Adopted Core Strategy

A public consultation exercise took place in late 2007 on the Core Strategy Issues and Options which explored the potential new planning policy for the area.  An Issues and Opinions consultation was produced and circulated within the borough, a small travelling exhibition was placed in local public buildings and a short series of workshops canvassed opinion from some local groups. The consultation closed in December 2007. A large number of responses were received. You can see the Issues and Options results presentation that came out of the issues and options consultation.

In 2008, the 2004 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act was amended which affected the production stages of the Core Strategy.  As a result, the issues and options stage that was under way in late 2007 is now no longer required.  In addition to this, the Preferred Option stage, that was due to follow our Issues and Options stage, has also been amended. The stages of Core Strategy production are now as follows. 

Regulation 18 (old Reg 25): Draft Core Strategy.

A public consultation on the first stage of Core Strategy (Ribble Valley Core Strategy Public Consultation) ran for 8 weeks between 25 August and 20 October 2010. The consultation report incorporated the findings of the Issues and Options consultation undertaken in late 2007 as well as presenting the strategic development options for consideration. Regulation 25 Core Strategy Consultation Report March 2011

Just under 4,000 comments or 'representations' were received during the consultation period. Since the end of the consultation, all of these representations have been considered and a summary report has been published for information. The report provides an initial analysis of the issues raised and identifies key issues to address as the Core Strategy is progressed.  Analysis of the representations showed that further work needed to be undertaken on the Development Strategy options before progressing to Regulation 19 (old Reg. 27). 

In response to this, a document was produced which set out some additional, alternative options based upon the information submitted to the Council during the Regulation 25 stage consultation.  This was presented to Members of the Planning and Development Committee in June 2011 and was published for comment for a six-week period between June and August 2011. The alternative options consultation document is part of our Previous Planning Policy Consultations.

Just over 2,800 representations were received on the Alternative Options document, which provided very useful information from which it will be possible to move forward the Core Strategy process. A summary of representations report was produced to provide analysis of the issues raised during the alternative Development Strategy options consultation. 

Consultation also took place between June and August 2011 on proposed revisions to the Core Strategy Development Management Policies and Key Statements following comments received during the Reg 18 (old Reg 25) Core Strategy consultation.

Work also continued on the Sustainability Appraisal (SA), which assesses the Core Strategy for its environmental, social and economic impacts. To provide further information about this process, an all day drop-in session was organised at the Council on 8 September 2011, which was well attended.  See the Sustainability Appraisal drop-in day display boards from the event.

 All this work, as well as an infrastructure plan, fed into the preparation of the Core Strategy Regulation 19  Publication Version.

Regulation 19: Core Strategy Publication Version

Consultation on this document took place during the period 4 May - 15 June 2012. The Core Strategy Publication Version has considered the representations received at the consultation stage (formerly Reg. 25), the additional work on the alternative Development Strategy options and the Sustainability Appraisal work.  It presents what is effectively Ribble Valley's chosen spatial development strategy. The document was available for consultation along with an accompanying Sustainability Appraisal Plan,  Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA), which were available for comment at the same time as this publication document. For more details of the consultation and to view document see Ribble Valley Core Strategy Publication Version (Regulation 19) Consultation Draft.

(note that new Regulations relating to plan preparation were issued in April 2012 such that the publication version of the Core Strategy now comes under new Regulation 19, and no longer reg. 27)

Comments received during Reg. 19 are now being considered.  Further detailed information on the next steps (feeding into the submission document) will be availble here in due course.