Defined villages boundary review

New Forest National Park Submission draft Local Plan 2016 - 2036

Settlement Boundary Review – Background Paper

January 2018

1. Spatial Strategy

1.1 The current Spatial Strategy for the New Forest National Park was established in the Authority’s current adopted Core Strategy & Development Management Policies Development Plan Document (2010). The Spatial Strategy sets out the basic settlement hierarchy, with the villages of Ashurst, Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Sway as ‘Defined Villages’. The Authority’s Local Plan review proposes the retention of this approach.

1.2 The defined village boundaries of Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst and Sway were established in 1986 and the boundary of Ashurst in 1995. The boundaries have remained unchanged since these dates.

1.3 The settlement boundaries were drawn in order to provide a clear distinction between settlements and other surrounding land. The boundaries followed where possible defined features, such as walls, railway lines, roads, water courses and hedgerows.

1.4 There is a principle of development within the settlement policy boundaries, provided that it complies with other relevant policies and is of a scale and nature appropriate to the character and function of the settlement. Other than in certain circumstances, as permitted by other policies within the Local Plan, development will not be permitted outside the defined settlement boundaries.

2. Local Plan Review

2.1 Work on a review of the Local Plan started in autumn 2015 with an initial public consultation on the scope of the Local Plan review and the main planning issues to be addressed in it. Following this initial public consultation, follow-up meetings with a wide range of groups were held, including meetings with the Parish Councils of the four Defined Villages in June 2016. At these meetings, amongst other things, there was consensus that the established Spatial Strategy was still of relevance and should be retained. There was however, a recognition from the Parish Councils of the need for the village boundaries to be reviewed due to the length of time that had lapsed since they were first established. There was also consensus at these meetings that any suitable sites identified adjoining the four defined villages should be brought forward through specific Local Plan allocations rather than amendments to the settlement boundary.

2.2 Following these meetings members of the Planning Policy and Development Control Teams together with the Authority’s Landscape Officer carried out a comprehensive review of the boundaries to ensure they were up-to-date for the purposes of the Local Plan Review. The review involved site visits of the four defined villages which were carried out during January and February 2016. The appendices provide a photographic record of the site visits and show the defined village boundaries from a series of viewpoints. The site visits were carried out according to the following methodology.

3. Methodology

3.1 The established guiding principle for defining settlement boundaries was used as the starting point i.e. consider whether the settlement boundaries were drawn tightly around the built-up areas, in order to provide a clear distinction between settlements and other surrounding land. Did the boundaries follow where possible defined features, such as walls, railway lines, roads, water courses and hedgerows? Taking account of the above, the following principles or criteria have been used in carrying out the review.

Areas which have generally been included are:

• Residential, employment and community uses (schools, shops, churches etc.) which are functionally related to the settlement.

Areas which have generally been excluded are:

• Recreational or amenity space (including playing fields, allotments, paddocks, orchards and cemeteries) at the edge of settlements which primarily relate to the countryside (in form or nature).
• Loose knit and isolated buildings on edge of settlement e.g. farm buildings, equestrian development, residential, employment sites, shops, churches, schools.
• Curtilage of properties which have the capacity to extend the built form of the settlement. This includes large residential gardens.
• Public utilities (sewage treatment plants, substations).
• Camping and caravanning sites.
• Affordable housing permitted on exception sites.
• Large educational establishments (for example Brockenhurst College).

Areas which were considered for inclusion:

• Development opportunities which would provide infilling and rounding off opportunities that are physically, functionally and visually related to the existing built up area, taking account of any environmental development constraints, for example the Special Protection Area 400m buffer zone.

4. Results

4.1 Following the site visits using the above methodology, the Policy Team concluded that the Defined Village boundaries were still of relevance today. The settlement boundaries were considered to indeed have been drawn tightly around the built-up areas and are still of relevance in providing a clear distinction between the settlements and other surrounding land. This conclusion has been influenced by the proximity of protected habitats immediately adjacent to many of the existing defined village boundaries.

4.2 In addition to reviewing the settlement boundaries, the survey exercise was used as an opportunity by the Policy Team and Landscape Officer to identify potential development sites adjacent to the settlement boundaries.

4.3 A Call for Sites and a Call for Brownfield Sites exercise have been carried out as part of the Local Plan review process. Both consultation exercises resulted in landowners putting forward potential sites for development. Some of the submitted sites are located adjacent to the existing Defined Village boundaries and corresponded with some of the potential development sites identified by the Defined Village boundary review team (for example Wharton’s Lane Ashurst, Church Lane Sway and Lyndhurst Park Hotel).

4.4 The Regulation 19 Submission Local Plan proposes housing site allocations adjacent to the settlement boundaries (Whartons Lane, Ashurst; Church Lane, Sway and Lyndhurst Park Hotel). In line with the conclusions of the defined villages workshops held in spring 2016, it was not the intention of the boundary review exercise to extend the settlement boundary around any potential housing allocation sites. This is considered more consistent with the approach of reflecting only what the built form of the settlement is today (in line with the methodology as set out above). Importantly it also avoids potential anomalies in applying planning policy. For example, there would otherwise be a potential for promotion of exception sites adjoining settlement boundaries which ‘jump’ land allocated for development that is yet to be developed. Such instance could lead to development that is isolated from the main settlement. Settlement boundaries can be extended to include allocations in future boundary reviews once they are developed.

4.5 Following clear advice from Natural England regarding the potential impacts from residential development within 400 metres of the New Forest Special Protection Area (SPA), the NPA, in principle will not be looking to extend settlement boundaries within this zone due to potential habitat conflicts. Given the nature of many of the villages and the proximity to the SPA, there is reduced scope for any settlement boundary amendments.