The Portsmouth Local Plan produced by Local Planning Authority (LPA) sets out planning policy through to 2040. Planning Applications are submitted to the LPA and are managed by planning officers, to whom elected councillors delegate most decisions. It is updated every 10 years or so and the current changes have reached a stage of review known as 'Reg19' which is largely technical - the Plan has been developed over a number of years, the public have been consulted (back in 2019) and their views taken account of, and this near-final version is going to the Planning Inspectorate (a central government group based in Bristol) to confirm that it meets all the rules before final approval.
As it is newer than the Milton Neighbourhood Plan, if there are differences between the two documents, then the Local Plan will likely take precedence - this is why we spent time comparing and discussing differences.
For example, the Milton Neighbourhood Plan tried to create a continuous 'coastal zone' down the eastern side of the city. This has been largely achieved.
We also wanted to guide development away from the 'brownfield' Langstone Campus site by swapping those development rights to the artificial pitches bordering Locksway Road. The Local Plan does not rule out this option, but it does not promote it as we hoped.
Overall, we are in accordance with the City Plan - It is not the city's fault that we have a high target for new housing and no space, that comes from regional studies and central government targets.
We highlighted that this is compounded by the failure to deliver on alternative travel which also means the city scores poorly on all health and wellbeing metrics. .
We argued for better protection of designated habitats and improved air quality which will lead to better outcomes.
The submission is Milton-centric but our locality is of city wide benefit.
We also made suggestions on tighter framing of policy.
You can see our full comments by clicking here.
And the current draft of the Local Plan can be viewed here: Local-Plan-Update.pdf (portsmouth.gov.uk)
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