14 October 2011 - St Albans City & District Council

a material consideration but the weight to be attached to it is a matter for the decision maker in
each particular case. In a recent decision in St Albans the Inspector accorded the Draft NPPF
little weight (WH4).
4.2 Paragraphs 13-15 refer to the presumption in favour of sustainable development as follows:
13. The Government is committed to ensuring that the planning system does everything it can to
support sustainable economic growth. A positive planning system is essential because, without
growth, a sustainable future cannot be achieved. Planning must operate to encourage growth and
not act as an impediment. Therefore, significant weight should be placed on the need to support
economic growth through the planning system.
14. At the heart of the planning system is a presumption in favour of sustainable development,
which should be seen as a golden thread running through both plan making and decision taking.
Local planning authorities should plan positively for new development, and approve all individual
proposals wherever possible. Local planning authorities should:
• prepare Local Plans on the basis that objectively assessed development needs should be met,
and with sufficient flexibility to respond to rapid shifts in demand or other economic changes.
• approve development proposals that accord with statutory plans without delay; and
• grant permission where the plan is absent, silent, indeterminate or where relevant policies are
out of date.
All of these policies should apply unless the adverse impacts of allowing development would
significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in this
Framework taken as a whole.
15. All plans should be based upon and contain the presumption in favour of sustainable
development as their starting point, with clear policies that will guide how the presumption will be
applied locally.
4.3 Sustainable development means “development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (para 9) and one
component of that in relation to the planning system is ‘planning for prosperity (an economic role)’
which is defined as:
• planning for prosperity (an economic role) – use the planning system to build a strong,
responsive and competitive economy, by ensuring that sufficient land of the right type, and in
the right places, is available to allow growth and innovation; and by identifying and coordinating
development requirements, including the provision of infrastructure.
4.4 It is clear that the Government expect the Framework to be taken as a whole (para 12) and the
Government’s commitment to conserving for example the natural and historic environments is
restated from extant guidance. The appeal scheme would not be subject to the presumption in
any event if it were to only operate as a road served freight depot because of the difficulty in
gaining access to the site by rail, and in the absence of any requirement for the first phase of the
development to be rail linked.
4.5 In terms of Green Belt the Draft NPPF still includes the five purposes of Green Belt unchanged
from PPG2. The Draft NPPF still underlines that the openness and permanence are the essential
characteristics of the Green Belt. It is noteworthy that nowhere in PPG2 or Draft NPPF is there
reference to the need for an ‘additional’ layer of protection (eg. a Strategic Gap) where the Green
Belt may be narrow or fragmented or particularly sensitive. Also there is no mention about the