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Unitary Development Plan

The new Walsall Unitary Development Plan was adopted on 7 March 2005. It replaces the 1995 plan and all UDP review documents. The documents and maps marked "Final Draft" have the same content as the adopted plan, so please refer to them for the time being..

Like other plans adopted after 28th September 2004 the UDP's policies were saved automatically for 3 years, i.e. until March 2008. In 2007 the Council wrote to the Secretary of State to ask for all of the UDP Policies to be saved (with the exception of Policy BR3, which had been fully implemented). A letter from the Secretary of State, dated 6 December 2007 directed that all of the UDP Policies should be saved, with the exception of Policy BR3 – Brownhills Resource Centre, ENV22 – Protected Species, ENV39 – Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation and H8 – Accommodation for Travelling People. Apart from the four policies that have been allowed to expire, Walsall’s UDP policies will remain saved until they are replaced by policies from the Local Development Framework that is currently in preparation.


View our Interactive UDP and Proposal Map linked to policies via the Planning Portal.

The development plan

The development plan for Walsall consists of:

  • The Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) for the West Midlands
  • The Walsall Unitary Development Plan (UDP)

What is the RSS?

The RSS sets the broad strategic framework for planning in the West Midlands region. It contains policies about the general patterns of development in the built up areas and the countryside across the region, including the unitary authorities of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford & Wrekin, Walsall and Wolverhampton and the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

In the early 1990s Regional Planning Guidance for the West Midlands (RPG 11) was prepared with the advice of all the local and county planning authorities in the region and updated in 1998. Subsequently, RPG 11 was reviewed and a new version published in June 2004 by the West Midlands Regional Assembly. This became the RSS in September 2004.

The RSS also sets the framework for future reviews of the UDP; the preparation of Local Development Frameworks.

Background

The West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy was launched in June 2004 and sets out the long term (to 2026 and beyond) planning and land use framework to guide regional strategies and public and private investment and provides the context for more detailed local development plans. At the time of publication the Secretary of State identified a series of issues which required further development.

The Assembly is currently working on the Phase Two Revision which focuses on a number of key development topics including housing, employment, centres, transport and waste.

The West Midlands Regional Assembly, in conjunction with its regional partners, approved the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy Phase Two Revision Draft in November 2007. This was submitted to the Government at the end of 2007 for progression to the formal stage and the holding of an Examination in Public.

In January 2008, Baroness Andrews, on behalf of the Government, wrote to the Assembly supporting the RSS Phase Two Strategy but said that consideration needed to be given to higher housing numbers for the West Midlands Region. In order to explore further numbers, GOWM was asked to commission a housing study and this has had implications for the timetable.

Both the GOWM and the West Midlands Regional Assembly are keen to ensure that all regional stakeholders are aware of the next stages in the process.

You can view the document, questionnaire, background technical work and all other supplementary material at the West Midlands Regional Assembly Website.

What is the UDP?

Every metropolitan district, such as Walsall , had to prepare a DP for the whole of its area. Policies and proposals were limited to land use and transportation, but set in a wider economic and social context. UDPs have two parts:

  • Part 1 contains broad strategic planning policies; and
  • Part 2 contains the justification for these policies, together with more detailed policies and proposals about where and when different types of development can or cannot take place.

The current UDP covers the period up to 2011.

In preparing the UDP, the council has taken account of national and regional planning policies, including the Government's Planning Policy Guidance Notes (PPG) and the Regional Planning Guidance for the West Midlands 1998 (RPG11). Although the UDP was prepared within the context of the 1998 RPG, much of the content of the new 2004 RPG (now the RSS) was foreseen, so the UDP is therefore broadly consistent with the RSS.

The RSS and (mainly) the UDP are used where necessary by the Council in making decisions on planning applications and development proposals. (For some minor applications or some special types of applications, such as listed building consent or works to protected trees, it is not necessary to refer to the development plan.)

Where it is necessary to refer to the development plan, decisions must, as a matter of law, be made in accordance with the development plan unless “material considerations” indicate otherwise. In other words, planning decisions, including whether to grant or refuse planning permission, will follow the policies of the UDP and the RSS unless there are very good reasons not to do so (see Section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004).

Other documents used in making planning decisions include the Government's Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) and the new Planning Policy Statements (PPS) that are gradually replacing PPG, which, in some circumstances, can carry more weight even than the UDP, for example if they are more up-to-date.

Reform of the planning system

The government is changing the planning system and has made the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to do this. The new system introduces local development frameworks as the new type of local plan for the borough. It will be the first consideration in deciding whether to grant or refuse planning permission. It is therefore crucial in shaping the future environment of the borough. Although the LDF will still focus mainly on land use and transport, it can also contain policies about other matters that have a bearing on where and when certain types of development should or should not be allowed.

Contact us

Regeneration Directorate
Walsall Council
Civic Centre
Darwall Street
Walsall
WS1 1DG

Email udp@walsall.gov.uk

This page was last updated on 05 March 2010