Annual Monitoring Report 2010

1 Executive Summary

1.0.1 This document is the Lancaster District Local Development Framework (LDF) Annual Monitoring Report for the financial year 2009/10. This is the sixth AMR that Lancaster City Council has prepared and published. The AMR establishes the monitoring framework for the district reporting on the implementation of existing planning policies as well as the evidence base which will be used to support the preparation of future planning policies.

1.0.2 Lancaster City Council has made considerable progress on the production of its LDF and is the first authority in the north west to have a Development Plan Document (DPD) found sound under the new planning system. The Core Strategy which establishes the strategic vision and policies for the district was found sound by an independent Planning Inspector in June 2008 and was subsequently adopted by the City Council on the 23rd July 2008. This is the first DPD to be prepared by the City Council.

1.0.3 Following adoption of the Core Strategy the City Council are now looking to progress preparation of the next phase of the LDF. This will include the following elements:

A Land Allocations document – identifies land to be developed for housing, employment or retail, land which should be protected and safeguarded from future development and land needed for future infrastructure needs such as new roads;
A Development Management document – establishes the detailed policies that the Council will take into account when it decides whether to grant planning permission for new development.
An Area Action Plan for Morecambe - identifies the development, conservation and change needed to secure lasting regeneration gains for Morecambe.

2.1.3 Together with the Core Strategy these documents will set the planning policy framework for the District for the next 15 years providing increased certainty and guidance for developers and members of the public on both the locational requirements of new development and the detailed design and sustainability principles they must achieve.

2.1.4 The AMR will be essential to the production of these DPDs providing an important source of information for determining the policy direction within them as well as the framework for monitoring their implementation and delivery.

1.0.4 Monitoring policy implementation is achieved by reporting against a broad range of indicators. This AMR identifies and reports against four types of indicators:

Contextual Indicators: These provide a snapshot of local circumstances and conditions at a point in time and, by being regularly monitored, provide a means of determining how the implementation of the LDF, and the many other plans and programmes, are influencing the district's characteristics. A wide range of contextual indicators are reported in this AMR.
Core Output Indicators: Local Authorities have in the past been required to monitor a set of Core Output Indicators. These were set by the previous Government and were designed to enable the performance of authorities to be consistently compared across the Country. Whilst there is some doubt as to the continuation of Core Output indicators the City Council has, for consistency, continued to monitor them in this report.
Local Output Indicators: These address outputs of policies not covered by Core Output indicators. The Council in support of the Core Strategy have developed a number of local output indicators. These have been tailored to reflect Core Strategy policies and will be key to measuring policy implementation. Additional local output indicators will be developed as further DPDs are produced.
Significant Effect Indicators: These are products of the sustainability appraisal process. They allow comparisons to be made between the anticipated or predicted effects of a policy on society, the environment and the economy and the actual effects that are measured during implementation.

1.0.5 Taken together the indicators provide a comprehensive evidence base on which to inform policy development and monitor policy implementation. The City Council will continue to develop the monitoring framework in association with the preparation of DPDs and the sustainability appraisal process.