2 Background

CALDERDALE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK

ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT

Covering the Period - April 1 2008 to March 31 2009

2.1 The Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 introduced important changes to the system of land use planning in England. The Act created a new system of Development Plans and a new approach to their preparation as part of the drive towards creating sustainable communities. The Act also created the requirement for the Council to produce this Annual Monitoring Report (AMR).

2.2 This AMR  covers the financial or Reporting year 2008/09. It is produced in accordance with the Town & Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004 (Regulation 48) and the Strategic Environmental Assessment Regulations 2004 (Regulation 17), and takes into account the guidance issued by the Government in 'Local Development Framework Monitoring: A Good Practice Guide' (ODPM March 2005). Additional guidance was published by the Government in the form of 'Annual Monitoring Framework : FAQs and Seminar Feedback on Emerging Best Practice' (ODPM September 2005). It has also taken into account the changes to the Core Indicators that were introduced by the Government in July 2008.

2.3 The Act and Regulations make it clear that the Council must undertake five key monitoring tasks, all of which are inter-related. In the AMR the Council is required to:-

  • review actual progress in terms of Local Development Document preparation against the timetable and milestones in the Local Development Scheme (LDS);
  • assess the extent to which policies in Local Development Documents are being implemented;
  • where policies are not being implemented, explain why and set out what steps are being undertaken to ensure that the policy is implemented; or whether the policy is to be amended or replaced;
  • identify the significant effects of implementing policies in Local Development Documents and whether they are as intended;
  • set out whether policies are to be amended or replaced.

2.4 Monitoring is essential to establish what is happening now in order to address issues relating to the effectiveness of the plan or policy under consideration. It helps to address questions like:-

  1. are policies achieving their objectives?
  2. are policies delivering sustainable development?
  3. have policies had unintended consequences?
  4. are the assumptions and objectives upon which policies are based still relevant?
  5. are targets being achieved?

2.5 The AMR has to provide detailed information on a number of core indicators that are required to be monitored by the Government. The core indicators required have been set out in 'Regional Spatial Strategy and Local Development Framework Core Output Indicators' (Update 2/2008) July 2008 published by the Department of Communities and Local Government. The previously published 2007-08 AMR was the first year of reporting against this revised set of core indicators. The core indicators are covered in tables in section 6 of this document.