TDLP PART 1 CHAPTER 4 - ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

4.1 [No text]

ECONOMIC STRATEGIES

4.2 It is essential to make adequate provisions for employment, and especially for the provision of quality jobs. Enabling policies make provision for sustainable economic development and diversification, with appropriate environmental safeguards. The Structure Plan requires adequate employment land provision in conformity with the locational strategy and provides also for the safeguarding of employment land in the interest of sustainable communities.

4.3 The economic interests of investment opportunity, finance, and skilled labour supply are taken into account but need to be addressed elsewhere. Clearly the availability of labour, assistance, and finance will vary with the circumstances, the economic climate, and priorities: they are not issues for the Plan.

Economic Development Strategy

4.4 The District Council has produced an Economic Development Strategy in association with North Devon District Council. It wishes to encourage inward investment and to maximise economic development opportunities in a variety of ways consistent with the need to promote sustainable economic growth, to sustain the rural economy, to safeguard neighbourhood amenity, and to protect the environment.

4.5 The Strategy recognises the economic integrity of the sub-region. It also analyses the economic development issues, which the Plan needs to address.

4.6 The Plan takes an integrated approach to development for employment, rural economic diversification, agricultural, tourism, and energy purposes. Implementation will help to provide a choice of investment opportunities, to support a more balanced settlement structure, and to reduce the rate of growth in car travel. It has the potential to reduce the need to travel by car and to help raise per capita income.

Rural Economic Development Strategy

4.7 The importance of the rural economy in Torridge is recognised. Agricultural activity has helped to shape the landscape and continues to provide the economic base for rural communities. Structural change is taking place in the agricultural system. Recent changes and external pressures for further change have been noted in local assessments and need to be accommodated.

4.8 Employment development, agricultural development, and tourism and energy developments all have a rôle in the rural economy. The Plan ensures that extensive opportunities remain for rural economic diversification to provide necessary employment and sustain rural communities. The economic aims for the rural area are as follows:

• To facilitate rural economic diversification and extensification
• To promote necessary agricultural change and enable appropriate development
• To accommodate sustainable tourism and countryside recreation
• To ensure that new economic development delivers local economic benefit.

The economic development policies of the Plan need to address rural and agricultural diversification issues in particular.

4.9 The District Council believes that a healthy mixed rural economy can best be secured by focusing on the available assets, including environmental assets, identified in the Economic Development Strategy. The economic objectives are as follows:

• To enable a viable employment reuse of available workspace wherever appropriate
• To make provision for alternative business uses, recognising the potential for tourism development
• To strictly control the loss of potentially valuable workspace to residential use.

The primary objective is to secure business reuse of available workspace. This needs to be encouraged in preference to residential use, which would generate unnecessary traffic without sustainable benefit.

4.10 The reuse and redevelopment of rural buildings is strictly controlled. Economic policies are needed to encourage the preferred reuse and to set out clear circumstances under which alternative use may be acceptable in premises previously used for employment.

4.11 The strategy will facilitate the appropriate reuse of buildings in the countryside, consistent with the aims of the Plan. Use of vacant rural premises and of farm buildings in particular for self-catering holiday accommodation may be a viable proposition.

4.12-4.13 [No text]

Employment Development Strategy

4.14 The aim is to encourage economic activity by positive policies that facilitate appropriate new employment development and enable the reuse, refurbishment, and redevelopment of identified areas, sites, and buildings as appropriate. In view of the approved Economic Development Strategy, for employment land purposes it is intended to act as follows:

• To relate development opportunity to employment need in all Strategic Centres
• To maximise quality development opportunities on attractive sites in the Area Centres
• To support the incorporation of service land, expansion land, and ancillary services
• To identify established areas, where employment uses will be retained
• To allow for the expansion of established business wherever appropriate, but to encourage relocation where uses are unneighbourly
• To encourage small local business start-ups including in redundant premises
• To retain and promote local employment opportunities in the rural area
• To promote the reuse of rural premises for business purposes
• To provide for environmental and infrastructure improvements and to impose controls in the interests of amenity and sustainability
• To cater for distribution and warehousing by encouraging use of sites with good access
• To support the expansion of Bideford Port to its full potential.

Policies are needed to help secure these objectives whilst allowing for appropriate flexibility.

4.14A The Structure Plan provides that the bulk of new development should be located in Bideford /Northam. Actions proposed to implement the employment development strategy include the following:

(1) Concentration of as much of the new provision as possible within the Strategic Centres, maximising the potential of industrial sites and the potential for brownfield development

(2) Additional employment land provision on new and extended estates, involving some release of greenfield sites

(3) Retention of established industrial sites in employment use, encouraging redevelopment of problem sites and relocation of businesses needing to move.

