Bournemouth, as a Unitary Authority has strategic planning responsibilities.  This involves working with neighbouring strategic authorities (Dorset County Council and Borough of Poole), local District Authorities and the South West Regional Assembly.  Strategic Planning involves developing long term policies covering a large area on a wide range of land use issues such as housing, transport, the economy, conservation and recreation and leisure.

Adopted policy
The document which currently sets out regional planning guidance for the South West is Regional Planning Guidance 10 (RPG10).  At county level, current policy is provided by the Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole Structure Plan (CSP28).  The adopted structure plan and RPG10 (upon commencement of the new Planning Act) form part of the development plan covering the Borough.

The Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 introduced fundamental changes to the Development Plan system in England, in particular the deletion of Structure Plans.

As part of this transition, local planning authorities were allowed to ‘save’ existing adopted structure plan policies for a period of three years from the commencement date of the Act (September 2004), thereby allowing policies to remain in force up to September 2007.

The Act recognised that it might be necessary to save policies beyond three years, and introduced a procedure whereby local planning authorities could make a request for a Direction from the Secretary of State to save policies beyond September 2007, or to delete policies even where they had not been formally replaced by those in the Local Development Framework. The Government requested that all authorities should submit a list of those policies it wishes to save or to delete, to the Government regional offices by 1 April 2007.

Bournemouth Borough Council in conjunction with the Borough of Poole and Dorset County Council has reviewed all of the Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole Structure Plan 2000 policies and submitted a formal request to the Secretary of State to save or delete policies after September 2007.

A copy of the Secretary of State’s decision and schedule of policies for saving can be viewed below.

Accompanying letter from GOSW

Emerging policy
Under the new planning system, statutory Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) will replace Regional Planning Guidance (RPG).  The South West Regional Assembly is responsible for preparing the RSS for the South West region, which will provide a regional planning framework to 2026.  It is a requirement that strategic planning authorities - in this area, Bournemouth Borough Council, Dorset County Council and the Borough of Poole - assist in the development of the Regional Spatial Strategy by providing Sub Regional Studies (Joint Study Areas).

As part of the development of the Regional Spatial Strategy, an Urban Potential Study for 2001-2021 was published in January 2004.  To view the document click here.

More Information
If you wish to discuss matters relating to regional or strategic planning contact:
 
Maxine Bodell at Dorset County Council on (01305 224228) or email m.bodell@dorsetcc.gov.uk

Alan Cheesman at Bournemouth Borough Council on (01202 451446) or email alan.cheesman@bournemouth.gov.uk   or

Nigel Jacobs at Borough of Poole on (01202 633329) or email n.jacobs@poole.gov.uk.