Structure Plan
The Cumbria and District Joint Structure Plan (opens in new window) was adopted on 6 April 2006. It contains strategic planning policies to guide development.
Important changes to the Cumbria and Lake District Joint Structure Plan
The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 allows Structure Plan policies to be saved for up to 3 years or until superseded by the adopted Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS). To avoid a gap in planning policies while waiting for policies to be adopted in the Local Development Framework, the Secretary of State has agreed to extend 23 Structure Plan policies for a further period until replaced by a future RSS review.
From 30 September 2008 the Development Plan for the Lake District National Park is made up of:
- Policies in the North West of England Plan: Regional Spatial Strategy to 2021 (published September 2008)
- Policies in the Cumbria and Lake District Joint Structure Plan which are referred to in the final published version of the Regional Spatial Strategy
- Policies contained in the Lake District National Park Local Plan (adopted May 1998) referred to in the Direction by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government of 18 September 2007.
Legally we are required to take the policies of the adopted Development Plan as the starting point in any planning decisions. Our decision must be in accordance with the Development Plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.
The Government advises that extended policies should be read in context. Where policies were adopted some time ago it is likely that material considerations will be afforded considerable weight in decisions. This particularly applies to the emergence of new national and regional policy and also new evidence.
Housing need
The Joint Structure Plan's housing policies (H20) needed more practical details on justifying building a new house in the National Park. So in June 2006, we adopted a supplementary planning document for Demonstrating Housing Need in the National Park - final version (opens Document Library).
Wind energy
Similarly the wind energy policies for the whole of Cumbria needed expanding. Therefore we prepared a supplementary planning document on wind energy, in partnership with Cumbria County Council and other District Councils. This was adopted in July 2007. Please look at the County Council's Cumbrian Wind Energy page (opens in new window) for more details.
