Plymouth is to begin a brand new Local Plan that will shape the city’s growth, homes, economy, transport and environment for decades to come.
Plymouth City Council is kickstarting its ambitious new Local Plan, a statutory planning document that will guide the city’s future for decades, shaping everything from where new homes will be built to how communities grow, how people travel and how the city adapts to the huge opportunities ahead.
Residents will be invited to help design Plymouth’s next chapter, with the first phase of public engagement beginning this summer and continuing throughout the plan’s development.
Councillor John Stephens, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport, said: “Development and growth don’t just magically happen. We need to make it happen and the Local Plan acts as a blueprint for the city.
“We want a Local Plan that reflects the hopes, ambitions and everyday experiences of the people who live here. Plymouth is changing – through new homes, new industries, and major investment and we want residents shaping a city that works for them.
“The Government wants to see economic growth writ large in the local plan as well as how we plan to address the national and local housing crisis – it’s hugely important that people feel involved. This is your city and your future.”
As Plymouth is recognised not just for its strategic role in the region but also for its national security role, there is something particularly vital about this next Local Plan for Plymouth.
Cabinet meeting on March 9 will hear more about the expectations on the new local plan and the process of creating a plan for the city. The Government has introduced a new, faster and more focused system for producing Local Plans, giving councils just 30 months to complete them.
Plymouth will formally start the process by June and unlock the chance to secure up to £120,000 in Government funding to support the work. Public engagement will start in the next few months, with residents asked to help shape the contents of the plan such as how future engagement on the plan should be carried out.
This Local Plan will directly influence the availability of homes and the quality of neighbourhoods for years to come. The city urgently needs to boost housing supply and the plan will seek to identify the right places for new homes, while protecting important green spaces and strengthening local infrastructure.
It will also support the city’s unique role as a centre for marine innovation and defence investment, shaping how Plymouth can grow jobs, attract investment and create new opportunities for young people in the years ahead.
The City Living Framework, which is currently being developed, will feed into the new Local Plan as one of the ways the Council brings this vision to life.
While the Local Plan sets out where all growth should happen, the City Living Framework focuses on the quality of that growth both within and surrounding the City Centre, the kind of homes we build there, the streets people walk down, and the neighbourhoods families will call home. It ensures that every new development across the city centre and surrounding areas contributes to a greener, safer and more vibrant Plymouth.
Plymouth City Council has been recognised for its innovation and creativity on plan-making winning many awards – it is the only authority to have won the Royal Town Planning Silver Jubilee Cup three times.
Many large scale expansions of new housing and industrial estates and transport and community infrastructure projects exist today because they were first conceived or promoted through past local plans.
Local Plans have helped secure millions of pounds of funding to deliver the Derriford district centre, the Derriford Community Park; the Forder Valley link road and Forder Valley Interchange, the Derriford transport scheme, the Saltram countryside park and for Central Park.
Much needed land for new housing has been allocated in local plans including at Manadon, Sherford, Morley Park, Seaton, and Woolwell; with existing employment land being protected alongside new land brought forward in Estover, Darklake View, Southway, Belliver, Coxside and Marsh Mills.
