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Planning Protection for National Parks
- Details
- Written by James Paxman
Opposition to the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has quite rightly focussed on the open countryside where the "presumption in favour of sustainable development" gives rise to concerns that the government is enshrining a developers' charter.
You would think that under the NPPF, protected landscapes such as National Parks would continue to enjoy the greatest protection from untrammelled development. But in fact they are mentioned just twice (by comparison, Green Belt protection occupies over 3 pages in the document). In a paragraph shared with Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty the document states that landscape, scenic beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage should be given "great weight" in deciding planning applications. And that's more or less it.
To provide a little more resilience, planning officers from the National Parks have therefore come up with some suggested additions to the NPPF. The most significant of these is a qualification of the term "sustainable development" specifically in relation to the National Park statutory purposes. The officers have suggested that
"... development likely to have a significant adverse effect on the statutory purposes would not be sustainable under the terms of the presumption in favour of sustainable development".
It's also interesting to note that the officers have included a qualification on approval of renewable and low carbon energy schemes, requiring that "there is no significant detriment to the special qualities " [of the National Parks].
At the DPA we welcome these proposals. If these statements are included in the final version of the NPPF they will provide a significant strengthening against development pressures.
Dartmoor NPA is also considering additional suggestions at its meeting on 7th October. These include suggestions that:
- Granting permission should not be automatic where policy is absent or indeterminate.
- Justification should continue to be provided by a functional need test for new development in the open countryside and there should be a requirement to consider scope for brownfield development in preference to Greenfield sites.
