We are preparing the Site Specific Proposals Development Plan Document (DPD). The purpose of this document will be to provide a set of site allocations and proposals to meet the vision, objectives and development strategy of the Core Strategy. It will be inaccordance with the Regional Spatial Strategy which is called The Yorkshire & Humber Plan. The DPD will include land allocations to meet anticipated development needs relating to housing, employment and mixed use development. These proposals will replace equivalent allocations and designations in the saved Wakefield Metropolitan District Unitary Development Plan First Alteration. 

The Site Specific Proposals DPD will be accompanied by a proposals map which together with the housing, employment and mixed use allocations will also include other designations such as strategic highway routes to be safeguarded and conservation areas.   

Many of these designations are determined outside the process of preparing the LDF. Others, such as the strategic highway routes to be safeguarded, will reflect decisions and priorities in other programmes and strategies. Most will be carried forward from the UDP First Alteration and updated as necessary to reflect the latest situation. 

The Site Specific Proposals DPD will not include polices and proposals relating to retailing/town centres and leisure/open space. Further work is needed on these issues which can not be completed within the time frame of the initial LDF documents. The existing parts of the UDP relating to these topics will therefore remain in force beyond 2009 until they can be replaced by new Development Plan Documents. Site specific policies and proposals affecting Wakefield city centre will be covered in the Central Wakefield Area Action Plan - this area is excluded from the Document's district-wide plan area.

Preparation of the document(s) has included wide ranging consultation and engagement with the public and interested parties, details  can be found under `Related Links'.  Briefly, the main stages have been: 

• LDF Issues – Early Community Engagement: Summer/Autumn 2004
• Issues & Options Consultation: January – March 2005 

Throughout the Council’s consultation and engagement on the Local Development Framework, details of potential development site locations and possible allocations have been requested. The Council is publishing its Preferred Options report for the Site Specific Proposals DPD on 3 July 2008, which will be subject to a six week statutory consultation period. This report indicates which sites are preferred to others from the sites the Council is currently aware of. Consultation on the Preferred Options report will allow comments to be made on the preferred sites and will represent another opportunity for further sites to be put forward to the Council for inclusion in the version of the Site Specific Proposals DPD to be submitted to the Secretary of State.  This stage of consultation is therefore:

•  Preferred Options Consultation: 3 July - 14 August 2008.

All comments should reach the Council by 5:00pm on 14 August 2008. To view and comment on the documents please use `Related Links' > LDF Online Consultation.

To comply with the requirements of the EU Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the document at various stages will be subject to a Sustainability Appraisal which will be carried out by Waterman Environmental. The aim of this appraisal is to assess the proposed allocations and consider their relative positive or negative environmental, social or economic effects. A scoping report was carried out at an early stage for the Core Strategy, Development Policies and Site Specific Proposals DPDs. The Council has since carried out an Initial Sustainability Appraisal of the site proposals. This has assisted the Council in selecting the preferred options. The results of these appraisals can be accessed under 'Downloads'.

A sustainability appraisal of the Preferred Options has been undertaken and, like the Preferred Options Report, the Sustainability Appraisal Report is the subject of the consultation.  There are three other documents supporting the Preferred Options Report.  They are the Options Assessment Tables Technical Paper which summarises the assessment of the options, the Appropriate Assessment Screening Report which considers the Preferred Options impact on certain types of very important habitats, and the Initial Statement of Pre-Submission Consultation which is a statement of consultation on the Site Specific Proposals DPD to date.  All these documents as well as a Comment Form and Site Information Form (to propose a new site) can be accessed under ‘Downloads’.  Additionally, the Preferred Options Report and Reference Maps can be explored at the LDF Portal - see `Related Links'.

Do you have a site development proposal which is not featured in this report?

As part of this consultation stage, we are inviting new proposals for additional or alternative developments.  If you have a new development proposal that you wish to be considered please complete the Site Information Form which may be downloaded from the Council's website or completed online at the LDF Consultation Portal.  Copies of the site information forms will be made available for public inspection and cannot be treated as confidential.