Informal Consultation – Introduction and Next Stages

Thank you to those who responded to the Informal Consultation Stage. Comments were also received from the Local Planning Authority, the Minerals Authority, DCC, Historic England, Portland Port, the Department of Environment as well as landowners and developers.
A listing of comments and response are now available in the document library under 2018.

The plan will now be subject to a Strategic Environmental Assessment(SEA) which may recommend further changes and once agreed will then be subject to further consultation. We hope that SEA process will commence by early April 2018 and report within the month therefore to avoid confusion at this time the current draft is not being shown on the website.
Concurrently with this work the Local Plan Review process has commissioned a Retail study and Dorset County Council a Transport study for Portland and ideally we would like for this work to also inform the plan development but timing will be important.

Consultation Scope
• Information contained in December and January FPN
• Article and a linked reference in Dorset Evening Echo
• Radio interview on Wessex FM
• Reference Consultation Material held at Tophill Library, Council Offices and Osprey Leisure Centre
• Reference Material left at Clubs and Pubs
• Flyers distributed to all businesses on Industrial Estates and Shopping Centres
• 25 Drop in sessions with around 500 people contacted with varying degrees of discussion.
• 2 large banners on display at Tesco, Easton and Osprey Leisure Centre throughout the consultation period. A third used to ‘announce’ the drop in events.
• 3 main references on Social Media with between 1900 and 2900 ‘hits’ on each.
• Website traffic levels – Unique Visits approx 1600. 112 downloads of reports etc

Response Summary
30 replies both electronically and manually and this generated 168 comments linked to specific policies with an additional number indicating support generally for the plan. The Local Planning Authority, the Mineral Planning Authority and other relevant departments at DCC plus the Port have also commented. Historic England have made general supportive comments. Local development companies have made specific comments in regard to the proposed second home policy.

Main areas of change to policy wording and scope
Policy EN3 – Renewables. The main issue here is the specific assignment of wind search areas without further technical analysis. The fall back position is a more general policy with referencing to the technical requirements. On paper the whole of Portland fulfils the viability test for wind . The backdrop is that the targets for renewable energy production which currently are not being met in Dorset will underpin policy direction.
Policy EN5 – Reuse of Mines and Quarries. A general policy concerning the re-use of mines and quarries is proving difficult with the planning authorities has been deleted but with a strengthening though of the policy concerning sustainable tourism (ST1). There is still considered a need to support re-use of mines as previously expressed by the Town Council when commenting on the current Mineral’s Strategy and appropriate wording has been included.
Policy EN6 – Local Heritage Assets Schedule. Historic England are supportive of the establishment of a Local Heritage Asset Schedule held by the Town Council the Local Planning Authority has indicated that it is not intending to prepare a Local Heritage List . Therefore three candidate entries have been identified to commence the list and an appropriate process compiled to allow further entries to be captured.
Policy EN8 – Built up area boundaries. A separate paper updating previous work has been prepared and approved by the Management Group. This has informed further revisions to the development boundaries and those areas defined as Strategic Employment Sites.
Policy EN11 – Public Realm – Specific referencing to Gateway area improvements (Victoria Square and Portland Heights)
Policy BE1 – Retention of employment sites. Update cross refers to work undertaken for Policy EN8
Policy HS2 –. Ensured policy referencing to brownfield and refurbishment as well as exception sites included referencing to brownfield as a priority as concern about potential incremental drift with exception sites. Updating to allow for establishment of a Community Land Trust.
Policy HS3 – Although controversial a quick analysis of the electoral role on new developments and ‘hot spot areas’ do show a trend which could impact on developments in the pipeline. The intention therefore would be to continue with the
policy to test further. We have asked whether technical research support would be possible.
Transport Policies – We are awaiting some details from the study currently being undertaken by consultants on behalf of DCC. We have asked for accessibility mapping to be conducted as part of this research. We have included referencing to access routes to the Island.
Shopping and Services- We are awaiting feedback from a recent retail study which looked at this
Community Recreation – Apart from DCC in reference to Royal Manor school and St Georges playing areas we have not received any negative feedback but we may re-confirm on some of the areas to make sure that correspondence was received. The request by the Town Council for registering an area within New Brackenbury School as a green space has been noted.
Policy ST1 – Sustainable Tourism – Refining this as a more strategic policy rather than area specific although a rationale for the areas chosen was undertaken.
Policy ST2 – Additional wording to reinforce policy intentions
Policy ST3 – Some refinement to routes outlined.
Portland Port – We have taken account a number of the requests made by the Port but they have asked for some more time to consider some further suggestions which we will look at alongside the SEA review. Possible specific areas are:
EN3 – Renewables,EN6 – Heritage Listings, EN7 – Historic Jetties, EN8 – Development Boundaries, Policy BE6 – Northern Arc Masterplan, TR2 – Transport Infrastructure, ST3 – Heritage Trails, ST4 – Marine Berths