Glossary

By TomAtack
Dec 6, 2007 - 5:58:00 PM

Adopted Proposals Map
A Development Plan Document showing the location of proposals in all other current Development Plan Documents, on an Ordnance Survey base map.

Annual Monitoring Report (AMR)
A report submitted to Government by Local Planning Authorities or Regional Planning Bodies assessing Local Development Framework or Regional Spatial Strategy production progress and policy effectiveness.

Area Action Plan
A type of Development Plan Document setting out policy and proposals for a specific location or an area subject to conservation or significant change (for example major regeneration).

Community Strategy
A strategy prepared by a local authority to improve local quality of life and aspirations, under the Local Government Act 2000.

Conservation Area
Areas of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance.

Conservation Area Character Appraisal
A published document defining the special architectural or historic interest that warranted the area being designated.

Core strategy
A Development Plan Document setting out the spatial vision and objectives of the planning framework for an area, having regard to the Community Strategy.

Development Control
The process whereby a Local Planning Authority manages, shapes, and considers the merits of a planning application and whether it should be given permission with regard to the Development Plan.

Development Plan
A document setting out the Local Planning Authority's policies and proposals for the development and use of land and buildings in the authority's area. It includes Unitary, Structure, and Local Plans prepared under transitional arrangements, and new Regional Spatial Strategies and Development Plan Documents prepared under the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act of 2004.

Development Plan Documents (DPDs)
DPDs are Local Development Documents that have Development Plan status.Once adopted, development control decisions must be made in accordance with them unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The DPDs which Local Planning Authorities must prepare include the Core Strategy, Site-Specific Allocations of land and, where needed, Area Action Plans. There will also be a proposals map, which illustrates the spatial extent of policies that must be prepared and maintained to accompany all DPDs. The first proposals map will be based on the proposals map in the Revised Deposit Replacement Local Plan when adopted. All DPDs must be subject to rigorous procedures of communityinvolvement, consultation and independent examination, and adopted after receiptof the inspector’s binding report.

Local Area Agreement (LAA)
A three year agreement, based on local Sustainable Community Strategies, that sets out the priorities for a local area agreed between Central Government, represented by the Government Office (GO), and a local area, represented by the local authority and other key partners through Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs).

Local Development Documents (LDDs)
These include Development Plan Documents (which form part of the statutory Development Plan) and Supplementary Planning Documents (which do not form part of the statutory Development Plan). LDDs collectively deliver the spatial planning strategy for the Local Planning Authority's area, and they may be prepared jointly between local planning authorities.

Local Development Framework (LDF)
The local development framework is a non-statutory term used to describe a folder of documents, which includes all the Local Planning Authority's Local Development Documents and Supplementary Planning Documents, as well as the Statement of Community Involvement, the Local Development Scheme and the Annual Monitoring Report.

Local Development Scheme (LDS)
The Local Planning Authority’s timescaled programme for the preparation of Local Development Documents that must be agreed with government and reviewed every year.

Local Plan
An old-style development plan prepared by District and other Local PlanningAuthorities. These plans will continue to operate for a time after the commencement of the new development plan system, by virtue of specific transitional provisions.

Local Planning Authority (LPA)
The local authority or council that is empowered by law to exercise planning functions. Often the local borough or district council.

Local Transport Plan
A five-year integrated transport strategy, prepared by local authorities in partnership with the community, seeking funding to help provide local transport projects. The plan sets out the resources predicted for delivery of the targets identified in the strategy. Local transport plans should be consistent with the policies and priorities set out in the Regional Transport Strategy as an integral part of the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004
The Act updates elements of the 1990 Town & Country Planning Act. The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 introduces:
- a statutory system for regional planning;
- a new system for local planning;
- reforms to the development control and compulsory purchase and compensation systems; and
- removes crown immunity from planning controls.

Planning Policy Guidance (PPG)
Issued by central government setting out its national land use policies for England on different areas of planning. These are gradually being replaced by Planning Policy Statements.

Planning Policy Statement (PPS)
Issued by central government to replace the existing Planning Policy Guidance notes in order to provide greater clarity and to remove from national policy advice on practical implementation, which is better expressed as guidance rather than policy.

Public Open Space
Urban space, designated by a council, where public access may or may not be formally established, but which fulfils or can fulfil a recreational or non-recreational role (for example, amenity, ecological, educational, social or cultural usages).

Regional Assembly / Regional Planning Body (RPB)
Each of the English regions outside of London has a regional chamber that the regions generally call Regional Assemblies (not to be confused with the term Elected Regional Assemblies). They are responsible for developing and co-ordinating a strategic vision for improving the quality of life in a region. The assembly is responsible for setting priorities and preparing certain regionalstrategies, including the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Regional Development Agency (RDA)
The nine Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) set up in the English regions are non-departmental public bodies. Their primary role is as a strategic driver of regional economic development in their region. The RDAs aim is to:
- Co-ordinate regional economic development and regeneration
- Enable the regions to improve their relative competitiveness
- Reduce the imbalances that exist within and between regions

Regional Economic Strategy
These statutory strategies take an integrated and sustainable approach to economic development and regeneration by tackling business competitiveness, productivity and the underlying problems of unemployment, skills shortages, social exclusion and physical decay. They provide:
- a regional framework for economic development, skills and regeneration to ensure better strategic focus for, and co-ordination of, activity in the region whether by the agency or by other regional, sub-regional or local organisations;
- a framework for the delivery of national and European programmes and influencethe development of government policy; and
- the basis for the RDAs' detailed action plans.

