A Local Plan is the main planning policy document that guides developers on the conditions to be met for development proposals to be approved. The Council has started work on a new Local Plan (to 2045) – even though this is before it has adopted the new Plan (to 2040) that it has worked on for several years. This is because the latter did not deliver enough housing in relation to the government’s mandatory target. It is hoped that the Inspectors will give their final approval so that the Local Plan 2040 can be adopted before the end of 2026.
The Local Plan 2045 works to a new process, laid down by a revised National Planning Policy Framework. This requires a Local Plan to be adopted (after being approved by Inspectors) within 30 months, which is a very tight timetable. An initial ‘scoping’ consultation took place in September. The Council has a month to consider all the resulting suggestions for what should be included in the policy, and then consider whether it is ready to start work on the Plan, which sets the 30-month clock ticking.
The most important submission in the Society’s consultation response was for the inclusion of an urban densification policy in the Local Plan. We would like to see a clear vision for where in the city is suitable for densification, and how densification should be achieved. We would like to see a shift from tall buildings to medium-rise. The second consultation in the new process will start on 1 December 2026 and will ask for views on the proposed content of the Plan, at which point we will see what is included in the Local Plan on densification policy. It is possible that some such policy may be included in a subsequent planning policy document – a Bristol-wide Design Guide.
The consultation also asked respondents how they wished to be engaged. We feel that engagement could be done more imaginatively to engage with different audiences and to cultivate a more dynamic conversation. But that is constrained by the Council’s capacity and a compressed timetable.
The Society commented also on transport connectivity and the quantitative standards for parks and green space, which are both aspects where we feel that the Local Plan could be improved.
Alan Morris