Examination of the Draft RBKC New Local Plan | St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Forum

The Council’s preparation of a new Local Plan for the Borough is now at the stage when the Draft document is being ‘examined’ by Planning Inspector Louise Nurse. She is holding a series of public hearings in June and July 2023.

Organisations which submitted representations on the Regulation 19 Draft (along with any individuals) have been invited to attend relevant hearing sessions. These involve the Inspector asking questions on representations made. Additional submissions were invited with a deadline of June 5th.

All the background documentation on the Examination is on the RBKC website under Local Plan Review. This material includes the full draft of the proposed New Local Plan, along with recent further submissions made to the Inspector.

The StQW Forum has made four further submissions, following up the previous post on this website and our Response Form on the Regulation 19 Draft. This was sent to the Council following discussion our open meeting in St Helens Church hall on November 29th 2022.

Our four further submissions cover these issues:

a response to the Inspector’s question on whether RBKC has correctly categorised ‘strategic’ and ‘non-strategic’ policies in is new Draft Plan (this is technical issue which affects the extent to which Borough-wide policies can in future be varied or refined via a neighbourhood plan). Hearing date scheduled for afternoon of June 21st.
a response to several of the Inspector’s questions on the Site Allocation and policies for Kensal Canalside. Hearing date scheduled for all day on June 22nd, with many parties attending including several local community groups.
A response to the Inspector’s questions on the Local Plan’s draft policy for Tall Buildings
a response on Draft Site Allocation and Policy SA9 on Units 1-14 Latimer Road. This requests deletion of the last part of the following sentence in bold, requiring applicataions with High quality design that reflects the mixed character of the area and respects the Employment Zone identity. This row of light industrial/warehouse units is already the subject of a RBKC Design Code and a set of StQW Policies. The wording ‘respects the Employment Zone identity’ appears to refer to planning officers seeking building designs that look ‘commercial/industrial’ in some undefined way. For mixed use redevelopments, what is the merit in including such unclear wording?

Copies of these four submissions to the Inspector can be downloaded below.

Nursery Lane and the application from Northcare

Developers Northcare (Scotland Ltd) have made submissions on the need for extra care home spaces, under the Housing section of the Examination (scheduled hearing date the afternoon of July 11th). We will attend this hearing, but the further evidence which we submitted on why the land at Nursery Lane should remain as designated Local Green Space has not been published by the Inspector.

The Inspector’s note on the Examination states Representors should be aware that it is not my role to examine the soundness of any omission sites. Such sites will not be discussed at the Hearing sessions. An ‘omission site’ is one not selected by RBKC for a site allocation. but now promoted by a developer. We have to hope that the Inspector does not allow Northcare to attempt to challenge the Local Green Space designation via these forthcoming hearings.