New Local Plan - Issues & Options (Regulation 18)

9. Site Selection Methodology

9.1 The Council has published a Site Selection Methodology. This sets out the methodology we intend to follow to assess and compare the suitability of potential development sites. It draws on a range of evidence to help to identify sites that have the greatest potential to deliver environmental, economic and social benefits for the local community.

9.2 There are number of stages to the methodology including:

Stage 1 – Identification of sites

9.3 The site selection process will consider sites that are deliverable and developable as assessed through the Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA).

9.4 The current SHELAA includes sites submitted for consideration through the Local Plan process so far. This will be updated to include additional sites submitted through the current Call for Sites process.

Stage 2 – Sustainability Appraisal

9.5 For each developable site, the sustainability appraisal considers a range of social, environmental and economic factors. The approach taken, list of factors considered and site assessments undertaken so far are available in the Sustainability Appraisal report published alongside this consultation.

Stage 3 – Assessment of sites against the preferred spatial strategy

9.6 The Council is consulting on a range of potential options for the scale and distribution of development (see section 5). The outcomes of this consultation and further work will then inform the Council's Preferred Spatial Strategy which may be one of the options above or a hybrid containing elements from different options.

9.7 Sites will be assessed to determine whether they could contribute to meeting the preferred spatial strategy. Sites that fall outside of the preferred spatial strategy will not be taken further forward in the site selection process.

Stage 4 – Technical Assessment and Deliverability of Sites

9.8 At this stage numerous technical details will be examined and an assessment of the delivery of the sites carried out. Factors that will be considered include constraints, infrastructure, deliverability and viability, and place-making.

Stage 5 - Emerging new Local Plan policies and Neighbourhood Plan policies

9.9 Consideration will be given to emerging new Local Plan policies and Neighbourhood Plans.

Stage 6 – Site Appraisal Conclusions and Recommendations

9.10 The final stage of the process is to draw conclusions and to make recommendations about the suitability of the site for inclusion in the new Local Plan, informed by the previous stages above.

Site Selection Methodology