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Planning Policy

Planning Policy is formulated by the Local Development Framework Policy Team who produce policies and guidance to promote (or limit) development across the District in order to enhance (or minimise impact upon) the District's high quality environment.

At present, the main vehicles for this are the 'saved' policies from the Harrogate District Local Plan, (as amended) for which the Council has received a Direction from the Secretary of State that they can continue to be used from 27 September 2007. All Local Plan policies not listed in the Direction can no longer be used after this date.   However, the Local Plan 'saved' policies themselves will be superseded by the Local Development Framework (LDF).  The LDF, along with the Regional Spatial Strategy (prepared by the Regional Assembly), will provide the statutory basis for the future development and conservation of the District.

Other Planning Policy documents

The availability of housing and employment land is regularly monitored to help assess the effectiveness of the Local Plan and in preparing the LDF. 

The Local Plan Annual Monitoring Report focuses on the adopted Local Plan's implementation and is now included within the LDF Annual Monitoring Report.

The Retail Study, made to assess future need for retail floorspace in the urban centres of the District beyond the Local Plan timeframe, was first published in 2004.  It was recently reviewed and can be viewed here: Harrogate Retail Study Review (July 2007) (2.85Mb)   Appendices 1- 6 (5.4Mb), Appendix 7_part1 (7.5Mb) and Appendix 7_part2 (2.2Mb).

For information, the original Retail Study (Feb 2004) is also available from the following links: Retail Study 2004 Summary (27kb) or the full Retail Study 2004 Report (238kb).

The Urban Housing Capacity Study (Oct 2004) estimates potential future housing yield from all appropriate sources in the District's 6 main urban areas.  Consultation at the end of 2004 has been analysed and a revised version of this document is available in the Core Strategy section of our Local Development Framework page.

Guidance for Development Control

To help in determining planning applications the Planning Policy Section also prepares additional Development Control Guidance (covering: Parking Requirements, Residential Conversions, Affordable Housing, Open Space in new development, Developer Contributions for Education Facilities, the Control of demolition in Conservation Areas, and the Protection of Community Facilities).