Issue details

Somer Valley Enterprise Zone Local Development Order - Commitments

The Council/LPA is promoting a Local Development Order (LDO) at the Somer Valley Enterprise Zone (SVEZ) to enable delivery of this long-standing employment land allocation, via a master planning process.

This item brings forward the Future Ambitions paper which highlights the current manifesto commitments of the Administration and how as the SVEZ is implemented, following the adoption of the LDO, it will seek to deliver benefits to the community over and above planning requirement.

Decision type: Key

Reason Key: Affects more than 1 ward;

Decision status: Approved

Wards affected: Paulton;

Notice of proposed decision first published: 21/12/2023

Decision due: 1 Feb 2024 by Cabinet

Lead member: Cabinet Member for Economic and Cultural Sustainable Development

Lead director: Executive Director - Sustainable Communities

Contact: Ella Thomas, Development Officer Email: Ella_Thomas@bathnes.gov.uk.

Consultation process

The project team and its consultants have been in regular dialogue with the landowners over the last 24 months. The project reports into the Cabinet Member and a Key Stakeholder Group.
An informal public engagement was held in May-June 2022 and the formal LDO documents were published on 16th January 2023 and the formal public consultation concluded on 23rd February 2023. Following the initial statutory consultation, the project team attended numerous workshops with Development Management to address comments received and revised documents were submitted back to the LPA. The secondary consultation began on 22nd September 2023 and concluded on 26th October 2023

Consultees

The informal public engagement in May/June 2022 consisted of a public webinar, consultation boards in local libraries and hard copy and online surveys. Engagement events were undertaken at Midsomer Norton Town Council, Radstock Town Council, Paulton Parish Council and a residents meeting in Paulton.
Both statutory consultations were hosted on the Planning Portal, with a dedicated webpage on the B&NES site that described the documents uploaded and then directed through to the Planning Portal for comment. Statutory consultees were contacted directly by Development Management to inform them of the application being published for comment. Prior to the revised statutory consultation, the project team attended Farrington Gurney Parish Council meeting on the 18th September and the Somer Valley Forum on 20th September.

EFP Reference: E3510

Decisions

Agenda items