Annual Monitoring Report 2010/11

1 Executive Summary

1.1 This is the seventh Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) prepared by Calderdale Council under the requirements of the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. It covers the monitoring year 1st April 2010 to the 31st March 2011, providing information on the implementation of the Local Development Scheme (LDS) and the extent to which the aims and objectives of policies within the Replacement Calderdale Unitary Development Plan (Adopted August 2006 and amended by the Secretary of state in August 2009) were met during this period.

1.2 The Localism Act 2011 relaxed the requirements placed on Local Authorities in relation to production of the AMR. The most significant changes include the removal of the mandatory reporting on the Core Output Indicators, and the mandatory submission deadline of 31st December each year. The Localism Act requires that each authority still prepares a report no less than annually, however it is up to them when and how this is done. The Localism Act refers to reports as 'Authorities Monitoring Reports' as opposed to 'Annual Monitoring Reports'.

1.3 The Localism Act 2011 is not formally enacted until April 2012, along with anticipated new Local Planning regulations and the National Planning Policy Framework. This AMR therefore represents a 'transitional' report, containing the Core Output Indicators reported in previous AMRs, together with brief introductory sections on the anticipated new requirements to report around Neighbourhood Planning, Community Infrastructure Levy and Co-operation and Joint Working. The section on 'Calderdale in Context', and the contextual indicators section of 'Monitoring Indicators', have both been removed due to information generally being available from other sources. The evidence base page of the Local Development Framework website provides a significant resource within this context. The only surviving element of these sections is the housing trajectory related information which now follows after the core output indicators in Section 7.

Key Aspects of the LDS during 2010/11

1.4 This AMR reports against the provisions of the LDS which was brought into effect in February 2008 and is viewable on the Calderdale Council website. Recent signals of change to the planning system by the Coalition Government mean that significant changes are now required to the LDS to reflect the new milestones for the Core Strategy and Land Use Allocations Development Plan Documents (DPDs); in particular changes implemented through the Localism Act 2011 and the forthcoming National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). 

1.5 In summary, the progress on documents to date is: -

  • Statement of Community Involvement: - this was formally Adopted by the Council in February 2008;

  • Core Strategy: - work commenced on the Core Strategy in January 2008. An 'Issues and Options' Consultation was undertaken during November/January 2008/09 with a 'Refined Issues and Options' consultation between January and May 2011. Further significant evidence base work has been undertaken during the intervening periods. It is anticipated that a 'Preferred Options' consultation on the Core Strategy will take place in early summer 2012. The Council is keeping a watchful eye upon the Coalition Government's statements about revisions to the planning system and the introduction of neighbourhood planning, local plans and the status of Regional Spatial Strategy, all of which will impact upon the work developed for the Core Strategy;

  • Land Allocations & Designations DPD: - work on this commenced in January 2008 at the same time as the Core Strategy. A "Call for Sites" was undertaken around Easter 2008, and submissions are still being accepted. It is anticipated that an initial, more formal, consultation period could take place late summer 2012.

1.6 In addition, the Council have undertaken work in the process of preparing two Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), the Halifax Town Centre and Piece Hall SPD and Holmes Road, Sowerby Bridge SPD, including a consultation process in Summer 2010 on the Halifax Town Centre and Piece Hall SPD. However work on both of these documents is now halted until the Core Strategy is adopted, at which point their status and future will be reviewed.

1.7 Further details on progress to date and the milestones of each of these LDF documents is provided in 2 ‘Delivery of Documents within the Local Development Scheme’.

What is happening outside the LDS?

REPLACEMENT CALDERDALE UNITARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN (2006)

1.8 The RCUDP came into effect on 25 August 2006. The Council received a Direction from the Secretary of State "saving" policies within the RCUDP for an indefinite period in August 2009. A full schedule detailing the "saved" policies is provided in 3 ‘Saved Plan ’.

