2.24 The Spatial Priorities for the Local Plan shape and articulate what it is the Local Plan will achieve. They have been informed by the key issues and challenges facing the area and our communities and are also shaped by the Council’s Corporate Strategy. The Local Plan will seek to help deliver spatially what we aim to achieve through our other key strategies and plans set out above and more widely, centred on improving people’s lives. The spatial priorities of the Local Plan are set out below.
Local Plan Spatial Priorities
Our Local Plan will plan for development in response to local needs to create attractive, healthy and sustainable places in line with the council’s Corporate Strategy.
Core aims
- Create a fairer, more prosperous and sustainable economy
- Maximise delivery of housing that is affordable
Spatial Priorities
Our plans for development must achieve the following:
- Enable Bath and North East Somerset to become carbon neutral by 2030 and deliver a climate resilient district
- Protect and enhance nature through facilitating nature recovery
- Improve health and well-being outcomes for all, including through planning health promotingy and inclusive places, and providing for cultural enrichment
- Reduce the need to travel unsustainably and enable improved connectivity for all through sustainable modes of transport and facilitating locally available services and facilities
- Respect, conserve and enhance our heritage assets and their landscape settings, in particular the World Heritage Site of Bath and National Landscapes
- Align the timely provision of transport, health, social, cultural and green infrastructure with development
2.25 These spatial priorities are clearly linked back to, and will help deliver on, the Council’s overriding purpose and the core policies, principles and priorities, established in the Corporate Strategy. The relationship between the Local Plan spatial priorities and the Corporate Strategy is illustrated in the diagram below.
Figure 2: Relationship between Local Plan spatial priorities and Corporate Strategy
2.26 The spatial priorities underpin, and will be delivered through, the Local Plan site options and policy approaches set out in the chapters that follow. They are also unpacked in various parts of the Local Plan Options document and in the evidence base, including through Transport Vision and Objectives. The Transport Vision and Objectives set out in greater detail what we are seeking to achieve in respect of our transport policies and projects, that seek to improve connectivity within and between existing places, and align with and support development. Visit our library of Local Plan Evidence Base documents to learn more.
2.27 As set out above the overarching priority of the Local Plan will be to plan for development in a way that delivers sustainable and healthy places. What we mean by sustainable and healthy places will need to be set out in the Draft Local Plan. The definition will draw from, and reflect, the spatial priorities for the Local Plan, and also other strategies, including the One Shared Vision, which focuses on delivering places and communities that are fair, green, creative and connected. Through consultation on the Options Document, you can comment on the proposed spatial priorities of the Local Plan and also the definition of sustainable and healthy places.
Discussion questions
Question 1
Do you agree with the scope of the spatial priorities we have outlined?
Question 2
What do you think are the key elements of a sustainable and healthy place?