Regional Housing Board
Regional housing boards are established in each region to strengthen the linkages between housing, the planning framework, and economic development. They also co-ordinate arrangements for determining regional priorities for housing investment.

Regional Housing Strategy (RHS)
The regional housing strategy prioritises the housing needs of the region (by locations and/or types of expenditure) to allow decisions to be taken on how housing resources should be allocated within the region. It takes an overall view on regional housing need, housing investment priorities and affordable housing targets. This provides a regional context for local authorities in drawing up their own housing investment strategies and to identify regional priorities for housing investment to be funded through registered social landlords.

Regional Planning Body (RPB) / Regional Asssembly
Each of the English regions outside of London has a regional chamber that the regions generally call Regional Assemblies (not to be confused with the term Elected Regional Assemblies). They are responsible for developing and co-ordinating a strategic vision for improving the quality of life in a region. The Assembly is responsible for setting priorities and preparing certain regionalstrategies, including Regional Spatial Strategies.

Regional Planning Guidance (RPG)
Regional planning policy and guidance issued for each region in England by the Secretary of State. Most RPG becomes Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) until revised by replacement RSS.

Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS)
A strategy for how a region should look in 15 to 20 years time and possibly longer. It identifies the scale and distribution of new housing in the region, indicates areas for regeneration, expansion or subregional planning and specifies priorities for the environment, transport, infrastructure, economic development, agriculture, minerals and waste treatment and disposal. Most former Regional Planning Guidance is now considered RSS and forms part of the development plan. New RSS is being prepared by RPBs.

Regional Sustainable Development Framework (RSDF)
High-level documents that set out a vision for sustainable development in each region, and the region's contribution to sustainable development at the national level. In doing so, frameworks take a wide overview of regional activity and the regional impact of government policy.

Regional Transport Strategy
A strategy produced by the Regional Planning Body, informing local transport plans, and providing a strategic overview of transport strategies and investment priorities.

Site-Specific Allocation
A Development Plan Document that identifies specific areas for land for development in order to meet the provisions of the Core Strategy.

Spatial Development
Changes in the distribution of activities in space and the linkages between them in terms of the use and development of land.

Spatial Planning
Spatial planning goes beyond traditional land use planning to bring together and integrate policies for the development and use of land with other policies and programmes which influence the nature of places and how they function.
This will include policies which can impact on land use by influencing the demands on, or needs for, development, but which are not capable of being delivered solely or mainly through the granting or refusal of planning permission and which may be implemented by other means.

Spatial Vision
A brief description of how the area will be changed at the end of a plan period.

Statement of Community Involvement (SCI)
The SCI sets out standards to be achieved by the Local Planning Authority in involving the community in the preparation, alteration and continuing review of all Local Development Documents and Development Control decisions.

Strategic Development Control Policies
These policies are implemented directly through the grant and refusal of planning permission and are part of the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)
An environmental assessment of certain plans and programmes, including those in the field of planning and land use, which complies with the EU Directive 2001/42/EC. The environmental assessment involves the:
- preparation of an environmental report;
- carrying out of consultations;
- taking into account of the environmental report and the results of the consultations in decision making;
- provision of information when the plan or programme is adopted; and
- showing that the results of the environment assessment have been taken into account

Structure Plan
An old-style development plan, which sets out strategic planning policies and forms the basis for detailed policies in Local Plans and Development Plan Documents. These plans will continue to operate for a time after the commencement of the new development plan system, due to transitional provisions under planning reform.

Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)
An SPD is a Local Development Document that may cover a range of issues, thematic or site specific, and provides further detail of policies and proposals in a ‘parent’ DPD.

Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG)
An SPG may cover a range of issues, both thematic and site specific and provide further detail of policies and proposals in a Development Plan. SPGs can be saved when linked to saved policies in a Local Plan under transitional arrangements.

Sustainability Appraisal (including Environmental Appraisal)
The process of weighing and assessing all the policies in a Development Plan, Local Development Document, or Regional Spatial Strategy, for their global, national and local implications. (See also Strategic Environmental Assessment).

Sustainable Communities
Places where people want to live and work, now and in the future.

Sustainable Communities Plan
A programme issued by the government to set the framework for delivering sustainable communities over the next 15-20 years. The main areas of focus are housing supply, new growth areas, decent homes and the countryside and local environment.

Sustainable Development
A widely used definition drawn up by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987: "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

The government has set out four aims for sustainable development in its strategy A Better Quality of Life, a Strategy for Sustainable Development in the UK. The four aims, to be achieved simultaneously, are:
- social progress which recognises the needs of everyone
- effective protection of the environment
- prudent use of natural resources
- maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment.

Sustainable travel / sustainable transport
Often meaning walking, cycling and public use of transport (and in some circumstances "car sharing"), which is considered to be less damaging to the environment and which contributes less to traffic congestion than one-person car journeys.

Urban Capacity Study (UCS)
A study produced for a Local Planning Authority area examining the potential capacity of urban areas to accommodate extra housing on new or redeveloped sites at various densities, or by the conversion of existing buildings.

Urban Design
The art of making places. It involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes, in villages, towns and cities, to create successful development.

Urban Housing Capacity Study (UHCS)
A study produced for a local planning authority area examining the potential capacity of urban areas to accommodate extra housing on new or redeveloped sites at various densities, or by the conversion of existing buildings.