North Northamptonshire Annual Monitoring Report 2010-11

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1.
1. INTRODUCTION
The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (“the Act”) establishes the need for local planning authorities to
undertake Monitoring to provide a feedback loop within the policy-making process and to establish what is
happening now and what may happen in the future in comparison to existing policies and targets. Section 13 of
the Act requires that local planning authorities keep under review matters which may be expected to affect the
development of their area or the planning of its development. Such matters include land use, population and
economic, social and environmental characteristics. Section 35 of the Act requires local planning authorities make
an annual report to the Secretary of State which provides information on the preparation of planning documents
(as outlined in the Local Development Scheme (LDS) and the extent to which policies set out in the LDS are being
achieved. Additional legislation also exists which supplements the Act and provides further detail on the
production of this annual report – namely Regulation 48 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development)
(England) Regulations 2004 and Regulation 17 of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes (SEA)
Regulations 2004.
Further to this, guidance 123 was also created by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
which stipulated what areas and indicators local planning authorities should monitor and suggested ways in which
to undertake this. This guidance, alongside the above legislative requirements, has formed the basis for local plan
monitoring and the AMRs produced by the NNJPU to date (2009 and 2010).
MONITORING ARRANGEMENTS: UPDATE
On March 30 th 2011, the government wrote to all local planning authorities advising that the local plan monitoring
guidance 123 had been removed and that it was now a matter for local authorities to decide what information to
include in their monitoring reports, as long as these are prepared in accordance with UK and EU legislation 4 .
On November 15 th 2011 the Localism Act received royal assent. This Act introduces a number of new clauses,
some of which will impact on development planning and the existing framework. A key change will be the removal
of the requirement to submit an annual monitoring report to Government, although the overall duty to monitor
and make an annual report will remain (Part 113: Local Development: monitoring reports). However these
provisions will not come into effect until January 15 th 2012, and after the production of the current report.
Nevertheless, with the removal of government guidance, together with recent Planning Advisory Service guidance 5
it is likely local planning authorities will have more freedom to choose which targets and indicators to include in
future reports as long as they conform with relevant legislation. It appears there will be a change of emphasis
from sharing information with Government on the performance of the planning service to focussing on reporting
the effectiveness and value for money of the Council and planning services to the local community.
1 ODPM (2005) Local Development Framework Monitoring: A Good Practice Guide
2 ODPM (2006) Annual Monitoring Report FAQs and Emerging Best Practice 2004-05
3 DCLG (2006) Regional Spatial Strategy and Local Development Framework: Core Output Indicators - Update 2/2008
4 DCLG (2011) Preparation and Monitoring of Local Plans [Online] Available from:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/1876440.pdf
5 PAS (2011) Monitoring that Matters: towards a better AMR [Online] Available from: http://www.pas.gov.uk/pas/core/page.do?pageId=620773
Strategic Planning for the Districts and Boroughs of Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough & East Northamptonshire