2.0 LOCAL PLAN STRATEGY

2.1 Exeter is an historic Cathedral and University City and is a business, legal, retail, administrative, tourist and commercial centre for the region. It is relatively prosperous with a high quality of life and is located in an environmentally attractive area. The City has potential to capitalise on its education and locational advantages and to exploit its well established economic base, physical infrastructure and telecommunication links. However, like many small cities, Exeter is susceptible to globalisation and technological change. Alongside the growth of personal and collective wealth, areas of social and economic exclusion, poor health and educational under-attainment have developed.2.2 To address the issues a partnership of people representing the social, voluntary and economic sectors have been brought together by the City Council and have set out a ‘Vision’ for the future of the City. Exeter Vision identifies the need to focus on ten key themes:-

2.3 These themes reflect the four main aims of the Government’s ‘strategy for sustainable development for the United Kingdom’:

(i) maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment:

(ii) social progress which recognises the needs of everyone;

(iii) effective protection of the environment; and

(iv) prudent use of natural resources.

2.4 The Local Plan First Review aims to assist Exeter Vision and the Council’s Economic Development Strategy in meeting these challenges by providing a wide range of development opportunities particularly for employment, housing, shopping and commercial leisure, but without damaging those environmental assets that, to a large extent, generate the opportunities and pressures for growth. The policies and proposals of the First Review will also complement and support the Council’s existing and emerging corporate strategies for the City Centre; Transport; Environment; Housing; Tourism; Culture; Community Safety; Air Quality; Allotments; Leisure; and Social Inclusion.

2.5 The Local Plan First Review recognises that in Exeter a high quality of the built and natural environment is the foundation on which a healthy economy is built. The overriding aim of the Local Plan First Review is, through sustainable development, to secure the prosperity of the City and to enhance the quality of life of its citizens.

2.6 This means that, wherever possible, development should take place on previously-developed land within the urban area and particularly within existing centres, where there are local facilities and a choice of transport, and that the opportunities to use means of transport other than the car are enhanced. A reduction in the use of the car is important because of the potential environmental benefits, particularly through improvement in air quality and the conservation of finite fuel resources, and it is important for business through reduced traffic congestion.

2.7 The reality is, however, that brownfield opportunities in Exeter are limited. The release of some land beyond the built up area is inevitable, both for housing and employment. The plan provides for over 70% of housing on previously-developed land but the City is too densely developed to achieve more, particularly if a range of sites and a variety of housing is to be achieved. Similarly, a range of suitable sites for economic development is essential to deal with structural change and to develop and exploit new technologies. Land must be set aside for knowledge based industries to generate sustainable jobs and ensure the long term prosperity of the City. The Plan seeks to enable such developments by identifying sites which meet the essential and particular locational requirements of these businesses and ensuring that they are supported by measures to provide a genuine choice of access by public transport, walking and cycling.

2.8 Taking all of these matters into account, a sequential approach has been applied, in the First Review, to the selection of sites for office, retail and commercial leisure development. First preference is the City Centre, then edge-of-centre, district and local centres, and finally out-of-centre sites, limiting the expansion onto greenfield as much as possible. For retail and commercial leisure, a location close to other similar uses is important. For office development the approach takes into account the availability of a choice of transport. Industrial and storage uses are treated as an exception to this approach because, normally, they cannot be satisfactorily accommodated in the existing centres. The sequential approach will not be applied again to individual sites already allocated within the Plan when planning permission is sought.

2.9 Housing sites have been identified based on achieving the maximum use of previously-developed land but to meet housing needs some greenfield land has also been allocated. This greenfield land is released on the basis that development will take the form of sustainable urban extensions and is to be made available for infrastructure provision and development as early as possible so that they can contribute to meeting housing requirements throughout the plan period.

2.10 The sequential approach will be applied to all proposals for major trip generating developments on unallocated land.

 

Key Objectives

2.11 Accordingly, the key objectives of the Local Plan First Review are:

(i) to balance the need to stimulate growth and regeneration of the City and enhance Exeter’s regional and sub- regional role with the need to protect the quality of the environment and to minimise car travel;

(ii) to provide all the citizens of Exeter with a decent home, including those in need of affordable or special housing and those who require executive housing;

(iii) to make full and effective use of land within the urban area, whilst avoiding town cramming;

(iv) to protect and enhance the vitality and viability of the existing City centre, district centres and local centres;

(v) to locate key town centre uses in existing centres which are highly accessible by means other than the private car and where there may be advantages in enabling one journey to serve several purposes;

(vi) to improve the choice of travel mode so that people can walk, cycle or catch public transport, rather than drive, between home and those facilities which they need to visit regularly;

(vii) to promote or reinforce local distinctiveness through high quality design;

(viii) to conserve land and energy resources, reduce pollution and noise, protect the natural and built heritage and contribute to the conservation of the abundance and diversity of wildlife and its habitats.

2.12 Policies AP1 and AP2 provide the basis on which the allocations in the Plan have been made and set out the key tests against which new proposals will be judged.

AP1: DEVELOPMENT SHOULD BE DESIGNED AND LOCATED TO RAISE THE QUALITY OF THE URBAN AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND REDUCE THE NEED FOR CAR TRAVEL. PROPOSALS SHOULD BE LOCATED WHERE SAFE AND CONVENIENT ACCESS BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT, WALKING AND CYCLING IS AVAILABLE OR CAN BE PROVIDED.

AP2: PRIORITY WILL BE GIVEN TO MEETING DEVELOPMENT NEEDS ON PREVIOUSLY-DEVELOPED LAND AND WITHIN EXISTING CENTRES. A SEQUENTIAL APPROACH WILL BE APPLIED TO THE IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT OF NEW SITES FOR OFFICE, HOUSING (SEE POLICY H1), RETAIL (SEE POLICY S1) AND COMMERCIAL LEISURE USE.

 

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