4.15 The District Council will seek to ensure an adequate portfolio of serviced land and premises for local investment and expansion needs. It will implement employment development and safeguard policies that will prevent the inappropriate loss of employment opportunities. A proposal for Bideford Port is contained in Part 2 of the Plan.

4.15A The LPA facilitates homeworking where this can take place without disturbance or other adverse impact. De minimis operations will not require planning permission, and through the policies of the Plan small business enterprise will be enabled.

EMPLOYMENT LAND

4.15B This section of the Plan addresses employment uses, comprising uses within Class B of the UCO, plus sui generis industry. The Structure Plan seeks a balance between housing and employment provision. The Plan needs to provide for employment development and to promote the regeneration of older urban areas within the Area Centres. It needs to allocate sufficient land for employment purposes to meet Structure Plan requirements in a variety of locations and to ensure that suitable land may be developed and redeveloped for appropriate employment purposes.

4.15C The value of industrial estates and business parks, where employment related developments group together, is recognised. The Plan introduces general employment areas and protects their economic interest. The making of simplified planning zones is not favoured because of the sensitivity of design, amenity, and landscape issues in the defined Centres. There are no Enterprise Zones in Torridge.

Employment Land Provision

4.16 [No text]

4.17 Settlement appraisals have been carried out to identify available urban development opportunities. The Plan promotes urban regeneration. Greenfield development is inevitable because of the need to provide adequately for choice in a variety of sustainable locations. The development strategy limits greenfield expansion to the minimum necessary to secure an adequate supply of land attractive to most sectors of the market. Amenity will need to be protected.

Policy ECD1: Employment Land

About 52 hectares (128 acres) of land will be released, to provide for general employment land requirements between 2001 and 2011, on the employment land allocated in Schedule 1.

Schedule 1

4.18 The Schedule is part of the policy. It identifies the site allocations defined on the proposals map. The strategic employment land requirement for the period 1995 - 2011 is 65 hectares. The take-up of employment land in the period 1995 - 2001 was approximately 7 hectares. On this basis, an indicative level of development in the range 52 - 63 hectares is justifiable, being within about 10% of the balance of the strategic requirement.

4.18A A non-implementation rate of 10% is assumed for commitments and proposals, which seems justifiable in consideration both of the take-up on unserviced land in previous plan periods and of the intention to accommodate other uses appropriate to general employment areas.

4.19 Development commitments outside GEAs at 2001 amounted to 1.47 hectares. The schedule demonstrates that an additional 51.7 hectares of land will be released. The total release of development land 2001 - 2011 is about 53.2 hectares, which it is predicted will facilitate about 47.9 hectares of employment development. Expansion land is not scheduled, as it is not available for general development. The proposed level of provision, being within the indicative range, does not need special justification based on local circumstances.

4.20 It is anticipated that landform and other physical constraints and structural landscaping requirements on the urban fringe sites in particular will combine to reduce site yields by around 5% irrespective of potential mismatches between availability, demand, and lead-in time for site preparation.

4.21 The policy provides for employment development, relocation, and expansion on allocated sites. The approach has been to select land for new employment on the basis of site selection criteria ( Appendix 2 ) with regard to the employment development strategy. Allocation over the range of locations proposed is considered necessary to ensure that development requirements and expectations can be met. It will give employment development the flexibility to proceed in step with forecasted growth where it occurs, and in particular to meet the additional demands generated by an increasing labour market.

4.22 Land allocations are concentrated in the main area of economic activity around Bideford /Northam. Significant land releases in the other Strategic Centres will enable continued economic development in those areas, at a pace apparently consistent with economic prospects, local labour supply, and strategic development constraint. The Structure Plan requires constraint in the AONB in particular. A range of employment opportunities is identified to provide for choice, flexibility, and competition.

4.23 In the short-term, it will prove difficult to overcome development constraints in some areas. The implementation will be achieved with the support where appropriate of selective assistance programmes and enterprise partnerships. Serviced land will be promoted and servicing provided in selected areas to encourage necessary development and to help maintain a readily developable supply, as set out in the site-specific proposals.

4.24 The LPA will continue to monitor the midyear take-up of employment land annually.

General Employment Areas (GEAs)

4.25 The Structure Plan requires that new employment development land should continue to make an effective contribution to net employment opportunity.

