Date Published: 30 June 2021
Cllr Owen Bierley Chairman of the Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee
“Today our consultation on the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan has gone live and this now means it is your opportunity to get involved in your plan.
“The Central Lincolnshire Local Plan is about the future of our communities. It’s about the quality jobs, homes, and infrastructure our communities need; communities’ aspirations for the places where people live, work and visit. And it’s about our plans for a healthy, vibrant and sustainable carbon-net-zero future within the City of Lincoln, West Lindsey and North Kesteven.
“Contained within the plan is a series of key policy updates, including measures to progressively respond to climate change through carbon-neutral build standards, harnessing renewable energy and encouraging sustainable transport among others.
“It is essential to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions across Central Lincolnshire every five years on a 2018 base in order to meet the UK’s commitment’s under the Paris Agreement. Doing nothing is not an option as, not least because at current emissions levels, the carbon budget available to Central Lincolnshire will be fully used up in just six years’ time.
“This is why we need to seriously consider bold, ambitious and far-reaching measures.
“All partners in the Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee agreed that exploring and ultimately producing a net zero carbon plan is important. The policies within the Consultation Draft Local Plan promotes this approach and are appropriate, robust and supported by comprehensive research and evidence.
“Partners have declared a climate emergency or have moved quickly to produce strategies on how they will take forward the challenges to maximise the biggest impact.
“We have worked together, done our research, explored a range of policies and we recognise that we have to act now to consider our options. Renewable energy generation within the area must include solar and wind energy generation – and every area must play its part. It is a collective responsibility and requires a collective response.
“We understand planning can be an emotive subject but we assure you that we’ve established very clear criteria for all of the proposed policies within the scope of the plan. In respect of wind turbines, this includes landscape quality, considerations of the natural and historic environment and spatial and aviation restrictions, which take account of the County Council statement and identify the small number of areas where wind turbines could be appropriate.
“Ultimately, by being contained as a policy statement within a refreshed Local Plan for Central Lincolnshire, it does not pre-determine that anything will actually happen on the ground. Any subsequent application will have to go through rigorous local consultation and consideration by a local planning committees, if and when they come forward.
“The issues around renewable energy generation, use and storage are distinct within the broad range of topics included with this new and revised draft local plan – and we want you to consider how all of our key policies including those on housing, future use of RAF Scampton and retail all come together to provide a better environment within Central Lincolnshire for us all to flourish in the ways we live, work and enjoy our recreation.
“We are consulting on a broad range of policies and want to hear the thoughts of residents, businesses and partners in Central Lincolnshire.”
The consultation will run for eight weeks and ends on August 24
- Evidence documents and policies maps are being held on the Central Lincs website.