2011 Northamptonshire Expansion Plans:
The Pre-Submission West Northamptonshire Joint Core Strategy.
On 17th January 2011 the West Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit published a number of downloadable pdf files on their website that comprised a substantial part of the Committee Draft Pre-Submission version of the West Northamptonshire Joint Core Strategy.
Overall these collectively formed the 248 pages of text for this draft document which is for review and approval by the full West Northamptonshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee.
Large and smaller maps were then published on the website over the following two days.
Again there are significant changes to the new proposals, when compared to the 2007 and 2009 Strategies.
In the period 2001 to 2026, for the whole of West Northamptonshire,
- The number of planned new homes has dropped from 62,125 to 50,150
- Of these, 15,500 have already been built upto 31 March 2010
- Planning Permission has been granted for a further 13,000
- Leaving around 21,500 homes to be planned
One map in particular indicates the latest proposals for housing expansion around Northampton.
Seven new 'Sustainable Urban Extensions' (SUEs) are illustrated here in orange.
A much larger map, Figure 4 (3Mb pdf), may be downloaded directly from the JPU website by clicking on the image.
These 'Sustainable Urban Extensions' are summarised as:
Sustainable Urban Extension |
Number of Homes | Large Map | Small Maps | Section Page |
Northampton West |
1,500 | Inset 7 | Section 3 (2.5 Mb) |
4 |
Northampton Kings Heath |
3,500 | Inset 8 | 5 | |
Northampton North of Whitehills |
1,000 | Inset 9 | Section 4 (2.9 Mb) | 1 |
Northampton North |
2,000 | Inset 10 | 2 | |
Northampton South of Brackmills |
1,000 | Inset 11 | 3 | |
Northampton South |
1,000 | Inset 12 | 4 | |
Northampton Upton Park |
1,000 | Inset 13 | 5 |
Click on the Small Map links to download maps from the WNJPU site. The larger maps are individual files, which take a while to open. If you wish to download these, then go to the WNJPU site using the link further down this page.
Development Land Suitability
During 2009 the Joint Planning Unit commissioned studies to review the suitability of land around Northampton for development. The following map was produced. Click on the image to reveal a larger version.
You can see that certain areas on the map continue to be allocated to development, whilst others are abandoned.
Development Timescales
The Joint Planning Unit expect new home completions to increase, from a current low, to a maximum over the next ten years, and then decline to a little over present levels as 2026 approaches.
A chart of projected completions for the whole of West Northamptonshire is provided.
The West Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit Website
The WNJPU website was competely reorganised last year, and is a great improvement over the previous format.
To go to the Joint Planning Unit home page, which provides an overview, use the following link:
To view the new Strategy, and download the files (48 in total) from the WNJPU website, use the following link:
West Northamptonshire Pre-Submission Joint Core Strategy - Draft for Committee
A full 248 page combined version of the documents, as a single download file is now provided, but without the maps. However, the file is large ( 2 Mb ), and it may be worthwhile to only download the sections that you require.
In addition to the Strategy, the WNJPU website has reorganised the majority of the evidence base such that it can all be accessed via a single page on the website, under the section 'Documents'. The following link will take you there.
A few of the links on this page open a single document, but many link to further pages of downloadable documents.
A few documents in the evidence base have yet to be published at the end of January.
The Northampton Borough Council Website
In parallel with the WNJPU, the Northampton Borough Council also published the new 2011 Strategy. However, the format was slightly different, in that it was intended for formal discussion and update by, and acceptance for public consultation by, the West Northamptonshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee. The following link will take you to the appropriate section on the NBC site:
West Northamptonshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee, 31st Jan 2011 meeting
However, please note that some reports are extremely large ( upto 50 Mb ) and do not download easily.
It is interesting that the NBC published one large document that the WNJPU did not. This is a 183 page list of comments and responses that the Joint Planning Unit made in answer to the public consultation questionnaire in 2009. That is to say, these are the JPU Officer responses to the public comments on the 2009 proposals.
The following link will directly download that 183 page document from the NBC site.
This document contains a summary of the public responses to all 56 questions in the 2009 consultation, followed by the JPU Officer comments and recommendations.
For Question 28: Do you support the development of the Preferred Option ‘Northampton South East’?
The responses, comments and recommendation are to be found on pages 81 to 87. Note the recommendation:
'Recommended Action
In the light of the reduced housing delivery for the JCS to 2026 the Northampton South East SUE as a significantly large allocation is not progressed forward to the Pre-Submission version.'
West Northamptonshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee Approval
On the 31st January 2011, the West Northamptonshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee met in the Guildhall to discuss and comment on the new draft Strategy.
Three members of the public requested time to speak on the proposals within the Strategy. A summary of their comments is available in the minutes.
Each member of the Committee was also asked to comment on the proposals. A number of the members requested changes to the document text. These approved changes are also documented in the minutes.
The draft strategy, with amendments, was approved by the Committee to go forward for public consultation.
The amendments will not be published in the Committee Draft, but will be incorporated into the Consultation version.
There are three variations of the Committee Meeting Minutes on the web, in different formats. The document known as the 'Printed Minutes' is perhaps the most appropriate to view, as it contains both the Public speakers' comments, and the comments and changes made by the Committee. You may download these directly using the link below.
Infrastructure Provision
The full extent of infrastructure provision is still unclear. However, it was stated several times in the meeting by members of the committee, including the Chair of the meeting: "No Infrastructure, No Permission".
Employment
The situation regarding new employment prospects and future jobs is not as clear as the proposed housing requirements, and needs further clarification.
Public Consultation Period
The amended Joint Core Strategy will now go for six weeks public consultation from 17th Feb until 31st Mar 2011. The amendments will be incorporated into the document, and highlighted, to ensure that they can be located.
The documentation will be available for comment on the WNJPU Consultation site. Please use the following link.
It is stated that this consultation should be about the ‘legal process’ behind the Strategy and its overall ‘soundness’ rather than detailed content. However, without guidance on how to interpret these terms, any significant issues may be considered legitimate.
The JPU have stated that the full evidence base will be available for the consultation.
Further Information
The information provided here mainly comprises extracts from other internet sites. It is intended as a summary of details, together with guidance on how to locate other sites where you can check all the information and context within the whole proposals for yourself. If you consider that any of the links or extracts are incorrect, please let us know by using the feedback link below.
Additional information, on a day to day basis, can be found on the current Expansion Diary on our village site:
If you wish to read extracts of press articles and comments, then click on the following link:
If you would like to comment about the expansion information on this village website, please use the link below:
Date last updated: 12 Feb 2011 Valid until: 31 Dec 2026
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