1.9 The Coalition Government have indicated that they intend to revoke and then abolish Regional Spatial Strategies as part of the statutory development plan. The legal position in respect of the RSS is confused and complex. However the Council has indicated that it will establish revised targets for housing numbers and employment growth and does not intend to be bound by the requirements of RSS.

Core Indicators

1.10 This AMR represents the 4th annual report to collect and publish information against the revised set of national Core Output Indicators published by the government in 2008 (Regional Spatial Strategy & Local Development Framework - Core Output Indicators - Update 2/2008 (Communities and Local Government, July 2008)). Although it is no longer a mandatory requirement to report against the core indicators, the Council are still intending to do so (apart from H6 - Housing Quality: Building for Life Assessments) to maintain a useful time series of data and measure of performance.

1.11 The main findings from the set of revised Core Indicators are:-

  • Housing completions (gross) fell again for the 4th year running to 463 dwellings built in 2010/11. This is the lowest figure for Calderdale since 1993/94 and represents only a third of the level of completions seen in 2006/07. Net completions were 456 dwellings in the same period. Despite the significant falls, this year's completions are still broadly in line with the average completion target of 450 per annum set out in the RCUDP, although they are significantly below the average RSS annual requirement of 670;

  • The overall housing requirement in the RCUDP to 2016 has already been well exceeded during the period 2001-2010 (see Figure 7.1 ‘ Housing Trajectory 2001 to 2016 based on RCUDP’). The overall requirement in RSS to 2026 is now anticipated to be met by around 2023/24 (see Figure 7.2 ‘Housing Trajectory 2004 to 2026 based on RSS (2008)’);

  • The proportion of housing completions on brownfield sites continues to exceed the RCUDP target of 80% and RSS 2008 target of 65%. In 2010/11 95.7% of new housing completions were on previously developed land (up from 93.1% in 2009/10). This high figure includes various sites previously in employment use, therefore the loss of land previously in employment use to residential continues;

  • Fewer affordable homes were built again in 2010/11 with only 47 recorded properties in comparison to 75 in 2009/10 and 92 in 2008/09. The proportion also fell back to 10.1% of all housing delivered, following the previous year's figures of 13.3% and a high of 15.4% in 2008/09.

  • Employment land development achieved 887sq.m of new net B1 (Business), 22,226sq.m of new net B2 (General Industry), and 1,690sq.m of new net B8 (Storage/Distribution) floorspace. In total therefore a net increase of 24,803sq.m of employment floorspace was seen in the 2010/11 monitoring period, all of which was on previously developed land;

  • In total there is 30.974ha of land around Calderdale that has outstanding or commenced planning permission for employment uses on site. The largest component (13.515ha) is for B1 use, however a similar proportion (12.123ha) is for B2 use.

  • In terms of town centre uses, in total there was a net loss of 305sq.m of retail floorspace (A1) in Calderdale and a gain of 618sq.m of D2 (Assembly and Leisure) floorspace. The main reason for the loss of retail floorspace was due to the demolition of a former standalone retail unit adjacent to Sainsburys in Halifax town centre. No new retail development of note has taken place in the district during this monitoring period.

  • Only small scale renewable energy generating schemes have been granted permission, a potential additional 0.535MW of supply, all in the form of small/medium scale wind turbines. Work has not yet started on the 25MW of new wind farms in the far west of the district that was reported in last year's AMR.

  • Waste sent to landfill has risen to 44,694 tonnes in 2010/11, compared to 39,875 tonnes in 2009/10. This figure is still well below the figure of 55,590 tonnes reported in 2008/09. The rise in landfill this year is is mainly down to a decrease in incineration (from 5,880 tonnes in 2009/10 to 1,222 tonnes in 2010/11) as the total waste arisings between 2009/10 and 2010/11 have dropped slightly to 83,484 tonnes (from 83,617 tonnes);

1.12 Full details of all the core indicators, together with locally specific contextual indicators, are provided in 7 ‘Monitoring Indicators’.