Regional Planning Context
1.20 As is the case with national planning policies, Calderdale Council’s actions in development planning and development control decision-making have to be in general conformity with regional planning policies. In December 2004, the first Regional Spatial Strategy for Yorkshire and the Humber (RSS) was published based upon a partial review of RPG12 'Regional Planning Guidance for Yorkshire & the Humber Region to 2016'. This superseded the 2001 Regional Planning Guidance, and became the statutory regional plan for the region. It has the status together with the Replacement Calderdale Unitary Development Plan (2006), of being the statutory development plan for Calderdale.
1.21 The RSS sets out a broadly based, strategic approach to the planning of the region, including Calderdale. It requires the provision of an additional 8,100 dwellings in the Borough between 1998 and 2016, (74% of housing completions to be on brownfield land), and no change to the general extent of the Green Belt. The RSS does not look to any substantial change to the population of Calderdale in coming years, with much of the job-creation in the region expected to take place further east in the Bradford / Leeds / Wakefield / Barnsley / Sheffield belt. Nevertheless, the regional plan attaches great importance to the creation of sustainable settlements and the regeneration of the older parts of towns, and it is this approach that development plan documents in the LDS will seek to follow.
1.22 Work on the replacement of the December 2004 Regional Spatial Strategy is now well advanced. An Examination in Public took place into the Draft RSS in autumn 2006. and the Panel's Report from the Examination in Public was received in March 2007. The Secretary of States proposed changes in response to the Panel Report's recommendations were published in September 2007. These show a rise in housing numbers within Calderdale from 570 dwellings per annum to 680 dwellings per annum from 2008, instead of this higher figure from 2016. In addition the Regional Assembly and the Government have made it quite clear that the housing figures are a minimum requirement and that Council's are expected to exceed this general level. The implications of these changes will need to be considered within the Core Strategy
1.23 The Council has to ensure that its LDDs are in general conformity with the policies and proposals set out in the Regional Spatial Strategy, and will consult the Yorkshire & Humber Assembly on document preparation in accordance with the Regulations.