The South Warwickshire Local Plan Team write:
It has come to our attention that there may have been some mixed messaging as regards the status of smaller sites submitted for consideration in the South Warwickshire Local Plan. I am writing to clarify the situation and encourage you to include comments on small sites as part of your consultation response.
Part A of our HELAA site assessment sifted out some sites, with the remainder being further assessed in HELAA part B. All of the sites assessed in part B remain in consideration for the SWLP. This is the case whether or not they fall into a Strategic Growth Location or a New Settlement location. While the majority of these sites are unlikely to be allocated, we do expect that we will need some of them, in particular:
- Sites in urban areas. Urban brownfield sites will be our first choice.
- Some small sites to maintain a 5 Year Housing Land Supply. Smaller sites tend to come forward more quickly than larger sites, and we need to ensure a constant supply of housing over the plan period.
- Some small sites for self and custom build. We are required to provide enough plots to meet our need. Some of this need will be met on larger sites, but it is likely that we will also allocate some smaller sites for this purpose.
- National Policy requires that 10% of our housing requirement is delivered on sites no larger than one hectare.
The smaller sites that we propose to allocate will be identified in the next stage of consultation, and there will be a further opportunity to comment on their suitability at that stage. However, it would be very useful to hear your comments on sites in or affecting your Parish in the current consultation, to help inform our site selection.
There is a question in the Preferred Options document, towards the end of section 4.1, where you can make comments on specific sites or the results of our assessment of these sites:
https://southwarwickshire.oc2.uk/document/148/4584#d4941
Using our interactive map, you can see which sites remain in consideration by turning on the layer “HELAA part B site assessment as at Preferred Options”. Clicking on a site brings up a pop-up window, where you will find a link to the relevant part of the document to make your comments.
We have recently updated our instructions for using the interactive map which show you how to do this in more detail. Also available is a video which talks you through the key steps.
For more information, please see this poster: