Eastbourne Local Plan - Growth Strategy

This consultation is now closed. Documentation is still available to read but responses can no longer be submitted

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Eastbourne Local Plan - Growth Strategy

Eastbourne Borough Council is preparing a new Local Plan which will guide the type, amount and location of development in the borough up to 2039.

The Council is now undertaking a public consultation on the 'Growth Strategy', which sets out the level of housing and employment growth that could be accommodated in Eastbourne over the period to 2039 and where it might be located.

This consultation focuses specifically on housing and employment growth, including key development sites, and as such is not a draft Local Plan. Other issues, such as addressing climate change, encouraging regeneration, and protecting the natural, built and historic environments, will be included in the Local Plan once prepared, and this will be subject to a future public consultation.

We are asking for your views on the ‘Growth Strategy’ identified in this consultation document so that these can be considered before we determine how and where growth will be proposed in the Local Plan. The Growth Strategy and the supporting documentation are available to view and download below.

Consultation period

The consultation is open for a 10-week period between Friday 11th November 2022 and Friday 20th January 2023. All consultation responses should be received by 5pm on the closing date.

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Consultation Events

We will be holding consultation drop-in events on:

  • Monday 12th December 2022 – Eastbourne Town Hall, 1pm to 7pm
  • Friday 13th January 2023 - The Gather space in the Beacon Shopping Centre, 10am to 4pm
  • Tuesday 17th January 2023 - Eastbourne Town Hall, 1pm to 7pm

How to View

You can view the Eastbourne Local Plan Growth Strategy on-line, or by downloading a pdf version from this consultation portal.

There are also a number of supporting documents to the consultation that are available to download from the Consultation Documents section at the bottom of this page. 

For anyone without internet access, the Growth Strategy Consultation is also available to read as a paper copy at Eastbourne Town Hall, Grove Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4UG.

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A 'plain text' version of the Growth Strategy Consultation Document is available for you to download and print. 

Supporting documentation to the consultation includes background papers on housing and employment development, and a summary of consultation responses received during the Issues & Options consultation that relate to this Growth Strategy consultation.

Evidence that has been used to inform the preparation of the Growth Strategy, including the Land Availability Assessment, is also available to view and download below.

How to Respond

We are keen to receive views on the Growth Strategy and you are welcome to respond to any or all of the questions set out in the document. Your input will help in the preparation of the Eastbourne Local Plan, and will be important in determining how the borough grows and develops in the future.

The easiest way to respond is to read and comment on the Growth Strategy directly on-line, or by completing the 'questionnaire' associated with this consultation. There are also alternative ways to submit comments.  

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You can respond to the consultation by:

  • Submitting comments directly via our on-line consultation portal
  • By sending comments either by email to: LocalPlan@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk, or post to: Planning Policy, Eastbourne Town Hall, Grove Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4UG.

Please note that although the consultation will be publicised using social media, comments made via these routes cannot be considered as a formal response to the consultation.  Therefore you are encouraged to make your comments via the channels identified above.

Sustainability Appraisal

Sustainability Appraisal Reports published alongside Eastbourne Local Plan Growth Strategy: Sustainability Appraisal Report on Issues & Options and Sustainability Appraisal Report on Growth Strategy.

The purpose of the Sustainability Appraisal is to help identify reasonable alternative options that the plan could implement and test them to identify the potential impacts and their relative sustainability.

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You can comment on the Sustainability Appraisal Reports by completing the relevant questionnaires:

Background Documents and FAQ

Two Background Papers have been prepared and published alongside the Eastbourne Local Plan Growth Strategy Consultation in order to provide further information and background to the public consultation.

In addition, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) has been prepared to provide responses to commonly asked questions about the Eastbourne Local Plan and the Growth Strategy consultation.

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Evidence Documents

The National Planning Policy Framework (2021) [NPPF] is clear that local plans must be underpinned by relevant and up-to-date evidence. Evidence gathering is an on-going through the process of preparing the local plan, and there is still further evidence that needs to be obtained.

The evidence gathered to date, and that has informed the Growth Strategy, is available to read on this consultation portal.

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Eastbourne Land Availability Assessment

The Eastbourne Land Availability Assessment (LAA)  is a key evidence document in the preparation of the local plan. The purpose of the LAA is to provide an up-to-date assessment of land supply in the borough to identify land for new development. 

It does this by identifying sites with potential for development; estimating the amount of development that they could provide; and assessing whether land is suitable, available and achievable for development over the plan period.

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The LAA is an important evidence base document that informs plan making. The LAA is not a statement of Council policy and it does not itself determine whether a site should be allocated for development in the future, nor does it influence the likelihood of gaining planning permission on a particular site.

The Eastbourne LAA is set out in three separate volumes, which are available to download:

In addition, the Methodology for undertaking the LAA, which was subject to consultation at the start of 2022, is also available to download. 

Call for Sites

As part of the consultation, we are asking landowners, site promoters and other stakeholders to submit information to us about additional sites that could have potential for development over the Local Plan period to 2039.

If you wish to submit a site to be considered as a potential housing, employment, renewable energy development site please complete the Call for Sites questionnaire.

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The purpose of the Call for Sites is to gain an up-to-date understanding of the type, quantity and location of land that may be suitable for housing and employment development, and to identify sites that could accommodate other uses such as nature conservation, open space and green infrastructure, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Submissions are invited for suggestions of sites that could accommodate:

  • Homes (including self and custom build, older people’s housing and gypsy and traveller sites)
  • Employment land (including office, industrial, retail and leisure uses)
  • Habitat banks and Nature conservation/recovery
  • Green infrastructure
  • Carbon offsetting
  • Renewable energy generation, storage and infrastructure
  • Natural flood management

Sites submitted via the Call for Sites will be subject to detailed assessment using criteria set out in LAA Methodology, and any sites that are identified or allocated for development will be subject to community and stakeholder consultation through the local plan. The submission of a site through the call for sites exercise does not give any planning status, and does not allocate sites or imply that the council will necessarily grant planning permission.

If you would like to submit a site for consideration please ensure you firstly read the guidance note which provides information on the types of sites we are inviting suggestions for, and guidance on how the form should be filled in.

If you have any questions or experience any difficulty in submitting your representations, please contact us, the Planning Policy Team, via email at LocalPlan@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk or by telephone on 01323 410000 quoting ‘Eastbourne Local Plan’.

Timeline

  • Opened
    11 Nov 2022 at 09:00
  • Closed
    20 Jan 2023 at 17:00

Consultation Documents

Supporting Documents