Sutton North Lib Dem Councillors

Cllr Sam Cumber, Cllr Ruth Dombey and Chris Hawton working hard for Sutton North all year round Learn more

Further consultation on Sutton Local Plan begins

by Sam, Ruth and Chris on 11 January, 2017

SUTTON LOCAL PLAN

What is it?

The Sutton Local Plan sets out the Council’s long-term aims and aspirations for the borough for the next fifteen years, and provides a consistent basis for deciding planning applications.

It deals with subjects such as: major new regeneration areas, new housing development, retail, office and industrial development, infrastructure provision (including schools), the protection of green space, character and design, cutting pollution, climate change and transport.

The Council is now consulting on a draft of the Local Plan until 24 February.  It has been informed by the Local Plan Issues and Preferred Options document which was consulted on between February and April 2016.   The next stage will be for responses to be considered and for the Plan and the responses to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. If the Sutton Local Plan is found sound at this examination, the Council will adopt the plan.

Why do we need a new Plan?

The plan takes account of a number of changes in the make-up of the population of Sutton. We have:

  • an increasing population, with an increasing number of households;
  • but more older people, with people living longer;
  • more school-aged children;
  • a fall in the number of affordable homes, and the London Mayor has set us a higher target of the number of new homes we have to build;
  • an increase in the number of people in work, but many are in poorly paid jobs;
  • more new businesses but there is a greater demand for new local jobs;
  • a decline on the amount of shopping and office space;
  • and a growth in the amount of community and leisure space;
  • but car ownership remains high and public transport is poor with no underground or overground station;
  • and fewer people walk to work;
  • and while carbon emissions are falling, air quality targets are being missed in some areas.

The Plan seeks to preserve and protect the borough’s character, green spaces and heritage, whilst appropriately responding to the demand to provide much needed extra housing for local residents. It demonstrates the council’s ambition to grow the borough and secure future prosperity, whilst preserving what makes Sutton special. It goes for a medium (rather than the higher) growth target, and aims to focus development in town and district centres so that the suburban areas are protected.

The Plan makes a number of proposals.  These are the main ones of interest to residents of Sutton North:

  1. Focusing the High St area on affordable housing (especially one and two beds), together with redeveloped retail and office space. This will respect the heritage of the High Street area and buildings between Sainsbury’s and Sutton Green will be limited to 4 to 6 storeys.
  2. This enables the Council to protect back garden land from development where it makes an important contribution to the character of the surrounding area, is of local ecological value, or would adversely affect the amenity of residents.
  3. Continued improvements to the northern end of the High St including the street market, improved shop fronts and public realm, pop up projects, and improvements to the lanes and alleyways off the High St.
  4. New policies intended to restrict the proliferation of hot food takeaways, protect pubs and ensure our district centres continue to flourish.
  5. Safeguarding the Sutton West site in Robin Hood Lane for possible primary school use to reduce pressure on school places in our area.
  6. A new High School in Belmont with a proposal to allocate the All Weather Pitch and part of the Tennis Centre in Rosehill Park for a second school, while retaining its designation as Metropolitan Open Land to prevent any alternative development.
  7. Continued support for the tram, and for a better rail service to provide a more metro style service (similar to the London Overground) and better orbital rail connections with other South London centres.
  8. The London Cancer Hub, in Belmont, based on the Royal Marsden and the Institute of Cancer Research, to become a nationally recognised Life Science cluster, providing skilled technical jobs and educational benefits to local schools.
  9. Abandoning a proposal to develop a site for Gypsies and Travellers in Kimpton Road and instead increasing and improving the current site in Woodmansterne.

How are we being consulted

The consultation arrangements include:

  • A dedicated webpage on the Sutton council website.  See here for the full Plan
  • Documents being available at council offices and libraries for those without internet access
  • Emails or letters to those groups and people who have requested to be on the Planning Policy Consultation database. If you wish to be added to the database, please email [email protected]
  • Emails and letters to those groups and people who responded to the Local Plan Issues and Preferred Options consultation (February-April 2016)
  • Meetings, including local committees, which will be publicised on the webpage.  Sutton Local Committee discussed the plan at its meeting on 13 December
  • Facebook and Twitter

Representations should be sent to: [email protected] or The Planning Policy Team, London Borough of Sutton, 24 Denmark Road, Carshalton SM5 2JG by 5pm on 24 February 2017

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