Test Valley Borough Council offices in Andover

Good question and one which is of particular interest to a number of our clients.

It’s all gone quiet since January when we reported Test Valley Borough Council were consulting on two Development Plan Documents. We were expecting a second consultation round in the summer which has not yet appeared. However Test Valley Borough Council has published  a new Local Development Scheme (essentially a plan for producing a plan) this summer which reveals that firstly the two parallel DPDs are, quite sensibly, being rolled into one (surprise surprise they’re calling it a Local Plan). Also the LDS has an updated timetable which indicates that the next round of consultation is now expected in October. And adoption not until August next year!

Pure Town Planning has a number of clients who have a keen interest in the drawing of new settlement boundaries in rural settlements throughout the district. The current Test Valley Local Plan instead of drawing settlement boundaries for many of the rural settlements defines “frontage infill policy lines”. The new policy document proposes to replace these with the more conventional settlement boundary approach. Controversy arises where there are large residential curtilages on the edge of the settlement – should the Council exclude them (which would lead to an illogical contrived boundary) or include them (and possibly encourage attempts to develop the land)?

Give us a call if you want to know whether the currently proposed boundaries include or exclude your property.