4.25A Individual opportunities for specific uses will depend upon the site characteristics and the ability to attract inward investment or meet local need. The objective is to ensure that employment land is retained principally for its intended purpose, allowing for some flexibility in the interests of economic sustainability and the ability to help meet local need.

Policy ECD2: General Employment Areas (GEAs)

(1) Within the GEAs defined on the Proposals Map, employment uses, being uses falling within the business (B1), general industrial (B2), and storage or distribution (B8) use classes, will be permissible provided that the development proposed would not harm significantly the amenity of local residents.

(2) Within the defined GEAs, planning permission will be granted for the following:

(i) An employment use or an acceptable intensification of an established use

(ii) A factory shop principally selling products manufactured on site

(iii) A use required to secure the continued viability of an established firm for the foreseeable future, provided that the use is subsidiary to the employment use

(iv) A service, Class A2, Class A3, or acceptable sui generis use, which meets an identified local need, provided that no more suitable site is available

(v) New retail development where it would not harm business or employment opportunities.

(3) Intensification of an established use and /or sui generis use will be acceptable within the defined GEAs provided that the attractiveness of the area for employment development will not be spoiled.

4.26 The policy provides that a range of employment-related uses will be permissible within defined areas. Significant areas of general employment use and potential have been identified and are defined on the Proposals Map. They are important for the employment opportunities that they may provide. Employment land allocations within them are included in the schedule to the employment land policy of the Plan. The areas have been defined on the basis of selection criteria presented in Appendix 3. Small sites have not been included. Large employment areas that are not well related to the Strategic Centres do not merit the level of protection afforded by the GEA policy.

4.27 The choices being provided over the types of employment development use permissible include the following:

• Business use (Class B1)
• General industrial use (Class B2)
• Storage or distribution (Class B8)
• Sui generis uses subject to appropriate environmental safeguards
• Ancillary uses.

The principal uses have the meanings ascribed to them in the Town and Country Planning Use Classes Order (UCO).

4.28 The second part of the policy allows other uses, where necessary to sustain employment activity or desirable for other purposes, to be sited within GEAs subject to planning permission. There are limited circumstances in which a flexible approach is required. These sites are key to maintaining the planned land supply necessary for employment purposes. It specifically constrains retail development. Retail for this purpose includes all uses within Class A of the UCO.

4.28A Where retail development is permissible, the LPA will ensure that an adequate employment land supply is maintained. Where a factory shop is proposed, the relevant considerations will include the following:

• The proportion of the gross floor area devoted to retail sales; and
• The relative turnover of goods manufactured on site and of imported goods.

Retail outlets from premises will be acceptable where necessary to sustain the viability of a manufacturing firm and will be confined to goods manufactured or repaired on the premises, the retail element remaining ancillary to the principal use. Activities of a sui generis industrial nature involving the retail sale of goods such as tyre and exhaust depots, vehicle component trading, and machinery hire or the storage for trading purposes of other industrial items for which traditional retail locations are not appropriate will also be acceptable. Such use must not detract from the overall trading position of established retail centres or generate excessive additional traffic.

4.29 Permissible service development will be identified in an appropriate service strategy or in an area appraisal that has been approved by the District Council as a SPD. In this way, an appropriate balance can be struck between the need to retain areas for employment purposes and the desire to provide for other necessary development to serve community needs in accessible locations.

4.30 Intensification of existing use will be permissible to safeguard employment opportunities where other interests are not affected adversely. The policy provision in respect of sui generis use also aims to ensure that neighbourhood amenity and environmental quality are not affected adversely.

4.30A The LPA will monitor the take-up of employment land for non-employment uses.

Employment Development Criteria

4.31 The employment land and area policies included in the earlier parts of this section identify key employment opportunities on large sites. The Plan also needs to enable the following:

• The development of small businesses
• The improvement, expansion, and redevelopment of existing businesses outside GEAs
• Employment development in other appropriate locations.

To help resolve these issues and thereby enable all appropriate employment development, a set of policy criteria has been generated to guide the determination of planning proposals for employment development outside the defined GEAs.

Policy ECD3: Employment Development outside GEAs

(1) Within the Strategic Centres, employment development will be allowed on unallocated sites provided that:

(a) the land is suitable for the purpose, the scale acceptable, and the site well related to the transport network; and
(b) there is no adverse impact on the living conditions of local residents.

(2) In all other settlements, new small scale employment development on unallocated sites will be allowed provided that the development:

(a) meets an identified local need;
(b) takes account of the form, character, appearance, and setting of the settlement;
(c) can be provided with an adequate and safe access; and
(d) does not harm the living conditions of local residents.

