Introduction to the LDF

Overview

The Local Development Framework (or LDF for short) is the new land-use and transportation planning framework being introduced in Newcastle. The system was brought in by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and related regulations and guidance.

You can go to the Communities and Local Government site for more background on LDFs generally and the Statutory Development Plan page on this site for an explanation of how the LDF relates to the Unitary Development Plan (UDP) and Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS).

The LDF is commonly referred to as a 'folder' of documents. Some are policy documents and others are to do with process and monitoring. There are two main types of policy documents:

Development Plan Documents (DPDs), which are full parts of the statutory development plan, subject to two stages of formal consultation and independent examination by a planning inspector.
Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), which undergo a parallel but simpler and quicker statutory process, and have lower status. They cannot rewrite policy or allocate land, but present further information and guidance.

The Local Development Framework must also include the following:

The Local Development Scheme, which is in effect the ‘project plan’ for the LDF as a whole – the latest version came into effect in April 2007 (but we need to review it).
The Statement of Community Involvement, which sets standards for public consultation for all the other documents – we adopted ours in Newcastle in September 2006 and it still stands as a robust guide to how we engage 'stakeholders'.
Annual Monitoring Reports, which are produced by the end of December each year, reporting on the previous financial year – we have three in place.

The LDF must also include a Proposals Map, which is carried forward from the UDP but updated each time a relevant DPD is adopted.

Links to other relevant pages

Statutory development plan
Saved UDP policies
LDF Key Issues Report - April 2004

How you can get involved

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