Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA)

SHLAA Information

The Parish Council were recently briefed by Rother District Council on the preparation of its Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. This is a background document to the Local Development Framework and is a requirement of Government.

Its purpose is to carry out a technical assessment of sites and broad locations which are thought to have some potential for housing development. It also shows sites which have been considered but discounted as unsuitable for development.  It is NOT a statement of policy it is a source of evidence to inform the planning process.

The document relates to the period up to 2026 and is needed to support the government requirement for planning authorities to identify specific deliverable sites for the first 5 years of the LDF, for years 6-10 and if possible for the next 5 years after that.

Whilst the document estimates potential timescales these do not represent policy intentions and will obviously be affected by other factors. Eg Bexhill/Hastings link road.

As far as Northiam is concerned 4 sites have been identified but only one is designated as currently developable and that is the site behind The Paddock which already has a planning consent attached to it.

The other 3 sites are two areas of Blue Cross land and the field between Pretious Fields and the school site. These are designated as suitable but not currently developable. The Blue Cross land has been assessed as a broad location rather than a specific site.

The full document can be viewed on the Rother planning web site but to assist residents the Northiam maps and assessment sheets are attached . The SHLAA will be refined over the next few months and expected to be received by the Parish Council for consultation in September.

Sue Keighley
Parish Clerk
9 April 2010