4 Revised Development Strategy

Object

Representation ID: 63505

Received: 29/07/2013

Respondent: Friends of the Earth

-Concerned about the very low densities of housing being proposed. The District is still using a figure of 30 dwellings per hectare to estimate land needs for housing, and it is assuming predominately houses will be needed when studies have shown that the majority of new households over the plan period are likely to be single-person households. There are many residential schemes for one and two-person households where over 100 dwellings per hectare are quite common.
-It is possible to achieve such densities with the benefit of good design without compromising the character of our towns and the quality of public open spaces. As household size is getting smaller, this in turn allows higher densities and means there is considerably less need for greenfield sites to be used. The NPPF says that local planning authorities should set out their own approach to housing density to reflect local circumstances and therefore the density should be much higher.