Strategic Planning

Planning in Worcestershire

The County Council’s Strategic Planning Service is based at County Hall, Worcester and is responsible for:

• Delivering Worcestershire's input to regional planning
• Developing the county's Planning Framework
• Promoting sustainable development within the County.

Key activities for 2007/2008

• Providing advice and guidance to Regional planning bodies , including the conformity of District Development Plan Documents with the Regional Spatial Strategy.
• County input to Regional Spatial Strategy revision process submitted to timetable
• Securing Worcestershire's position within the Regional planning framework
• Developing a series of natural resource technical research papers including Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Water for use as evidence in drafting Development Plan Documents.

Access to the work of the Strategic Planning team can be gained by following the links in the menu bar on the left of the page. A brief outline of the teams work areas is provided below:

Regional Spatial Strategy

In February 2006 Worcestershire County Council was invited by the West Midlands Regional Assembly, acting in its role as Regional Planning Body, to give advice on specific sub regional issues associated with the partial review of the Regional Spatial Strategy for the West Midlands. This advice on a range of topics including housing, employment, town centres, waste and transportation is, under the Planning Act, called 'Section 4(4) Advice'.

Statement of Community Involvement

The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) forms part of the Council's Minerals and Waste Development Framework. It sets out the County Council's policy for involving the community in the preparation of minerals and waste planning documents and for consulting on planning applications.

County Structure Plan

The County Structure Plan covers the period 1996-2011 and establishes a strategic planning policy framework for development and land use planning across the County of Worcestershire.

Natural Resource Technical Research Papers

These papers are non statutory documents that are intended to provide guidance and evidence to interested bodies, particularly District Councils, about how to reflect the County Councils interests in Planning for Climate Change (May 08); Renewable (March 08) Energy and Water (February 08). Further papers will be prepared in time.