Help Create a New Local Plan
CLLR MARK ETHERINGTON, Lead councillor for strategic planning and climate
adaptation, Hastings Borough Council
We need your help to create our new Local Plan which will guide the development and future prosperity of Hastings until 2041. This is one of the most important pieces of work that we do as a council.
The Plan sets out how new homes, jobs, transport, and community facilities are delivered, whilst protecting Hastings’ historic character, green spaces, parks and coast.
The draft Local Plan to 2041 sets out sites across the borough where housing or workspaces could be built, and details policies to protect nature and to ensure future development is eco-friendly, climate-resilient and sustainable.
Meeting the Housing Challenge
The government sets out targets for how many new homes each local authority must build in a year. The target for Hastings is around 700 homes a year, a total of almost 12,500 over the lifetime of the new Local Plan.
We think reaching these targets will be extremely challenging, but we are required to ‘plan positively’ by the government, which means we must be able to explain how we have assessed sites and give solid planning reasons why we are unable to meet the targets, where appropriate. Putting this draft Plan together has meant having difficult conversations; and some tough decisions will have to be made if we are to work towards meeting the government’s requirements.
Alongside trying to meet these targets, one of the council’s top priorities is to tackle the housing crisis so that all our residents have a safe and secure home. We are trying to balance this need with tackling the climate and nature crises and our desire to protect and preserve those green spaces which are so important to our wellbeing and the future of our natural environment. We also want to make sure that new development helps to prevent or manage floods, drought, improve drainage, does not reduce sewer capacity, keeps pollution out of water, and protects or improves land stability.
Why Your Feedback Matters
We need your feedback as this plays a critical part in helping us make decisions about what should be in the Local Plan. This is why we are asking for your views and opinions before we move onto the next stage of the Plan later this year. Feedback from the previous consultation in 2021 has been taken into account where possible in this latest draft, but so much has changed that we wanted to review it again.
In putting together the Plan, our planning policy team has assessed more than 150 potential sites. The sites that have been included in the draft Local Plan are not definite sites for development. They are proposals – and this is where we need your help.
The responses to the consultation will feed into the next part of the Local Plan process, so it’s important that there are solid planning reasons for your comments, whether positive or negative. For example, if you are concerned about flooding but think a site could be developed in a particular way to reduce the risk, please let us know. Where you think we are proposing development in the right areas, or a policy is particularly strong, please let us know.
The plan isn’t just about housing. It also supports the delivery of more than 4,000 new jobs by 2041, through the creation of more than 50,000 sqm of additional workspace. There will be a focus on creative, high-tech, green and manufacturing industries. The draft Plan also encourages a circular economy, reducing waste and creating long-term opportunities.
As well as allocating sites, the draft Plan looks at infrastructure and making sure this is in place – community facilities, schools, sports facilities and health centres. It ensures that developers contribute to the delivery of these and other infrastructure, including open space, play spaces, public rights of way and improvements to public transport.
You might be asking what would happen if we oppose the government’s targets, and say we want to protect all the green spaces we have in our town and not build all the homes requested of us. If we take this path, we run the risk of losing control over our planning decisions – development could be built on sites where we would rather they weren’t, and we will not have control over infrastructure.
Looking Ahead
You might also be asking why we need to do this when Hastings Borough Council will not exist as a council in the coming years. It is because we want to make sure our vision for Hastings, and your feedback, is properly considered by us before we become part of a larger unitary council. The Local Plan that is agreed will be taken up to the new authority and form part of the planning policies for that new council.
The documents you need will be online soon, alongside a virtual exhibition which talks you through some of the proposals and policies we want your feedback on. We are also planning some face-to-face events where you will be able to talk to planning officers and find out more.
We really want to make this a plan for the whole town with everyone’s feedback taken on board, so please take the time to have a look and send your comments. It’s your town, your future.
Check our website and social media for details of when the consultation opens and face-to-face sessions to find out more. hastings.gov.uk/localplan
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply