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Local Development Framework

Work in preparing the Oswestry Borough Local Development Framework (LDF) has now been suspended. This follows the Government's decision to merge the county, borough and district councils in Shropshire to form a single unitary council.  The new council will start work on 1 April 2009.  In the meantime, an Implementation Executive (IE) has been established to take key decisions.  At its first formal meeting on Friday 29 February, the IE set up three sub-committees including one devoted to taking forward work on the Local Development Framework (LDF).  Meetings of both the IE and the LDF Sub-committee are open to members of the public and representatives from the media and their agendas and minutes will be publicised on all the councils' websites.

The county, borough and district councils have agreed to develop a single Core Strategy for the new unitary council area.  On 9 April the IE approved a draft joint Local Development Scheme (LDS) which sets out the timetable for the joint LDF.  The LDF will replace the current Local Plans for all the districts in Shropshire and the County Councils Waste Local Plan.  If you would like to know more about the LDF visit the One Council Pages.

In the period before 1 April 2009 each of Shropshire's district and borough councils will continue to take decisions on planning applications in their individual areas whilst the County Council will continue to take decisions on county matters and minerals and waste applications.  In making these decisions on planning applications, each council will continue to apply their own adopted 'saved' local plan policies to their individual areas.  If you have a planning enquiry in the period before 1 April 2009 you should continue to contact the planning department at your local council.

Introduction

This is the section of the website for the Local Development Framework (LDF). The LDF is being produced to replace the current Local Plan (1996-2006) in line with the requirements of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Through the Act the Government introduced a new planning system whereby Local Plans and Structure Plans are replaced with Local Development Frameworks. If you would like to know more about the new planning act visit the Department for Communities and Local Government online,(external website).

What's Different About the LDF?

Although the LDF is very similar to the Local Plan in its purpose there are a number of fundamental differences:

• Spatial Planning - LDFs have a broader remit than their Local Plan predecessors which were mainly concerned with land use issues (for more on spatial planning click on the link below)
• Format - The format of the LDF will be very different from that of the adopted Local Plan. Rather than one large document, the LDF will comprise a folder containing a number of different documents (called Local Development Documents). This means that the LDF is more flexible and relevant to the District as each document can be updated over time and other documents can be added as the need arises.
• Process - The LDF system encourages everyone with an interest in planning to be fully involved at the outset and for the Borough Council to make major decisions early on. These decisions are based upon our evidence base (for more on the evidence base click on the link below) and the views of interested parties. The remainder of the process is more concerned with refinement and adjustment rather than major change. This leads to a public examination (held by an independent Planning Inspector) into the 'soundness' of the LDF. The Inspector's Report is binding upon the Council and unlike the Local Plan system, there is no modifications procedure. The whole process of preparing a LDF document is underpinned by the sustainability appraisal process.

The Local Development Scheme

The Local Development Scheme explains how the new planning system will operate at the Oswestry Borough level and how its various components will fit together. More on the LDS can be read by clicking on the link below and the current LDS adopted by Oswestry Borough Council can also be downloaded.

Local Development Documents

To access the LDF pages either click on the link below or use the Related Info menu to the right of the screen:

• Click here for the LDF Links Page

Contact Details

If you have any questions or views on the new Local Development Framework process please contact the forward planning section:

Oswestry Borough Council
Planning and Environmental Services
Forward Planning Section
Castle View
Oswestry
Shropshire
SY11 1JR

Tel: 01691 677268/677267/677266
Email: LocalPlan@oswestry-bc.gov.uk