LDF Project

These pages have been reformatted (with easier search functions) and are now available (from 7 November 2005) on the PAS website .

Alternatively, the original material can be found below.

The long wait for and associated regulations and guidance has tended to focus minds on the extent of prescription by the Government, and the difficulties which will attend adjusting to the radical changes in the plan preparation process.

The challenge of adapting to the new system presented by the Planning and Compensation Act 2004 provides an opportunity for planners in all fields to contribute to the re-making of planning, as something more relevant, creative and dynamic than its previous stereotype.

The POS has taken this cause to heart, and is working with national partners to maximise the prospects of planning authorities succeeding in the new system. The Society has agreed to take on two key roles in this process -

• to identify how authorities can quickly get to grips with the new system and bring forward quality LDFs, and
• to disseminate that learning promptly and widely among practitioners, especially local government planners who lead the new system

The Society's LDF learning and dissemination project is designed to actively address both these objectives. Over the next year the Society will track the experience of ten pilot authorities in tackling their LDFs, giving them support to maximise their prospects of success, and disseminating their learning in real time to its members and others interested in the effectiveness of our planning system.

We would welcome your views on the project, or you can ask any question ( link to forum ).

Letter from The President 1 June 2005 (114.342Kb) - DOWNLOAD

Details of the Workshops (146.266Kb) - DOWNLOAD

After each meeting of the pilots a resume of the lessons learnt will be included on this page with direct links to the material:

• The new system is radically different form the old
• Work on LDDs has made plan programmes more realistic
• Pilots are moving towards the statutory minimum in SCIs
• Linking with the Community Plan presents challenges
• Starting early on SA/SEA is essential
• Some practice pointers

View full meeting notes

• Planning for sustainability appraisal of several LDDs
• Developing sustainability objectives for a waste LDF – experience from Hertfordshire
• Managing community engagement in the new system
• Practical challenges of a joint waste LDF – experience from Barking and Dagenham
• Some practice pointers

View full meeting notes

• The broad ambitions for the new system
• Engagement and a consensus model of planning
• Unified sustainability appraisal frameworks

View full meeting notes

• The concept of soundness
• The challenges of drafting LDF documents
• Practice pointers

View full meeting notes

• What is spatial planning, and how is it different?
• Communicating spatial planning to others
• Getting others involved
• Choosing approaches which will ensure that planning is truly spatial

View full meeting notes

• What should go where
• Principles of approach
• Content of the core stategy

View full meeting notes

Front loading de-mystified : 8 August 2005

• The concept of front loading
• The importance of effective challenge
• Learning by the pilot authorities

View full meeting notes

Practical Issues of Soundness  7 February 2005

• Practical issues of soundness
• Practice pointers from the learning of the pilot authorities

View full meeting notes

Making sustainability appraisal manageable and influential  6 June 2006

• experienced and perceived difficulties in relation to SA, and how practice might be improved in the light of learning
• reflections on the practical issues around AMRs
• the relationship between LDF spatial planning and devlopment management

Ongoing Experience in DPD Preparation    9 September 2006

• the lessons to be learned from the reports of the first two DPD examinations, of the Core Strategies for Lichfield DC and Stafford BC
• practice pointers from the ongoing experience of the pilot authorities

Surviving the Examination     5 December 2006

The main business was to hear about the practical experience of the examination of their core strategies by Hambleton District Council and Horsham District Council.  Both core strategies were subsequently endorsed as sound by the Inspectors.

About the LDF learning and dissemination project

The project is led and funded by the Planning Officers Society (with contributions from the participating authorities), with welcome support from colleagues at the ODPM, Planning Inspectorate, Local Government Association, and RTPI. It is being delivered by POS Enterprises, the Society's operational arm, through Andrew Wright as Project Director and Karen Moore as Project Officer. A copy of the project description can be found here .

The pilot authorities represent different kinds of authorities in different kinds of circumstances, and are at different stages in getting LDF work under way. What they have in common is a will to succeed in planning under the new system, and openness to learning from others, both through the project and more widely.