Colchester City Council Scheme of Local Validation (SoLV) 2024

We have now updated our Local Scheme of Validation to reflect recent changes in legislation and national policy.

We declared a climate change emergency in 2020 which resulted in more reason for changes to our processes to ensure that, where appropriate, applications explain how they can mitigate potentially harmful impacts on our environment.

More recently, biodiversity net gain has become a statutory requirement for many applications. Our scheme has now been updated to capture these key national and local policy changes and reference our current adopted local plan policies together with the latest edition of the NPPF.

We have included a requirement for some more reports in support of applications. In many cases these have been requested on an informal basis for some time now and this revised SoLV formalises our approach which will help prevent delays occuring when documents may be requested after validation.

The additional key documents that are now proposed for inclusion in the SoLV are:

Biodiversity net gain: A statutory requirement (Environment Act 2021) major and minor applications must demonstrate how a 10% uplift in biodiversity will be delivered on or offsite.

Biodiversity net gain (BNG),in accordance with policy ENV1 of the Adopted Local Plan 2017-2033.

Canopy cover assessment: A Canopy Cover Assessment will be required for all major applications. Development proposals should seek where appropriate to increase the level of canopy cover on site by a minimum of 10% I accordance with Policy CC1 of the Adopted Local Plan 2017-2033.

Housing delivery and viability statement: The housing delivery test is an annual measurement of housing delivery in the area of relevant plan-making authorities. Developers need to set out their delivery programme for major sites and explain how this will contribute towards meeting our adopted housing delivery target of 920 units pa in accordance with Policy SP4 of the adopted section 1 Colchester Local plan 2017-2033 and SG2 of Section 2.

Planning climate change emergency checklist: Planning Sustainability Checklist. Sustainability lies at the heart of planning (Sections 2 and 15 NPPF). Major developments need to demonstrate how any adverse impacts will be mitigated to prevent harm to our environment, biodiversity services and green infrastructure in accordance with adopted local plan policies ENV1, ENV2, ENV3, CC1, DM20, DM25 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Landscape Visual Impact Appraisal or Townscape Appraisal: (LVIA) on all majors with Townscape Appraisal in urban contexts; The Landscape Institute sets out guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (GLVIA3) which explains how practitioners can apply the principles and general approach of landscape character assessment, as defined by Natural England, to townscape character assessment in compliance with adopted local plan policy ENV1 of the CLP 2017-2033.

SUDS - Water quantity and quality proforma: (ECC) Essex-suds-water-quantity-and-quality-proforma identifies the information requires by Essex LLFA to enable technical assessment in compliance with Essex Suds Design Guide in accordance with adopted local plan policies PP1, DM23, DM24 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Arboricultural Impact Assessment (AIA) or Arboricultural Condition Survey: in accordance with adopted local plan policies ENV1, ENV3 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Draft s.106 agreement for Major Development: and Viability Appraisal (where abnormal costs prejudice delivery of developer contributions together with costs undertaking for independent review) in accordance with adopted local plan policies SG7, DM2, DM4, DM20 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Renewable Energy Statement: Applications for renewable energy should include a specification and a LVIA where the proposal is of an appropriate scale to enable their impact to be fully assessed in accordance with adopted local plan policies DM25, ENV4, CC1 and OV2 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Sequential Test: for main town centre uses in out/edge of centre locations/departures and impact assessment for floor area over 2,500 sqm+ in accordance with NPPF para.86-89 and adopted local plan policies TC1, TC3, SG5 and SG6 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Parking and POS/Amenity Space schedule and statement of conformity: with adopted policy standards in conformity with adopted local plan policies DM9, DM12, DM15, DM17, DM18, DM19, DM22 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Affordable Homes Schedule: identifying units/mix, accessibility and tenure with statement explaining conformity with SPD and local plan policies DM8 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Accessibility Statement: Setting out how the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 and BS8300 are satisfied for new homes and commercial development in conformity with adopted local plan policy DM21 of the CLP 2017-2033.

Draft S.106 Agreement/Unilateral Undertaking: For Majors and under 10 unit housing schemes in accordance with SPD on Sport and Recreation and Community Facilities RAMS payment or inclusion in draft s.106/UU to accompany application in compliance with policies DM2, DM4, DM17 of the CLP 2017-2033.

The documents are not universally applicable to all applications and we will always give careful thought to which documents are appropriate to any application – so don’t be concerned that you will be asked to provide these documents in all cases. If you are uncertain about which documents you require contact planning.services@colchester.gov.uk who will be pleased to help.