Object

Representation ID: 24304

Received: 22/03/2021

Respondent: FCC Environment Ltd

Number of people: 2

Agent: Sirius Planning

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Yes

Policy 6 The Economy (Including Retail)
Paragraph 285 of the Pre-Submission Draft Strategy Documents states that “this local plan aims to deliver inclusive economic growth … in a time of significant economic uncertainty and change, the policies aim to provide an appropriate balance between certainty and flexibility to inform investment decisions and encourage economic development”.
FCC supports the following paragraph 70 of the Pre-Submission Draft Strategy Document that “rural enterprises are important to the local economy. The proportion of micro-businesses employing up to nine people is above the national average in Broadland and South Norfolk. Signs are that new and small businesses can flourish and the survival rate of newly established enterprises is good”. Paragraph 71 goes onto state that the GNLP should support the growth of a wide ranging and changing economy, including smaller rural enterprises.
It is noted that Policy 6 does not reference small scale employment development within the countryside, outside settlement boundaries. This is questioned given numerous evidence base documents highlights the importance of the rural economy including the Employment Land Assessment Addendum 2020 which highlights the rural economy as an opportunity to rebalance the local economy internally. This approach differs from the adopted South Norfolk Joint Core Strategy which supports small to medium scale commercial enterprises within the countryside where a rural location can be justified. To exclude land from development purely because it lies outside of a settlement boundary would place unnecessary limits on the most effective use of land and potential delivery of sustainable development. A less restrictive approach, whereby the merits of each case is considered individually, would support greater enhancement of the rural economy. The policy should include the benefits that the scheme would generate for the rural economy to be considered and weighed against any impacts.
Services including petrol filling stations are key infrastructure requirements for economic growth, especially in rural locations where communities are dependent on the private car. The GNLP should be worded in such a manner that further infrastructure requirements in rural areas can be provided for, enabling the rural economy to be boosted.