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ID sylw: 107191

Derbyniwyd: 05/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

The issues covered in DPD 46 are noted. Differences between the buffer zone and the AONB / national designation and how they operate / are used should be made very clear, for the avoidance of doubt.

As a general comment, there appears to be a significant degree of potential overlap and duplication between the policy areas covered in DPDs 45 – 48. They are all addressing the same general issue, that of the need to control development in areas considered to be of landscape and amenity value. It is not clear what weight or hierarchy applies in terms of this suite of potential policies or whether a particular location might be covered by more than one of these policy designations.

For clarity, a strategic policy setting out a clear hierarchy of areas of restraint might be an alternative approach, with more detailed policies provided where additional information may be required on a particular topic. For example, where development was being proposed, land adjacent to the AONB would receive the highest weighting and levels of scrutiny in terms of its strategic sensitivity, followed by areas of landscape that have been found to be more sensitive to development (following a landscape capacity / sensitivity assessment), followed by local areas in and around settlements etc.