Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies (Regulation 19)
Achieving well designed places
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.
Policy DLP4 Achieving well designed places
- Regeneration within the borough will be supported by the development of places and buildings providing a range of functions, tenures, facilities, and services, intended to support the needs of diverse local communities.
- Developments will be expected to incorporate high-quality design in line with the Council's adopted design codes/guides and supplementary planning documents.
- The design of spaces and buildings will be influenced by their context; development should enhance the unique attributes of Dudley's character and heritage whilst responding to locally identified community needs, changes in society and cultural diversity.
- Building designs will be sought that are appropriate to Dudley, of a size, scale and type to integrate into their neighbourhood. Development proposals should employ sustainable technologies to help climate change mitigation and adaptation. The use of efficient building design, the choice of low- and zero-carbon materials, and intelligent site layout and building orientation can all help to reduce reliance on carbon-based products, energy and non-renewable resources.
- All development will be required to demonstrate a clear understanding of the historic character and local distinctiveness of its location and show how proposals make a positive contribution to place-making and environmental improvement. It should also ensure that the significance of local heritage is recognised and reflected in designs and that new development retains and protects historic significance to the greatest extent possible.
- Maximum freedom of movement and a choice of sustainable means of transport, including ongoing support for the provision and extension of walking and cycling infrastructure should be promoted through new development. Transport proposals should include connections to and between transport hubs, ensuring that interventions make a positive contribution to place-making and increase accessibility and connectivity.
- Dudley Borough will be a safe and secure place to live and work in, through organising the urban environment in ways that encourage people to act in a responsible manner (see Policy DLP39). Development proposals will be required to provide active frontages, well-located, safe and accessible pedestrian and cycle infrastructure and an appropriate intensity of use in centres and elsewhere. Designs should promote natural surveillance and defensible spaces.
- Integrated and well-connected and multifunctional green and blue infrastructure networks will be pursued throughout the borough, including through the design and layout of new residential and employment developments. This will deliver opportunities for sport and recreation and will help establish and support a strong natural environment. Properly designed and well-located open spaces will help mitigate flood risk, provide space for wildlife and encourage informal recreation for local people as well as help create a high-quality living environment. This will also be important for the delivery of the Nature Recovery Network strategy (Policy DLP32).
- The borough's historic canal network and the natural waterways will be protected and conserved through the design and layout of new development, and by the integration of waterways into those proposals to create attractive waterside development. This will act as a unifying characteristic within the Dudley Borough's urban structure and landscape.
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.
Evidence
- Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC)
- National Design Code
- Art in the Public Realm Strategy & Action Plan 2020 – 2025
- West Midlands Design Charter 2020
- Sport England Active Design Guidance
- Supplementary Planning Documents or Supplementary Plans
- Dudley Climate Change Action Plan
Delivery
- Development Management, legal and funding mechanisms
- Borough Design Codes