Draft Local Development Plan for Cardiff to be presented to councillors

THE Draft Local Development Plan Review and Draft Delivery Agreement will be presented to both Cabinet and Full Council on Thursday, March 18, to get the necessary approval to submit the documents to the Welsh Government.

Following full council approval in November the consultation took place on both documents between January 7 2020 and February 4 2021. A wide range of responses was received from members of the public, community councils, property builders, housing associations, and lobbyists

The report supports the proposal to undertake a full replacement for Cardiff’s LDP, with the public consultation starting in May.

All relevant information has been assessed and fed into the draft documentation, and any comments received on the plan itself will be fed into future consultations that are planned to deliver a replacement LDP for the city from 2021 up until 2036.

An LDP responds to the current demographic, issues and needs we face by setting out a strategy, proposals and policies on how the city will change in the future. If the council doesn’t have an LDP, there is limited control over the type and geographical area where new developments are built, which would ultimately result in unplanned, un-strategic, and unsustainable development.

The current plan has so far seen the building of a wide range and choice of new homes and jobs together with securing new supporting infrastructure via S106 agreements. The annual monitoring reporting process shows the plan is meeting the vast majority of its targets. It provides a policy context to determine approximately 2,500 planning applications each year.

Cllr Caro Wild, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport, said:

“The city’s current LDP had to respond to an extremely limited local housing supply which meant it needed to bring forward a high number of new homes to meet our needs. Without this housebuilding, and associated affordable and social housing, our housing crisis would be far worse, with even more people unable to afford to buy or rent a home.

“As these homes are now being built, we expect our new LDP to have a different starting point, with a stronger housing supply in place at the outset. But it will have to respond to new challenges that we face, such as tackling the climate emergency, poor air quality, maximising the wellbeing of future generations and responding to the issues raised by the ongoing pandemic.

“We intend on having an extensive open and honest conversation with residents about the future of our city, in particular the choices that must be balanced in terms of the social, economic, environmental and cultural issues which will shape the plan. We are especially keen to listen to young people and people who don’t usually take part in consultations. ”

The current LDP will remain in place until the replacement LDP has been adopted, which will take three and half years to complete, and will include various stages of consultation and engagement with the public and stakeholders.

This includes:

An 8-week consultation between May 2021 and July 2021 on the draft vision, issues and objectives of the new LDP and the draft Integrated Sustainability Appraisal (ISA) Scoping Report;

A 16-week consultation between May 2021 and August 2021 on the call for candidate sites;

A 10-week consultation between November 2021 and February 2022, on the strategic site options;

An 8-week consultation between October 2022 and November 2022 on the Preferred Strategy and ISA initial report, and

With a final 8 week consultation between October 2023 until November 2023 on the Deposit Plan and final ISA Report

Once this public consultation is complete and the documents are final, a process then follows before the LDP can be adopted. The timeline is as follows:

The Deposit Plan and Final ISA will be submitted to the Welsh Government in March 2024;

The evaluation by the Planning Inspector will take place between March 2024 and September 2024;

;The Inspections report is expected to be received back from Welsh Government in September 2024 and

Report to Full Council to adopt the revised LDP in October 2024.