundary and/or

to meet an established need such as elderly person’s housing.

Therefore the larger sites and those outside the settlement

boundary were dismissed as inappropriate. The two sites that we

would like you to consider are the Pugh’s Auction Room site on

Market Street and the land to the south of Shepherds Close.

It is proposed that HO1.1a—Market Street Auction Room site will

be allocated for a mix of elderly person’s and starter homes with

expansion of existing medical facilities.

It is proposed HO1.1b—Shepherds Close will be allocated for up to

10 dwellings, with provision of self-build plots strongly encouraged.

HO1.1a— Market Street Auction Rooms

HO1.1b — Shepherds Close

Natural Environment Policies

Since the last round of consultation we have been thinking hard about

the environment around Ledbury and considered that we need policies

to deal with a number of issues which we had not previously dealt with.

We wanted some protection against the proliferation of polytunnels in

the countryside and against any development which might harm the

setting of Ledbury’s historic woods.

We also consider it prudent to encourage those that wish to develop

proposals which would help Ledbury work towards environmental

sustainability.

As a consequence we developed the following objectives and policies to

deliver them:

Objective NE3:

To ensure that local agriculture does not detrimentally impact on the

existing natural beauty, biodiversity and visual appeal of the Ledbury and

surrounding areas.

Policy NE3.1- Farming landscape around Ledbury

Proposals for new polytunnels and in particular where existing

vegetative landscape clearance is required to install them must be

accompanied by a Landscape Impact Assessment. This is to demonstrate

that there is not a significant negative landscape or visual impact upon

the tourist, resident utility or setting of the town and its near

surrounding environment (including the Malvern AONB designated area

and in particular on the floodplain of the Leadon Brook valley).

Objective NE4:

To register the historic woods above Ledbury as being community assets

for both their historical significance and their utility to Ledbury as

sources of sustainable wood supplies and the sites of natural beauty and

wildlife biodiversity that make Ledbury an attractive tourist destination.

Policy NE4.1 - Protecting the setting of Ledbury woods

Proposals which would negatively impact upon the setting of Frith,

Conigree and Dog Hill Woods above Ledbury will not be supported.

Proposals which affect community access to these woods must be able

to demonstrate alternative proposals are in place to maintain community

access to these important community assets.

Objective NE5:

To develop Ledbury as a forward thinking, self-reliant and sustainable

lifestyle community to reflect increasing climate change challenges.

Policy NE5.1 - Ledbury as a self-sustaining community

Proposals which are aimed at developing Ledbury as a self-reliant and

environmentally sustainable community (such as for self-build zero

carbon based housing development), growing our own environmentally

supporting food, generating our own renewable energy supplies and

locally recycling our waste and water, will be supported.

Map 4—Market St allocation

Map 5—Shepherds Close allocation