'Saved' Policies

Why did the Council need to ask the Secretary of State to 'save' the Policies of the Lewes District Local Plan

Why the Council had to ask

Under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 adopted structure and local plan policies are saved for 3 years from whichever is the later of:

• The date of the commencement of the Act [28th September 2004] or
• The date the plan was adopted.

In the case of the Lewes District Local Plan it is the former, i.e. the policies are saved until 27th September 2007. 

The Act does allow the Secretary of State to extend the saving of policies beyond that date.

The government’s principles for saving policies

If they wished to save policies beyond the three year period, planning authorities needed to demonstrate that policies they wished to be saved reflected the principles of local development frameworks, were consistent with current national policy and that it was not feasible or desirable to replace them by 27th September 2007 [i.e. through the Local Development Framework process].

Criteria for reviewing and agreeing extension to ‘saved’ policies

Planning Policy Statement 12 [PPS 12] says that policies to be extended should comply with the following criteria:

• Where appropriate, there is a clear central strategy
• Policies have regard to the community strategy for the area
• Policies are in general conformity with the regional spatial strategy
• Policies are in conformity where the LDF Core Strategy has been adopted
• There are effective policies for any parts of the authority’s area where significant change in the use or development of land or conservation of the area is envisaged, and
• Policies are necessary and do not merely repeat national or regional policy.

The government says that in addition it will have particular regard to:

• Policies that support the delivery of housing, including unimplemented site allocations, up to date affordable housing policies, policies relating to the infrastructure necessary to support housing
• Policies on Green Belts
• Policies that support economic development and regeneration, including policies for retailing and town centres
• Policies for waste management, including unimplemented site allocations
• Policies that promote renewable energy, reduce impact on climate change and safeguard water resources

The process for saving policies

Planning authorities had to submit a list of saved policies to Government Offices by 1 April 2007.  The list had to be in two distinct parts:

• Those saved policies the planning authority wishes to extend beyond the 3 year saved period, with reasons, and
• Those saved policies the LPA does not wish to see saved beyond the 3 years period, with reasons.

The Government Office assessed the requests to save policies beyond the 3 years in the light of the above criteria. 

The following PDF document shows a letter from the Government Office for the South East confirming which policies have been saved  GOSE Letter (plan_GOSEletter.pdf, 89kb)

The following PDF document shows the information submitted to GOSE regarding saved policies
 Final Saved Policies (plan_Savedpoliciesfinal.pdf, 264kb)

The following PDF document shows the full list of saved and Not Saved policies from the Local Plan
 Full list of Local Plan Saved & Not Saved policies (102.04kb, plan_LPsavedpols_070926.pdf)

The following Word document shows the full list of saved and Not Saved policies from the Local Plan
 Full list of Local Plan Saved and Not Saved Policies (186.50kb, plan_LPsavedpols_070926.doc)