Evidence base - Housing and employment land studies

Who to contact

Planning Services
PO Box 26
Archway Road
Huyton
L36 9FB

Telephone: 0151 443 2211

Email: forwardplanningteam@knowsley.gov.uk

The council is carrying out a joint Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) with Sefton and West Lancashire Councils, in addition to a joint Employment Land and Premises Study (EL&PS) with Halton Council.

This will identify land and premises suitable for either housing or employment uses, or a mixture of the two, and assess how much development each site can accommodate and when they are likely to be delivered. They will inform preparation of the Local Development Framework (LDF), a portfolio of documents introduced by the new planning system.

Progress so far

The councils jointly undertook a 'Call for Sites' exercise to inform the SHLAA and EL&PS between 25 October and 31 December 2007, in which we asked you to tell us about any sites or premises you considered suitable for development.

Submissions to the ‘Call for Sites’ were also re-opened between 27th May and 18th July to allow individuals and organisations who missed the original deadline to have their sites considered. This represented a final chance to submit a site and the studies are now closed to new submissions.

The 'Call for Sites' process does not imply any commitment by the council that such sites will be reconsidered for development in the future but that these sites will be judged against relevant planning policies and other considerations in line with government guidance.

Approximately 60 sites were submitted during the first 'Call for Sites' by landowners and other interested parties. We have since carried out an initial assessment of these submissions in addition to a number of sites identified by ourselves.

Consultants have independently checked our assessments, undertaken a review of all sites identified, and are preparing draft findings for consultation. For the joint SHLAA they are planning consultants White Young Green and for the joint EL&PS planning and economic development consultants BE Group.

What happens next?

Unfortunately, the study has been subject to significant delays. This has been due to a number of factors, particularly the high number of sites identified (over 2000 housing sites in Sefton alone) and unexpected circumstances which have significantly increased workload pressures.

We now anticipate that the draft study reports will be available towards the end of March 2009. The reports will contain recommendations on the suitability of each site that has been submitted to us. Following the production of the reports, a six week public consultation will be held whereby members of the public will be able to comment on the draft findings. Everyone who has submitted a site to the studies, and other interested parties, will be notified in writing prior to the consultation. Once the consultation has closed, it will take at least four weeks to consider all the comments and amend the reports, and we anticipate that the final studies will then be published during summer 2009.

Meanwhile, the council can only apologise for the delays that have been incurred, if you have any queries relating to these matters should be addressed to the Forward Planning Team via the contact details on the right.

Note

We will not release the results of site assessment for individual sites until the consultants have completed their independent assessment of all sites. Nor will we comment on individual sites submitted under the ‘Call for Sites’ process until the public consultation phase of the housing and employment land studies.