Woking 2027 - Planning the future of our Borough

Woking 2027

Woking 2027 is the Council's name for the Local Development Framework - a new planning policy framework to guide future development in the Borough that will replace the existing Local Plan. Amongst other things, it looks at where jobs are created, where people can shop, where houses should be built and considers the attractiveness of local public space.

Core Strategy

The Council is required to produce a Core Strategy which will set out a vision and strategy for meeting known and anticipated development requirements to 2027.

This will include broad locations of where significant development will take place and policies against which planning applications will be determined, including an affordable housing policy.

However, it should be noted that it will not identify individual sites for development. This will be dealt with through the Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD) at a later stage in the process.

Following the Council's submission of the Core Strategy Publication Document to the Secretary of State on 16 December 2011 the Examination to consider the soundness of the Woking Borough Council Core Strategy Development Plan Document took place from Tuesday 20 March 2012. Agendas, documents and papers relating to the Examination can be viewed on the Council's dedicated Woking 2027 website.

Full Council on 16th April 2012 RESOLVED That

1. significant weight be given to the following policies of the Core Strategy for the purposes of development management and any other planning decision - Policies CS1, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS7, CS8, CS9, CS11, CS13, CS14, CS15, CS16, CS17, CS18, CS19, CS20, CS21, CS22, CS23 and CS24;

2. the policies that will not be superseded by the Core Strategy should be given due weight for the purposes of development management and other planning decisions.

Significant weight should be given to the Core Strategy policies; with the exception of Policies:

  • CS6 Green Belt
  • CS10 Housing Provision and Distribution
  • CS12 Affordable Housing

These have no weight; because of the number of representations and their nature received regarding the Core Strategy Publication Document consultation.

The Core Strategy refers to the Core Strategy Publication Document July 2011 which was submitted to the Secretary of State as part of the Submission Documents and the minor modifications agreed during the course of the Core Strategy Examination Hearings; which are approved under the delegated authority of the Deputy Chief Executive in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Planning.

Stages of producing the Core Strategy

Details of the stages the Council has gone through to produce the Core Strategy Publication document and how stakeholders have been engaged at each stage are set out on the producing the Core Strategy page of the website.

The timetable for preparation of the Core Strategy, is included in the Local Development Scheme (LDS). The latest version of the LDS came into effect in October 2011

First Core Strategy

The Council submitted its first Core Strategy to the Government in October 2006. However, following the publication of new national planning policy, in July 2007 the Council received a formal direction to withdraw the Core Strategy from the examination process, so the document was never adopted.

Sustainability Appraisal

The Council must undertake a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of each DPD including the Core Strategy. The purpose of SA is to ensure that the Council's policy approach is as sustainable as possible, balancing social, environmental and economic needs. The SA will identify and report on the likely significant effects of a DPD and the extent to which implementation of policies will achieve the social, economic and environmental objectives.

A consultation was undertaken on the Core Strategy Sustainability Appraisal Scoping report which ended on Friday 4 September 2009.

The Community Strategy and LDF objectives presented in the document have been assessed through the Sustainability Appraisal process. The findings of the Sustainability Appraisal were documented in the Initial SA Report which accompanies this document and is available for consultation for the same period.

Evidence base

The Core Strategy is supported by a Research and Evidence base produced by the Council and consultants appointed by them.

Further information is available from the Planning Policy team.