A ‘Call for Sites’ consultation has just been launched by Maldon District Council and will run until the 21st May 2021. This is a great opportunity for landowners, groups of individuals, developers and agents to submit sites to Maldon District Council for potential allocation in the new Local Plan.
What types of development are needed in Maldon?
Although all submitted sites will be considered for their development potential, for a site to be considered for potential allocation, the Council are specifically seeking housing and economic sites that as a minimum are likely to become available for development or redevelopment within the next 15-20 years.
The call for sites exercise will not in itself determine whether a site should be allocated for development but the consultation does present a significant opportunity to put land forward for development.
Is my site eligible?
Any site can be submitted within the Maldon District, but the higher the number of constraints, the less likely the successful outcome. As a rule of thumb, the Council is likely to seek Housing sites that can accommodate 5 or more dwellings and Employment/Commercial sites that are a minimum of 0.25 ha or have floorspace of more than 500 sqm.
Maldon is also seeking recreation and tourism sites, so if you have an idea of enhancing the Saltmarsh coastline or adding to the already buoyant summertime tourism provisions in the Maldon environs, now is the time to get those ideas onto paper!
Maldon’s emerging Local Plan and 5 year Housing Supply position
This Call for Sites forms the very early stages of the Council drafting a new local plan for Maldon.
As part of this consultation it will be interesting to see the impact the government’s White Paper will have on required housing numbers in the area. The proposed new national housing calculation method was forecasting an increase from 308 dwellings to 623 in Maldon per annum. This is a 102.3% increase.
There has recently been some backtracking on this from Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Nevertheless, Maldon has unfortunately had a poor record historically of delivering homes and is likely to be under pressure for many more months and years to come.
This call for sites therefore represents a great opportunity for land owners to get their site allocated for development in order to help the Council meet the housing need.
What makes a good Call for Sites submission?
When submitting your site, it’s important to present your site’s suitability for development and to show that any future issues can be mitigated. For the Council to be able to make a fair assessment, they require a Call for Sites form to be submitted. This should include, but is not limited to:
- Land ownership details
- Site details
- Location plan
- Uses being sought
- Site suitability issues and mitigation.
How a Planning Consultant can add value to your site
The team at Plainview Planning have a whole wealth of experience in assessing the suitability of a site for development and preparing robust and persuasive submissions that showcase the development potential of a site in its best light. We can also assist you with the necessary supporting information, from your application form and the provision of Location Plans, through to helping you to identify key constraints and strategies to overcome potential planning issues with our inhouse tools.
We also love building a network and enjoy working with high quality third party consultants to provide you with the necessary reports for Flood Risk, Contamination, Topography, Heritage etc, should your site require this.
In addition, our team regularly helps landowners promote land as potential strategic development sites and we offer a variety of services and packages, from consultancy services to fully funded solutions via our sister company, Context Land.
Examples of further ways in which Plainview Planning can add value to land enquiries and Call for Sites submissions include:
- Site analysis to see if your land meets the necessary requirements;
- Bespoke GIS mapping systems to highlight the opportunities and constraints of a site (see our image above)
- Assessing the site’s credentials against local and national policy;
- Coordinating your promotion efforts to help you present your site in the most effective manner possible.
The deadline for submissions is the 21st May 2021 so make sure you don’t miss out on the chance to have your say!
If you feel you have a site suitable for economic or housing development and want to understand more about its development potential, then get in touch today. Contact our planning team via enquiries@plainview.co.uk or call us on 01242 501003 to see how we can best assist you. Please provide the site address and a brief overview of your aims. You can also submit your site via our Landmark Page.
We value your privacy and any information which you provide will not be shared outside of our company and will only be used in relation to your enquiry.
INFORMATION SOURCE: Maldon District Council– Call for Sites 2021
IMAGE SOURCE: Plainview Planning (2021)