4.32 This is an enabling policy. It provides that wherever employment development, conversion, or expansion proposals are consistent with the locational settlement policies of the Plan and can meet the policy criteria, they will be permissible in principle. Together with the general development and conservation policies of the Plan, it provides adequate safeguard against the adverse effects of unneighbourly development.

4.33 The more stringent criteria, applied by the second part of the policy to development outside development boundaries, limits new development to that which is necessary to meet an identified local need. It is important to support new and expanding enterprises in villages where proposals are appropriate in scale, type, and design and where development would not harm the living conditions of local residents.

Retention of Local Employment Opportunity

4.34 Existing employment land can make an important contribution to the total employment supply and, where available for reuse, can be valuable for the relocation or start-up of businesses. The aim is to retain such uses and to promote regeneration wherever appropriate, recognising that the range of employment uses within Use Class B1 in particular will be acceptable in most locations, including in residential areas.

4.35 The LPA recognises that the bulk of employment land is contained within Strategic Centres. Elsewhere, some settlements contain small amounts of employment land. Without appropriate policy safeguards such sites are vulnerable to speculative proposals for redevelopment or conversion for residential or other non-employment purposes. The Structure Plan provides that significant local employment opportunities need to be safeguarded in the interest of self-sufficient communities. To sustain employment opportunities, it is necessary to limit the loss of employment land outside GEAs where this can provide valuable opportunities. There is a need to retain a diverse range of premises for small businesses.

Policy ECD4: Reuse of Employment Sites

(1) Sites previously used for employment shall be retained for business reuse unless:

(a) the premises do not make an important contribution to the provision of general employment opportunity in the locality; and
(b) the site is not suitable for or cannot reasonably be made suitable for continued business use; and
(c) it can be demonstrated that there is no realistic prospect of a viable business reuse.

(2) Planning permission for development that provides for the reuse of premises previously used for employment, or of established general employment uses, will be granted only where:

(a) the scheme will secure use(s) that complements the character of the area; and
(b) general employment opportunity in the locality will be maintained.

4.36 The policy constrains the conversion and change of use of sites away from employment use. It safeguards employment land in the interest of community self-sufficiency wherever there is a reasonable prospect that a site may continue to make an important contribution to local employment opportunities. An important contribution is one that is significant locally.

4.37 Suitable reuse for employment purposes will be encouraged wherever the following apply:

(i) Retention of employment opportunities is important
(ii) The land is not required for another purpose, the need for which has been agreed in an appropriate appraisal or service development programme.

The policy test of suitability for use provides that a broad range of business uses can be explored. A distinction is made between the uses defined in the GEA policy and business use, which may include other forms of economic development such as tourism development, agricultural development, or retail development. The acceptability of such uses would be subject to the relevant policies of the Plan.

4.37A Retention under this policy is appropriate only where the site is capable of effective and productive reuse for a significant range of general employment uses, without detriment to neighbourhood amenity, and approach roads can accommodate anticipated operational and service traffic. Older industrial areas and premises can be important, providing relatively inexpensive accommodation for employment use, including for small businesses. Small village sites of less than 0.4 hectare, which have not been defined for the purpose of GEA policy, can nonetheless collectively contribute to employment opportunities.

4.38 The expectation is that premises will be appropriately marketed for employment and other business purposes over an appropriate period. The LPA will expect this period to be at least two years, possibly longer, and will require the application to be supported by documentary evidence of independent valuation and targeted marketing effort.

4.39 The second part of the policy facilitates area regeneration. Where refurbishment is being considered, continued use for employment purposes will be encouraged where practicable. A business element will be appropriate provided that the premises have not become obsolete and that the proposal is part of a package which, when implemented, will not detract from the amenities of local residents. In circumstances where comprehensive refurbishment is not achievable or realistic, the preferred approach may be to redevelop the site, with due regard to the first part of the policy.

4.40 Sites which contain obsolete premises will benefit from redevelopment or reclamation. It is understood that where established industrial areas have become rundown, in some cases they will be unsuitable for employment reuse because of an unsatisfactory relationship with adjoining uses, or inadequate access and servicing. The subdivision of such premises can present particular problems and intensification of use may be an issue.

4.41 Business reuse can be facilitated by a mixed-use conversion for workspace with living accommodation attached. It is recognised that this arrangement may be particularly attractive in the rural area.

4.42 The policy is not aimed at, and is not intended per se to facilitate, the following:

• Homeworking or tourist accommodation in the rural area, where the primary use is for residential purposes
• Rural mixed-use conversion or redevelopment that would substantially increase the floor area of the original building.

4.43 [No text]

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