Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies (Regulation 19)

5.23. Where people live, has a major impact on their wellbeing. The Council is committed to ensuring that the design, planning and layout of developments and places is to high standard. Policy DLP4 and DLP39 set out the requirement to ensure development proposals are well designed and will function as attractive places which have a positive impact on people's wellbeing and the overall attractiveness of the borough.

5.24. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out how 'The creation of high quality, beautiful and sustainable buildings and places is fundamental to what the planning and development process should achieve'.

5.25. The NPPF also promotes the use of design codes and design guides by local planning authorities and specifies that they should set out the principles consistent with those included in the National Design Guide and National Design Code. Dudley Council was a National Design Code Pathfinder Pilot and is in the process of developing a Design Code for Lye and the Stour Valley. It is the intention to adopt the Design Code as a supplementary planning document and use the experience from the pilot to develop a borough-wide design code.

5.26. The aim of the Local Plan is to create the conditions for economic and social growth, which will take place within a safe, attractive and accessible built and natural environment. The Plan also encourages and supports the growth of locations that encourage participation and community engagement. Successful placemaking in the borough will foster community stability and incorporate elements that create resilience to adverse economic and environmental impacts. The borough enjoys a unique heritage, reflected in its urban structure, which requires a sensitive approach to place-making and an insistence on a high quality of design for proposals that affect the historic built and natural environment.              

5.27. Vibrant streets and spaces, defined by surrounding buildings and with their own distinct character, will provide the framework for a coherent and interconnected network of places. These will support ease of movement, sense of place, social interaction and a sense of personal wellbeing, and will display a clear hierarchy of private, commercial and civic functions. The borough's network of centres will provide a focus and concentration for essential local services and activities with easy and safe access by walking, cycling and public transport to residential areas, as detailed in policies in the Centres and Transport Sections as well as Policy DLP11 – Housing Density, Type and Accessibility. Its diverse, accessible, affordable and active villages, towns and neighbourhoods will encourage commercial activity, promote prosperity and support the wellbeing of the area's inhabitants.

5.28. The importance of high-quality design in creating places where people want to visit, live, work and invest with renewed confidence is a fundamental plank of both national and local policy. The Government have published national design guidance that supports the National Planning Policy Framework, which states that permission should be refused for development of poor design that fails to take the opportunities available for improving the character and quality of an area and the way it functions.             

5.29. The opportunity exists to transform the borough's strategic and town centres and regeneration corridors into distinctive places that provide a good quality of life for all who live in, work in and visit them. Investment in high-quality places will result in environmental, economic and social benefits, including community safety, health and wellbeing, inclusive communities, better public services, environmental sustainability, climate resilience, greater financial value of buildings and improved worklessness. Creating a higher quality of life for the borough's communities depends on many factors and will play an increasingly important role in attracting private sector investment and skilled workers.

5.30. The Plan provides an opportunity to enhance carbon sequestration through the protection, restoration and appropriate management of green land uses. Carbon sequestration is the long-term storage of carbon in plants, soils, geological formations and the oceans, and has the potential to make a significant contribution to the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Plan provides an opportunity to enhance carbon sequestration through the protection, restoration and appropriate management of green land uses.